Looking for Farm Vehicle Insurance?
Whether it’s tractors, land machinery or diggers, the day-to-day running of your farm can depend heavily on your farm vehicles. It’s important to have peace of mind when it comes to finding the right farm vehicle insurance.
Farm machinery is vital to livelihoods and most likely operating for long periods of time, particularly during the busy season. This is a quick guide to getting crucial cover in case of theft, accident or fire.
Do I need farm vehicle insurance?
If you live on a commercial farm or own agricultural vehicles to make sure your land is kept in tip top condition, you’re going to need farm vehicle insurance. Whether you’re covering your single tractor or entire fleet of combines, having proper farm vehicle insurance will help to make sure that if the worst happens, you’ll be able to continue to operate your business and minimise downtime.
What can be covered under a farm vehicle insurance?
- Tractors
- Agricultural vehicles (such as diggers, self-propelled tools, combines, telehandlers, ATVs)
- Commercial vehicles (such as 4x4s, lorries, vans, pick-ups)
- Private cars
Some insurers may also allow you to extend cover to other items that you’d like to protect that may not necessarily fit into a traditional farm vehicles insurance policy such as trailers, horseboxes and equipment like drills, hedge-trimmers or ploughs.
Different types of farm vehicle insurance
As with most other types of insurance, companies will often offer different levels of farm vehicle cover for potential policyholders to choose from. So, when you’re choosing the best insurer for your circumstances, it’s worth thinking about the level of protection you need:
Covers damage to other vehicles or property if you’re involved in an accident, either on the farm or on the road.
Covers you for the above AND theft or damage from fire.
Covers you for the above AND vandalism and repairs which is particularly helpful in rural areas
Avoiding farm vehicle insurance shortfalls
It’s so important to think about how your farm machinery is being used and be as truthful and information-rich as possible when taking out your policy. There are plenty of things that could trip you up and affect the outcome, should you need to make a claim:
Tell your insurer if another member of your family is going to use the vehicle even if it’s not for official farm business.
If you share ownership of the farm vehicle with another business or neighbouring farm, both parties will need to disclose details to the insurer.
It’s fine to lend a neighbouring farmer one of your vehicles or machinery for the day, but it won’t be covered under your policy, so make sure they add it to theirs temporarily and vice versa.
If you’re taking out a policy for a farm fleet then make sure all uses including business, social, domestic and pleasure are included on the policy for each individual vehicle.
Many types of vehicle or machinery can fall under governed inspection laws, if this is the case for you, then you’ll need to make sure paperwork is kept up-to-date and regular inspections take place otherwise your policy could become invalid.
Usually trailers or trailed machinery can be claimed for as long as the tractor or vehicle they’re attached to is comprehensively covered.
Farm Vehicle Insurance – Useful FAQs
Operating a tractor off-road doesn’t actually require you by law to have any kind of license at all. However, if you’re going to be taking the tractor on the road travelling from farm to field and back, you’ll need to hold a full UK driving licence. You’ll also need to check that there aren’t any restrictions on your age if you’re lucky enough to be under the age of 20.
Yes, of course. If your tractor is over 25 years old and is considered a hobby or used for agricultural shows rather than day-to-day commercial farm work there are specialist policies available that are very similar to those for classic cars. These will offer you different types of cover including travel to and from any shows via roads, as well as any belongings, accessories or spare parts that you might keep in your vintage tractor.
TOP TIP: If you have machinery that’s manufactured before 1990 then there are specialist policies available to you too.
If you have a number of tractors, cranes, diggers, trucks, harvesters or any other type of vehicle that you use on the farm, then you won’t need to get individual policies for each – which is great for saving you time and money! When taking out a policy make sure you’re including each vehicle, being very specific about its use, potential operators and where it’s kept overnight.
Following an accident or during repair you won’t want to lose precious business due to downtime, so you might want to make use of a replacement farm vehicle. Not every insurer or level of cover offers this, so it’s worth shopping around to find one that does and carefully read through small print to make sure that you’re definitely entitled to one.
Farm vehicle insurance covers the vehicles and some machinery that you use on your farm.
Agricultural insurance covers against loss or damage to buildings, equipment, livestock, crops and broader farm outputs.
For some insurers, fitting extra security devices such as immobilisers, GPS tracking or telematics can help to lower the amount you pay each month – which is especially handy and cost-effective if you’re insuring an entire farm fleet.
Although many farm vehicle insurance policies won’t cover you for electrical faults, you may be covered for the damage that happens due to that fault. As with most things it depends on the insurer so it’s best to get in touch with them and discuss the specifics of your case.