Insurance really is an occupational necessity and is something that cannot be left until the last minute. As a tradesperson, you may require insurance to cover the work you are carrying out and any employees you hire. Whatever your trade, it's worth thinking about taking out tool insurance for your business, covering the valuable tools and effects vital in carrying out your work. Having a policy such as this in place will help you sleep easier at night, knowing that your expensive equipment is covered if they are damaged or stolen. Let us help you understand what tool insurance is and why you should consider it.
Without your tools and equipment, it's difficult to do much work, unless you'd like to use your hands for everything, which we would not recommend! That's why Rhino Trade Insurance's Tools in Transit policy is ideal for tradesmen who typically store tools in their car or van and rely on these tools to make money.
Our Tradesman Tool Insurance covers the cost of repairing or replacing the tools you have and, in unfortunate situations, where your tools are damaged. Our tools insurance covers tools that are either 'in transit', 'in your parked vehicle' or 'whilst loading', which means tools are covered whilst being taken to or from your van or temporarily stored in your vehicle.
Our policy works on a per-vehicle basis. So if you are absolutely smashing it and have more vehicles than Elon Musk, you will need to obtain a policy for each vehicle to be covered.
Should the worst happen and your tools are damaged or stolen, you'd be wishing you had insurance for work tools!
With our Tools Insurance, your tools are covered up to £7,500 for the cost of servicing, reinstatement or replacement of assets that belong to you or for which you are liable if destroyed or damaged whilst carrying out your daily work.
Getting you back on the job as quick as possible is paramount, and that's why we endeavour to get your back up and running and on the tools as swiftly as we can in the unfortunate event of having to make a claim. We aim to ensure that no customer of Rhino is worse off should they have their tools stolen or damaged, so should your unique tool be gone forever, we will more than likely be able to find something to replace it.
It is important to remember that with our Tools in Transit Insurance policy, your tools are covered if they are stolen or damaged when in transit, meaning that even if your van is stolen, you will still be covered.
Your tools are kept covered when stored in your commercial vehicle, even overnight, but of course, some key factors must be adhered to in order to be eligible for a claim. For example, your tools must be kept in the boot of your van (not open to the public on your passenger seat), and your van must be locked with the windows closed correctly in order for your claim to be eligible. Suppose you are keeping your tools in the vehicle overnight. In that case, you must ensure that your vehicle is parked in any of the following locations: behind a secure locked gate, in your garage, on your drive, or off-road so long as it is in a relatively well-lit area and adjacent to your house (in view from your property).
Rhino Trade Insurance offer the following coverage for anyone looking to insure their tools as part of their current policy:
The cost of replacing stolen tools can run into the thousands, meaning that your business' finances will seriously suffer should your tools get stolen without insurance in place. Not only that, but it may take time to replace all your tools, so without insurance in place, you could be without the tools you need for extended periods of time. Taking out tools insurance gives you peace of mind that should the worst happen, there's a level of cover in place that prevents you from having to foot the bill. Approximately 1 in 3 tradespeople have their tools stolen, and as a result of data we carried out in 2021, over 50% of tradespeople know of someone who has been a victim of tools theft. These statistics are horrifying indeed, and we can only hope that most of them had tool cover insurance in place!
In fortunate situations, tradesmen and women across the UK have got their tools back. However, throughout 2019, that happened in only 26 cases, and not all the tools were in a usable state.
In an ideal world, none of this would be necessary, but it can be challenging to prove who tools belong to in the first place. One way of identifying your tools is to brand them. Whether it's writing your initials with a marker pen or adding some form of illustration (we're talking a smiley face rather than anything Picasso would be proud of here). Branding your tools in an obvious way to help make your tools stand out should give you a better chance of proving they're yours should they be recovered.
As well as this, you could use a sneaky trick that will surprise those thieves should your tools be found. Add a simple pen mark of your initials where the ink only appears under UV light. It's serious James Bond / Q level stuff! What's more, you could explore registering your tools online, such as logging their serial numbers and taking photos of your tools.
Policy Wording
When purchasing your trade insurance policy, you must put in place a cover that protects the amount of your tools you want insuring. There's not much point in protecting only 25% of the value of your total tools if you ever have them all nicked! Remember that we can only ensure tools that you have receipts or invoices for, and claims will be rejected if this proof cannot be provided. . We want our excellent tradesmen and women to have a seamless experience and be back out on-site as quickly as possible! If you don't get the right level of cover, you could be left out of pocket in the long run.
That's why it's best to consider the policy wording in your insurance documents before signing on the dotted line. Suppose you consider the full value of your equipment and see that the total level of cover paid out in the event of a claim is less. In that case, you should bring that up with the provider before agreeing to the policy.
Fortunately for you, Rhino Trade Insurance have expert trade professionals with over 20 years of experience dealing with all sorts of self-employed professionals. We'd like to think that we have our finger on the pulse and will know exactly how to sort the right policy out for your business.
Having tool insurance in place is 100% worth it. Although, I suppose that we're bound to say that! All we can do is base our view on the number of tradesmen we have spoken to over the years that have fallen victim to tools theft but never got themselves insured. We cannot tell you the number of times we have had tradesmen and women across the UK calling to say their tools have been stolen on a job. We have lost count of how many times we have seen or been tagged in social media posts of hardworking tradespeople gutted that they've had their expensive equipment nicked!
For what is a straightforward policy to add to your current cover at a fairly reasonable price, look no further than Rhino's Tools in Transit cover.
Work out your situation.
If you find that you have had your possessions stolen or damaged, you will immediately want to file a report with the police. Despite whether or not you have faith in whether or not the police will be able to retrieve your tools for you, they will log the incident, which is essential for any claim you make. After this, you should receive a 'crime reference number', which you can pass to your insurance provider.
Record what happened
After you have a clearer picture of what's happened in your situation, it might be beneficial to record and save your evidence. The more evidence you have, the easier your claim will be. We live in the wonderful world of technology, so whipping out your smartphone and picturing or videoing is simple. More so, you could take notes or make a list of everything that's happened and speak to passers-by or anyone involved in getting their side of the story.
Here at Rhino, we have expert claims teams that will be able to process your claim swiftly and seamlessly for you. Getting your claim lodged may seem stressful, but we aim to make things as easy as possible for you to ensure that you are ready to get back to work as soon as possible. All you need to do is go to our website and click on the 'claims' button in the top right corner. From here, you can see all of the details you will need depending on your claim: from phone numbers to email. What's more, you can call our normal number, 0116 243 7904 and press number 3 for claims.
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