Motor Trade Cover
Motor Trade Insurance for Automotive Businesses
Customer cars in your care, road tests, tools, staff and your income each need their own cover. We help you work out which ones your business needs and arrange them together.
Motor Trade Insurance Explained
What is motor trade insurance?
Motor trade insurance is the set of covers an automotive trade business holds, rather than a single policy. It usually includes public liability, tools and equipment, motor trade road risk, garage keeper's liability and workers compensation. It can also include personal accident and illness cover for the owner, and commercial vehicle cover for work vans and utes.
The motor trade means businesses that service, repair or move other people's vehicles. That work carries risks a basic business policy was never built for. Think of a customer's car damaged in your yard, a crash on a road test, or a toolbox taken from the van.
For workshops and mobile mechanics, the same package is often called mechanics insurance. As a broker, we help you work out which covers apply to your business. Then we arrange them through insurers that offer cover for the motor trade.
What Motor Trade Insurance Covers
The covers that make up motor trade insurance
Each cover deals with a different risk. Most businesses start with public liability and tools cover, then add the others as they take on customer vehicles and staff. You can hold them separately or arrange them together.
Public Liability Insurance
Pays compensation and legal costs if your work injures a member of the public or damages their property. For example, a customer who slips on oil in your workshop.
Garage Keeper's Liability Insurance
Covers loss or damage to customer vehicles while they are in your care. For example, a car damaged by fire, storm or theft while it is at your workshop. Public liability does not cover this.
Motor Trade Road Risk Insurance
Lets you and the staff you nominate drive customer, trade and business vehicles on public roads. That covers road tests, pick-ups and deliveries, without listing each car on the policy.
Tools & Equipment Insurance
Repairs or replaces your tools if they are stolen, lost or accidentally damaged, including theft from a locked vehicle. That covers hand tools, power tools and diagnostic scanners, the tools that read a car's fault codes.
Workers Compensation
Pays wages and medical costs for staff injured or made ill by their work. It is compulsory in most states and territories once you employ people, and each state runs its own scheme.
Personal Accident & Illness Insurance
Pays you a weekly amount if an injury or illness stops you working, on or off the job. Workers compensation covers your staff, so this is the cover for you as the owner.
Commercial Vehicle Insurance
Covers the vans, utes, trailers, tow trucks and car carriers your business owns, from one vehicle to a fleet. Tools kept in the van need tools cover as well.
Is motor trade insurance the same as road risk?
No. Motor trade road risk insurance is one cover inside the package. It covers you and the drivers you nominate when you drive vehicles that are not yours on public roads. That includes road-testing a repair, collecting a customer's car or dropping it back.
A personal car policy does not extend to driving a customer's car as part of your trade. Without road risk, those drives are uninsured.
Road risk is about driving. If a car is damaged while it sits in your workshop, that falls under garage keeper's liability. A customer hurt on your premises is a public liability matter, and tools stolen from the van come under tools cover.
How It Works
How we help you arrange motor trade insurance
Tell us how you work
We ask about the services you offer and the vehicles or machinery you work on. We also ask whether you have a workshop or work mobile, and which tools you rely on.
We go through the risks
Customer cars in your care, road tests, staff and tools each point to a different cover. We help you work out which ones apply to you and which you can leave out.
We arrange the cover
We arrange the covers through insurers that offer cover for the motor trade. Before you commit, we explain in plain English what each policy pays for and what it leaves out.
We help when you claim
If something goes wrong, you call us. We deal with the insurer and the assessor, the person the insurer sends to check the damage, on your behalf.
This is general information only. It does not take your business's circumstances into account and is not a recommendation of any specific policy. Talk to a broker for advice about your business.
Mechanics Insurance is an insurance broker. We help you review and arrange cover. We do not underwrite or issue policies.
Motor Trade Insurance by Trade
Where each trade usually starts
The mix changes with the work. A mobile mechanic carries tools between jobs, and a marine mechanic works on customer boats at the water. A diesel workshop looks after trucks and plant, meaning heavy machinery, worth far more than a family car.
Motor Mechanic Insurance
Usually starts with
- Public Liability
- Garage Keeper's Liability
- Motor Trade Road Risk
- Tools & Equipment
Mobile Mechanic Insurance
Usually starts with
- Public Liability
- Tools & Equipment
- Commercial Vehicle
- Personal Accident & Illness
Diesel Mechanic Insurance
Usually starts with
- Public Liability
- Garage Keeper's Liability
- Commercial Vehicle
- Workers Compensation
Marine Mechanic Insurance
Usually starts with
- Public Liability
- Garage Keeper's Liability
- Tools & Equipment
- Motor Trade Road Risk
Local Offices
Motor trade insurance across Australia
We arrange cover for motor trade businesses Australia-wide. We also have local offices, so you can deal with a team in your own part of the country.
- Motor trade insurance in Perth
Unit 14, 115 Grand Boulevard, Joondalup WA 6027
- Motor trade insurance in South West WA
28E/55 Dunn Bay Road, Dunsborough WA 6281
- Motor trade insurance in Sydney
Suite 202, 59-75 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
- Motor trade insurance in Melbourne
Ground Floor, 470 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004
- Motor trade insurance on the Sunshine Coast
Office B, 3 Woomba Place, Mooloolaba QLD 4557
- Motor trade insurance in Darwin
Level 1, 18-20 Knuckey Street, Darwin NT 0800
Motor trade insurance questions
Most businesses start with public liability and tools and equipment cover. Driving customer vehicles adds motor trade road risk, and keeping them on your premises adds garage keeper's liability. If you employ staff, you also need workers compensation.
Talk to us about motor trade insurance
Tell us how your business runs and we will help you review your cover. No obligation.