The price of van insurance for any driver is going down according to a new study by data analytics company Consumer Intelligence, which showed that the cost of the average van insurance premium was £1,442, 5.1% cheaper than in 2017.

It marks an unusual good news story for motor insurance customers who, in recent years, have become accustomed to a diet of stories about the impact of crash-for-cash scams, inflated whiplash claims, the Ogden rate and spiralling costs.

It is thought that one of the reasons that van insurance for any driver is cheaper than last year is the introduction of the Civil Liability Bill, which aims to reduce the impact of fraudulent and inflated claims.

However, it is worth remembering that we are still in the grip of a trend towards increased premium prices, which remain around 35% higher than they were in April 2014 when Consumer Intelligence began tracking prices.

There was some discrepancy between the cost of van insurance for private vehicle use and for commercial vehicle use. Drivers using their vans for business benefited from premiums that are 4.8% cheaper than last year, while people who use their vans for personal purposes saw their premium price fall by 6%. However, business van insurance customers were still paying around £200 less than personal-use van insurance policyholders. This is because repeated studies have shown van drivers to be more cautious when driving their vans for business purposes – for example, the carriage of goods.

Interestingly, younger van drivers made the biggest savings [12.6%], but still had to contend with a huge average premium price of £4,585. Those over 50 enjoyed more modest savings but nonetheless should expect to pay around only £577.

"The big question is whether price reductions will be sustained as the decreases have slowed in the past three months to just 0.2%," commented John Blevins, Consumer Intelligence's pricing expert.

"Much of the recent drop in premiums can be attributed to insurers passing on the benefits of the Civil Liability Bill as it goes through Parliament.

"However, in the absence of any other market factors pricing and premiums will be dictated by claims frequencies and costs."

As ever, if you want cheap any driver van insurance, the best thing you can do is to scour the market, compare premiums and, where possible, find a van cover specialist.