The 2023 festival season is almost upon us, bringing much excitement to ERS as we ready ourselves for the annual peak in Specialist Commercial Vehicle (SCV) underwriting. If your clients are looking for SCV insurance, we’ve got you covered.
The 2023 UK festival season is raring to go with thousands hosted up and down the country offering a wide variety of line-ups and experiences – celebrating everything from the best music, to imaginative literature, the arts, or entertaining family events to the most appealing food festivals: Glastonbury, Camp Bestival, Pub in the Park and All Points East to name a few.
Following the Covid pandemic the festival market looks to be returning back to normal and according to Mintel, the market should surpass its pre-covid level in 2023 compared with 2019, with £2.79 billion sales. Now that its safer to meet in large groups the demand for festival tickets is ever increasing with a pent up demand to see live music.
A staggering 3.9 million people attend UK music festivals alone – with many festival-goers returning to their favourite occasions year-in-year-out. All of which makes the festival scene a key revenue generator for thousands of traders, equipment providers and other specialist businesses.
Tying these disparate businesses together is their absolute reliance on vehicles for the duration of the season. A fireworks business will travel the length of the country to securely deliver product for a single minute-long blast. A modified catering van will rack up hundreds of miles travelling from site to site for a small handful of working days that will prove the most profitable of the entire year.
To support these businesses on the festival circuit we have a dedicated SCV UK Festival product. It is a deliberately diverse offering that covers seven vehicle categories in one, thus capturing every type of commercial vehicle required by our burgeoning festival industry.
Some of these vehicles carry high risk – those transporting gas canisters for example. Others may appear risky, when in fact they spend 99% of their time stationary and out of harm’s way. We make it our business to understand how these vehicles are really being used so that we can price the risk properly.
Here’s just a few examples of the SCV Festival categories we cover:
Catering: from speciality burger vans to mobile barista vehicles, festivals simply wouldn’t be the same without a wide array of food and drink options
Emergency and Rescue: every festival operator will require a significant first aid presence, usually comprising a number of private ambulances on-site. We can provide blue and green light cover.
Non-Road registered and special types: transforming an empty field into a festival arena is a massive undertaking, requiring cherry pickers, forklift trucks and more besides. We cover these vehicles on a road and non-road registered basis.
Special Types - Commercial: You’ll find modified vehicles a-plenty backstage, carrying everything from artists’ backdrops to the generators that power the entire festival and transporting specialist lighting rigs which are essential wherever there’s a main stage to be found
Marketing, Exhibition, Retail, Entertainment and Education: We cover a range of media vehicles who broadcast live from festival sites, many festivals are filmed, and a number even feature mobile cinemas as part of the entertainment. We also cover buses that have been converted for hospitality purposes or to provide onboard services such as bars, afternoon tea bus tours and cafés.
Specialist Loads: Pyrotechnics vehicles are in high demand over the festival season, fireworks celebrating opening ceremonies and headline acts. This category specifically caters towards hazardous occupations.
Many specialist commercial vehicle owners’ motor insurance policies are coming up for renewal right now, causing a headache for business owners to find cost-effective policies that genuinely cover these vehicles’ diverse use cases. To find out more about our SCV product visit our website.
Underwriting expertise
Sadly, we’ve heard many tales of insurers failing to pay out following festival-related calamities because the owner hasn’t declared their risk correctly, or because the policy was never right for such a bespoke need. This is why our SCV product exists. Our dedicated specialist Commercial team can underwrite the most complex of risks to cover your clients unique requirements. Making sure we can cater for the caterers, provide for the equipment providers, and offer the right cover for the thousands of commercial vehicles that are ignored by the mainstream market and yet are relied upon to deliver our country’s festival extravaganza each year.
The fastest way to access our SCV product is online via ERS eTrade, where any quotes that need a more tailored approach are fast tracked into our specialist teams so you can get tailored cover for your clients’ unique needs, fast.
Looking for a Specialist Commercial Vehicle quote? Log in to ERS Trade or sign up to ERS eTrade here.
