Van, pickup and farm truck insurance: what differs from a car

At a glance

The point

A private-use van or pickup is insured under the same rules as a car, but on another price scale. In the market average, third-party liability on such a vehicle costs about half as much again as on a car, as the figures below show. The farm truck costs less than both. The differences do not stop at the price: the drivers, the load and what is not covered all change.

Which vehicle is a “private-use truck”

The registration certificate says so. If the field for the use reads “private-use truck”, the vehicle is insured as a truck, even if from the outside it looks like a large car. This covers the plumber’s closed van, the open pickup of the olive grower who has no farm plates, and the small flatbed truck that delivers goods. The limit for everything written here is 3.5 tonnes gross weight, the top of the B licence. Above that we are talking about another category, with another licence⁴ and another price.

“Private use” means the truck carries your own things, for your own work. It does not take payment for the transport. A public-use truck carries other people’s things for payment. In 2024 public-use trucks had 15.45 liability claims per 100 vehicles, against 11.05 for private-use trucks¹. If you work as a haulier, this guide is not for you.

The farm truck is a third category. It is a private-use truck with farm plates, which only someone with the status of farmer can get. Its premiums are lower. In return, the law limits its use: it carries produce, supplies and tools of farm work. In 2024 there were 341,248 farm trucks and 409,204 private-use trucks with compulsory cover, against 4,143,523 private cars¹.

Why the van pays more

Insurers study how each vehicle spends its days. A work van moves every day, loaded, with many stops. It reverses in narrow streets, parks on the pavement to unload, goes into building sites. Often several people share the wheel. Each habit raises the chance of hitting something or someone.

The public figures show this in numbers. In 2024 private-use trucks had 11.05 liability claims per 100 vehicles, against 7.55 for private cars, with an average claim of €1,326 against €1,421. More claims of a similar size make a higher average premium: about €230 a year before tax against €147¹². That is no penalty. It reflects heavier use. The ΕΑΕΕ line counts every such truck, light and heavy, so a small van may sit below that average.

The farm truck goes the other way. It had 5.22 liability claims per 100 vehicles in 2024, and its average premium comes to about €111, below the car¹². It shuttles between field and village. It covers few kilometres, at low speed, on roads with little traffic. Insurers expect fewer accidents and ask a lower premium.

What the compulsory cover includes

The same things as for a car. The damage you do to someone else (third-party liability) is covered up to at least €1,300,000 per injured person for bodily injury and €1,300,000 per accident for damage to property. These minimums apply since 1 January 2022 to every vehicle with number plates³.

The basic packages of the companies add a few more things. Accident care, that is someone who comes to the scene to fill in the report. Towing after an accident. Cover against an uninsured vehicle, with a limit that varies a lot by company: Allianz, for example, writes up to €100,000 for damage from an uninsured vehicle in its My Motor Complete package⁵. Read the limit in the document of each offer.

A working van has one more reason to look at driver personal accident. Third-party liability pays whoever you hit. It does not pay you, if you are at fault. For a self-employed person who lives from the wheel, two months with a broken leg are two months without income. Ask for the price of this cover with every quote: it is often a small part of the total.

The extra covers on a van

Fire, total theft and natural events are charged as a part of the value of the vehicle. In the market average for 2024, before tax, a private-use truck paid about €21 for fire, €54 for theft and €26 for glass breakage¹². Legal protection, mostly sold as an extra on motor policies, came to about €7 per policy⁶².

Theft deserves a second thought, but not for the reason most people think. In 2024 theft claims were 0.38 per 100 private-use trucks, fewer than the 0.53 per 100 private cars¹. The cover pays for the vehicle. It does not pay for the tools, the materials or the computer in the glovebox. These either stay uncovered, or go into a separate policy for business equipment.

Own damage is where the van gets most expensive. In 2024 private-use trucks had 9.05 own-damage claims per 100 vehicles, against 4.18 for cars, with an average claim of €2,085 against €2,217. So the van is hit more than twice as often, at a similar cost per repair, and the average premium comes to about €261 against €131¹². The question “is own-damage cover worth it” is answered here as for a car: it is worth it while the vehicle is new or expensive, and while you cannot replace a destroyed van out of your own pocket.

The load and the tools

No vehicle policy pays for what you carry. The law excludes the things carried in the vehicle from the compulsory cover³, and own-damage cover pays for the vehicle only. This is the rule that costs the most money to those who ignore it. Suppose the electrician’s van carries €5,000 of tools, or the producer’s pickup a load of olive oil that sells for €3,000. If the vehicle overturns, own-damage cover pays for the vehicle and nothing else.

For the load there is goods-in-transit insurance. The price depends on the value you declare and on where you travel, so ask for it with the vehicle quote. Our guide to goods-in-transit insurance, so far only in Greek, explains what the companies ask for.

There is also a special case. If the van collects or carries waste, from scrap metal to rubble, ask the authority that issues the permit and the company whether you need an environmental liability policy. The ΕΑΕΕ survey counts such covers as compulsory: 3,548 for non-hazardous and 323 for hazardous waste in 2024⁷. It is not vehicle cover. It is a separate policy.

Who drives the van

The family car is driven by two people. The work van is driven by whoever works that day. For damage to others this changes nothing: the compulsory cover pays for the liability of the owner, the keeper and every driver of the vehicle, except someone who took it by theft or force or caused the accident on purpose⁸.

For the extra covers it changes. Some terms write a rule for young drivers. In the Ydrogios vehicle terms, if a driver under 23, or with a licence held for less than a year, damages the vehicle and the extra premium for that driver was not paid, own-damage cover pays only half of the damage⁹. If a twenty-year-old works in your workshop and takes the van for deliveries, tell the company before something happens. The premium will go up. The refusal of half of a €6,000 claim costs more. Our guide to the second driver and driving by others, so far only in Greek, analyses this.

The farm truck and its terms

The private-use farm truck has three features that matter for insurance. The first is the use. If the farm truck is caught moving furniture for a house move or making deliveries for a shop, the problem with the traffic police is yours. The problem with the company comes after, if damage happens on the same trip. Declare the vehicle as you use it: a wrong declaration lets the company cut or refuse the claim¹⁰.

The second is the road. The farm truck moves on dirt tracks, on embankments, inside fields. Own-damage cover covers accidents there, unless the terms explicitly exclude off-road use. Read this term before you take own-damage cover on a farm truck. Some policies cover only “public and private roads”. A field is not a road.

The third is the equipment. The sprayer you hitch behind, the bed with the bird radar, the platform for the crates. None of these is part of the vehicle for the company, unless you declare it and insure it separately. And the crop itself, the oil on the tree and the wheat in the field, goes into an entirely different system, ELGA, the Greek agricultural insurance organisation, and its supplementary covers.

What the law says

What the public figures show

The ΕΑΕΕ publishes the claims of each use of vehicle every year. For 2024, before tax:

The first two columns are tables 3A and 3B of the ΕΑΕΕ yearbook¹. The premiums are the market average: claims per vehicle divided by the share of premiums that went to claims (the loss ratio)².

The farm truck has a surprise in the last column. Its own-damage claims are rare, 1.32 per 100 vehicles, but large, and in 2024 they came to 190% of the own-damage premiums¹. The companies paid out almost twice what they took in for that cover, which is why its average premium looks so low.

The region matters too. In 2024 Attica had 8.69 liability claims per 100 vehicles of all kinds, Larissa 4.14 and Kilkis 4.61, against 6.87 for the whole country¹. A van in Athens meets more traffic, and the companies price that in.

No company prints a public price for a van or a farm truck, so your own price comes only with a quote.

An example

Where the companies differ on the van

Two quotes at the same price are rarely the same policy. On commercial vehicles the differences gather at four points, and none shows on the first page.

On the young driver. The Ydrogios vehicle terms write two rules. If an undeclared driver under 23 causes an accident, the company may refuse to pay the insured unless an extra premium of 30% is paid at once, or 60% if the driver holds a professional licence. For own damage it pays only half of the damage, extra premium or not⁹. Other companies may write other rules. A quote that looks cheaper at first can be dearer on the day you need it.

On towing with a load. Roadside assistance programmes write limits on the vehicle. Allianz, for example, tows only cars, private trucks and farm trucks up to 3.5 tonnes gross weight, up to 2.5 metres high and without twin rear wheels⁵. The Ydrogios assistance terms tow a truck only when it is empty of load⁹. If the van breaks down loaded with cement or crates, the unloading may be your problem in the middle of the road. Ask about it specifically, because on commercial vehicles it is the most likely call of the year.

On age for own damage. Companies set their own age limit for own-damage cover, and may ask for photos or an inspection before the start. Ask about the limit before the van gets old. The same holds for theft, where a company may ask for an alarm or a tracker above a certain insured value.

On what counts as an acceptable activity. Carrying waste, fuel, gas cylinders or chemicals is a different risk. The Ydrogios assistance terms, for example, do not accept trucks that carry flammable materials, fuel or chemical waste⁹. If this is your work, say so from the first phone call and save yourself two invalid quotes.

A second example: the farm truck in Kilkis

Dimitra is 52, a farmer in Kilkis, with a licence held for thirty years and a clean record. She has a 1,600 cc farm pickup, twelve years old, worth around €7,000 today. She uses it for the crates, the fertiliser and the trip to the field.

The market average for farm trucks was about €111 a year for the compulsory cover in 2024, before tax¹². Kilkis had 4.61 liability claims per 100 vehicles, below the 6.87 of the whole country¹. Suppose her quote for the compulsory cover is €170 a year, with tax.

On top of that Dimitra adds fire, theft and natural events on the €7,000 value, and glass, because on a dirt track a stone can break the windscreen. Suppose the extras come to €110 a year. Total €280 a year, under €25 a month for a vehicle that works every day.

She checks two things before she signs. First, whether own damage and natural events apply inside the field or only on a road. Second, what the hail cover catches. Hail on the bodywork is paid by the insurer. Hail on the peaches is paid by no motor insurer, and goes to ELGA.

Compared with Giorgos and his pickup, Dimitra pays less for a vehicle of similar size. The difference comes from three things: the farm plates, the region, and the fact that she did not take roadside assistance for breakdowns.

The mistakes that cost money

Believing that own-damage cover covers the load. It does not. If your tools or goods are worth more than a few hundred euros, ask for goods-in-transit or business equipment insurance.

Declaring the wrong use. A farm truck that makes deliveries and a private-use truck that carries for payment are false declarations. The company can cut or refuse your claim¹⁰. Declare the use on the registration certificate and use the vehicle that way.

Leaving the new employee undeclared. The terms for a young driver hit own damage. If they drive the van, declare them. Pay the difference. It is smaller than half of a claim.

Forgetting the trailer. A trailer with its own number plate needs its own policy. Without it, it is an uninsured vehicle with all the fines that follow.

Buying own-damage cover on an old van. The market average for own damage on a private-use truck was about €261 a year before tax¹². On a van worth €4,000, a few years of premiums come close to what the cover can ever pay after the excess. Put the money aside.

The comparison page for vans and trucks shows the market average from public figures, and our own estimate for each company, from the cheapest. Start from van and truck insurance and ask for quotes with your own details.

Frequently asked questions

Does the trailer my farm truck pulls need its own insurance?

If the trailer has its own number plate, it needs its own third-party liability policy. When a hitched trailer is involved in an accident, the law makes the insurers of the towing vehicle and of the trailer liable together to the victims, up to the limits of their policies, and they share the cost between them afterwards. Ask your company what it does with an unhitched trailer before you leave it on a public road.

Does the truck insurance cover the goods I carry?

No. The law excludes the things carried in the vehicle from the compulsory cover. Third-party liability pays damage to others, not your load. Own-damage cover pays for the truck itself, not for what is inside. If you carry your own tools or products and want them insured, you need goods-in-transit insurance. It is a separate policy, with its own price.

Can I insure the farm truck as a car to pay less?

You do not need to and you cannot. The use is written on the registration certificate and the company prices from there. A farm truck already costs less than a car in the market average, because its liability claims are fewer. If you declare a use other than the real one, the company may cut or refuse a claim for false declaration.

My worker drives the van. Is the worker covered?

For damage to others, yes. The compulsory cover pays for the liability of the owner, the keeper and every driver of the vehicle. It leaves out only someone who took the vehicle by theft or force, or caused the accident on purpose. For the extra covers, such as own damage, look at the terms. Some terms pay less if an undeclared young driver was driving.

How much does own-damage cover cost on a €9,000 van?

Companies charge own damage by the value, the age and the excess, and none prints a public rate for vans. In the market average from the ΕΑΕΕ figures for 2024, own damage on a private-use truck cost about €261 a year before tax, against about €131 on a car. Ask for a quote for your own van, with and without a higher excess.

What if the van is over 3.5 tonnes?

It changes category. Above 3.5 tonnes gross weight the vehicle needs a heavier licence, C1 up to 7.5 tonnes or C above that, and it is priced as a heavy truck. For a heavier truck, ask for a quote from an agent who works with commercial vehicles.

Laws the article cites: Presidential Decree 237/1986 art. 2 · Presidential Decree 237/1986 art. 6 · Law 2496/1997 art. 3

Sources

1. ↑ΕΑΕΕ (Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies), Motor Insurance Statistical Yearbook 2024, tables 1A, 3A, 3B, 6 and 7A, November 2025
2. ↑How the comparison works: where every figure comes from, October 2026
3. ↑Law 5113/2024 (Government Gazette A 96/21.06.2024), art. 4 and 5: the new wording of Presidential Decree 237/1986 art. 2 and 6, 2024
4. ↑Presidential Decree 51/2012 on driving licences, art. 3: the licence categories, 2012
5. ↑Allianz, IPID My Motor Complete, January 2025
6. ↑ΕΑΕΕ, Legal Expenses Insurance 2024, table 1, 2025
7. ↑ΕΑΕΕ, Liability and Professional Liability Insurance 2024, table 6, 2025
8. ↑Presidential Decree 237/1986 on compulsory motor insurance, art. 2 and 6, as first published, 1986
9. ↑Ydrogios, Vehicle insurance terms (Όροι Ασφάλισης Οχημάτων), January 2020
10. ↑Law 2496/1997 on the insurance contract, art. 3, 1997