Van Drivers Now Pay £1,767 for Insurance as Consumer Intelligence Reveals a Rise

• The average van insurance premium quoted across UK comparison sites reached £1,767 in May 2026, up 4.3 percent in three months and 2.4 percent over the year, according to the Consumer Intelligence Van Insurance Price Index.
• Vans aged nought to two years took the biggest hit, with quoted premiums up 8.1 percent in the latest quarter alone, more than double the 3.5 percent rise for vans nine years and older.
• Under-25 van drivers pay £3,529 on average, more than three times the £1,113 paid by drivers over 50, even as those older and younger age bands actually saw premiums fall over the past year.

Van insurance has started climbing again after a year of getting cheaper, and the newest vehicles on the road are absorbing the sharpest rises. The Consumer Intelligence Van Insurance Price Index, tracking real quotes from price comparison websites, puts the average Rank 1-5 new business premium at £1,767 in May 2026, up from £1,720 a year earlier. That 2.4 percent annual rise hides a much steeper recent move: premiums jumped 4.3 percent in the three months to May alone, reversing a period of falling prices that ran from May to October 2025.

For a tradesperson or small business running a newer van, the numbers are worse still. Vehicles aged nought to two years saw competitive premiums rise 8.1 percent in the latest quarter, the steepest increase of any age band and well ahead of the 6.4 percent rise for three and four-year-old vans. Older vehicles were repriced far more gently, up 2 percent for vans aged five to eight years and 3 percent for those nine years and over. Laura Vas, senior insight analyst at Consumer Intelligence, said most of the ten most competitive providers raised premiums in the latest quarter, led by Van Insurance Experts, Freedom Brokers and Admiral Group, with only Zego Sense bucking the trend by cutting prices slightly.

A market moving in two directions at once

What makes this data unusual is how differently it is treating different drivers. Over the twelve months to May 2026, premiums for drivers aged 25 to 49, who make up around 70 percent of the van insurance market, rose 4 percent. Younger and older drivers, by contrast, actually saw average premiums fall: down 0.8 percent for under-25s and down 2.4 percent for over-50s across the full year. That pattern flipped in the most recent quarter, when every age band was repriced upward, led by a 5.1 percent rise for the 25 to 49 group, with smaller increases of 1.1 percent for under-25s and 3.4 percent for over-50s.

None of this changes who pays the most. Under-25 van drivers face average quoted premiums of £3,529, against £1,643 for the 25 to 49 age band and £1,113 for drivers over 50. A young van driver is still paying more than three times what an older driver pays for cover on a comparable vehicle, even in a quarter when their own premiums rose by less than everyone else’s.

The way a van is used also changes the bill. Social, domestic and pleasure cover, typically bought by people who use a van for personal trips and for work, rose 3 percent over the year and 4.5 percent in the latest quarter. Carriage of own goods cover, the classification most sole traders and small businesses use, rose 2.1 percent annually and 4.3 percent in the latest quarter, a quarterly rise almost matching the personal-use category on a different annual path.

Set against the long run, the scale of the increase is easier to see. Consumer Intelligence has tracked quoted van insurance premiums from April 2014 onward, and the average has risen 197.9 percent over that period. Drivers aged 25 to 49 have seen the largest cumulative rise over that period, at 224.2 percent, followed by over-50s at 205.7 percent. Under-25s have seen the smallest long-term increase, at 87 percent, though they still pay by far the highest premium in cash terms today.

Can you avoid the rise?

The wider insurance market gives some sense of why this is happening now. Confused.com and WTW’s price index for fully covered car insurance recorded its first quarterly rise in over two years for the period covering March to May 2026, up 1 percent to an average of £719, even as annual prices for cars were still falling. Association of British Insurers data for the same quarter showed the average motor claim payout reaching £4,900 and the average windscreen claim rising to £283, both up on the previous quarter. Van insurers are working from the same rising repair, parts and windscreen-replacement bills as car insurers, which helps explain why van premiums have turned upward at almost exactly the same point in the year. Vans typically cover higher annual mileage than private cars and carry tools, stock or equipment that add to the cost of a claim, so a market-wide rise in repair bills tends to show up in van premiums at least as fast as it does in car premiums.

There is no way to escape a market-wide repricing, but the data points to several ways to reduce the impact.

Age of vehicle changes the bill more than almost anything else in this data. If a van is due for renewal and the fleet includes an older vehicle that could reasonably cover the same jobs, the rise for a van nine years or older was 3 percent in the latest quarter, against 8.1 percent for a van under two years old. Delaying the purchase of a brand new van, or insuring an older one as a second vehicle for lower-risk jobs, can meaningfully reduce the premium rise a business absorbs this year.

Usage classification is worth checking at renewal rather than left on autopilot. Confirming whether a van actually needs social, domestic and pleasure cover, or whether carriage of own goods cover fits the actual use of the vehicle, can affect both the price and whether a claim is paid at all. Insurers assess risk differently for each category, and misclassifying a van used only for work as a personal-use vehicle, or the reverse, is a common and avoidable way to overpay or invalidate cover.

Shopping around at renewal counts for more than usual in a market where most of the top ten providers just raised prices together. Zego Sense was the exception this quarter, cutting its premiums while competitors increased theirs, which is a reminder that a rising market average does not mean every provider moved in the same direction. Getting quotes from several insurers, rather than accepting an automatic renewal, is one of the few actions a driver can take that has a direct, quantifiable effect on the bill.

Drivers aged 25 to 49 face the steepest quarterly rise of any age band this quarter, at 5.1 percent, which is the group most likely to see a renewal price jump that does not match their own claims history. Asking an insurer directly what has changed in a renewal quote, and whether telematics or a higher voluntary excess would bring the price down, is a reasonable response to a rise driven by the wider market rather than an individual driver’s risk.

For anyone running a single van rather than a fleet, the age-related pattern is the single most useful figure in this data. A driver deciding whether to buy a nearly new van or a slightly older one this autumn now has a clear reason, beyond the purchase price, to factor insurance into that decision: the newest vehicles are the ones insurers are repricing hardest, and that gap between old and new looks likely to persist for as long as the current upward trend continues.

Sources

Consumer Intelligence, “Van insurance premiums rise 2.4% over the past year, with newer vehicles seeing the sharpest quarterly increases,” Van Insurance Price Index, published 30 June 2026, data to May 2026, consumerintelligence.com.