Pricing for Courier insurance has never been so attractive in the last year.

With the economic environment becoming more problematic, a lot of folk are turning to other occupations to make extra income. Some are offering their services as qualified drivers and others are going the whole way and setting up their own companies to courier a multitude of goods either locally or nationally.

As with all insurance, the two key issues for insurers are age and with this category the goods being transported. Almost in all cases a minimum age requirement of twenty five is required, as the goods that are being carried are key.

As you would expect if the items are magazines the rate will be substantially different from designer clothes, and it always pays to come clean as the more the insurer is happy knowing what you are doing, the better for you.

Whilst it may appear unfair as the underwriter if they are in any way suspicious, irrespective of what you have said, they always reserve the final right not to offer a rate of cover or will set a higher than usual rate if your history is none too good. After all it’s their money on the line.

You also need to remember that with all insurance there is a need to understand your responsibilities, with goods in transit, full information and records of what is going from A to B will give insurers much more confidence. You will find that to secure cheap courier insurance complete and accurate information will pay dividends when it comes to pricing your risk.

Of course the more you can secure your vehicle the better, either by single locking across the board, or going what to some may sound like "overboard" and "armour plating" your vehicle.

Certainly there will be different rates for single drop journeys and multi-drop ones, hence the point about security. If your deliveries are, to what could be seen as "risky areas" then multi-drop rates will handicap your desire for cheap courier insurance. So please remember.

Setting up as new business is not a problem, driver’s age most certainly is as clearly with everything today is security. Establish with the Insurer what postal codes you are going to, and what the goods in transit will be, whether there will be one stop only or a multi-drop basis and you will be on the road as soon as possible.

The vehicle and goods in transit insurances are sold separately but given the nature it would be impossible to have the vehicle covered and leave the good not.

As with anything as more people turn to taking up being a Courier more insurers see a growing market and want to participate, the good thing from the consumers point of view is that there has recently been a much larger choice from where to buy cover so rates have come down and look like staying down certainly in the foreseeable future.

What could push rates up again would be losses attributed to couriers becoming an industry problem for insurers and to either stop the rot they put up rates or leave the market. But with competition so high, as well as ego’s, many will still stay in the market for fear of looking like failures to their contemporaries. To try to cover themselves they may seek add-in extra exclusions, or up the excess you commit to, but unless everyone does the same and there being so much more transparency in the market place today, the end consumer is looking like they will be enjoying lower rates for some time to come.

Please finally remember whilst the internet is excellent at showing rough guides many insurers offering cover for couriers do not go on screen. Any good broker worth their salt will know who participates in this off screen market and on almost all occasions rates charged will be lower than on screen. It’s always your choice where you go, but all too many times dealing direct on line does not deliver the cover you necessarily want and you end up having to call someone anyway!

Don’t forget Brokers are here to work for you and save you the time and hassle.