Employers Liabilty Ins - Do I need it?
Employers Liabilty Ins - Do I need it?
Author
Discussion

Tyre Smoke

Original Poster:

23,018 posts

284 months

Wednesday 12th April 2006
quotequote all
Right, some may know I am in the (slow!) process of buying a taxi business. The drivers are all employed by me (not a limited company)and my wife (business partnership). There are no more than 5 employees in total.

The taxis are all correctly insured for taxi work. There are no premises as such,we are going to run it from home so no members of the public will call at my house. The drivers and passengers will be covered under the taxi insurance, so do I need Employers Liabilty Insurance, or come to that a seperate Public Liabilty insurance apart from the vehicle insurance?

My thoughts are that I need Employers but not Public Liabilty?

All help/advice gratefully received!

JonRB

79,335 posts

295 months

Wednesday 12th April 2006
quotequote all
My personal (ie. layman's) opinion is that I wouldn't have any dealings with the public without Public Liability Insurance. It only takes one person to sue you after all.

And in the same way, if I had even one employee I'd want Employer's Liability Insurance, as again it only takes one employee to decide to sue you.

>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 12th April 12:10

GTWayne

4,595 posts

240 months

Wednesday 12th April 2006
quotequote all
Yes and if you have only 5 employees,the premiums will not break the bank.

Eric Mc

124,769 posts

288 months

Wednesday 12th April 2006
quotequote all
Are they employees?

Tyre Smoke

Original Poster:

23,018 posts

284 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
Yes Eric, employed drivers by me. Not paying a rent for the cab or shared profit from the takings.

Sorry for the delay in replying - busy week!

Eric Mc

124,769 posts

288 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
Then do it.

deva link

26,934 posts

268 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
Tyre Smoke said:
There are no more than 5 employees in total.

Have you offered them access to a pension scheme?

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

31,757 posts

258 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
deva link said:
Tyre Smoke said:
There are no more than 5 employees in total.

Have you offered them access to a pension scheme?


..and a written health & safety policy..

Tyre Smoke

Original Poster:

23,018 posts

284 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
Off topic a bit, but how long does it take and what's involved with registering for VAT?

Smartie

2,623 posts

296 months

Thursday 13th April 2006
quotequote all
Takes about 10 mins to fill the form in and about 4 weeks to get a VAT number. You can elect to register from any date though (assuming you're not obliged to register) and so back date it slightly if you wish.

HMC&E may ask a few questions, in particular for evidence of trade, but not normally a problem and they can't really refuse your application.

insurance_jon

4,091 posts

269 months

Friday 14th April 2006
quotequote all
Public Liability cover is recommended but not compulsory, the employers liability is though, minimum of 10m

romanymagic

3,298 posts

242 months

Friday 14th April 2006
quotequote all
Given the situation you outlined at the start of this thread I would not bother with public liability insurance. Yes you will need employers liability insurance to cover your drivers, but as you have no commercial premises a member of the public would have to reason to claim against you. Any claim would be on an indvidual driver and I assume they will have individual public liability insurance as part of their car insurance so they are also covered.

I was a mini cab driver many moons ago and the chap I was working for explained that he only had public liability insurance because members of the public would be in his commercial office i.e. waiting room/cab office.