Must you have business insurance for one trip

[Missy Charm]

ingenieur said:

If you are driving past your place of work on a social trip. Stop the car, walk into your office. Do some work. Leave your office, walk back to the car and then continue to your destination is that then considered business / commuting or is that social use?

It's commuting up to the point you get to the office and social after you leave. As a more realistic example I quite often drive to work (commuting), go out in the car at lunch time to a shop or to run some personal errands (domestic/pleasure) and then drive home at the end of the day (commuting, again).

Nothing in your example has anything to do with business insurance, assuming you go to your ordinary workplace on your day off.

[Fastdruid]

Joey Deacon said:

otolith said:

In my experience, adding class 1 business use usually costs next to nothing.

This, a couple of times a year I have to visit clients for work. I took the allowance over the car so sourced my own car and insured it. I added 1000 miles of class 1 business miles a year to cover this, and from memory it made a negligible difference to the cost.

The only time it's ever cost us anything was when my wife had to add it to her insurance mid-policy... £0 to add the business use, £15 admin charge! Ever since then she's just added it anyway, although I'm not sure she's ever used it again.

[Collectingbrass]

The question isn't whether you need business use insurance; the question is whether you are giving the insurance co a slam dunk reason to deny a high value claim or the police a slam dunk reason to do you for no insurance should you fail the attitude test. Given that for most users of this site 1k business miles will be free or negligible on the insurance premium this seems a no-brainer.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

otolith said:

Come on now, surely you are not trying to tell me that a fine upstanding British insurance company would try to wriggle out of a claim on a sharp technicality?

Using your car for business when you've only insured it for pleasure or commuting is hardly wriggling out of a claim on a sharp technicality. It's refusing to meet a claim you aren't actually covered for!

If I had paid extra for business use, even if it was only a tenner, I don't want my insurers paying the business use claims of people who haven't paid extra. Given that every claim they pay reduces their profits, and increases future premiums. These people are driving without taking out the correct insurance. fk 'em.

[Chris32345]

Are you being paid to collect this person from the station as part of your hourly duty's?

If not how is it work?

You are perfectly free to pick whoever you want up for work if your employer isn't paying you to do so

[otolith]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

otolith said:

Come on now, surely you are not trying to tell me that a fine upstanding British insurance company would try to wriggle out of a claim on a sharp technicality?

Using your car for business when you've only insured it for pleasure or commuting is hardly wriggling out of a claim on a sharp technicality. It's refusing to meet a claim you aren't actually covered for!

If I had paid extra for business use, even if it was only a tenner, I don't want my insurers paying the business use claims of people who haven't paid extra. Given that every claim they pay reduces their profits, and increases future premiums. These people are driving without taking out the correct insurance. fk 'em.

It rather depends on what the journey is, but I would suggest putting oneself at the mercy of an insurance company’s interpretation of anything which could conceivably be used to squirm out of paying a claim is… unwise. If in any doubt, err on the side of nailing them down. Especially when it doesn’t usually cost anything much.

[gazza285]

I have a van for my various hobbies. One employer was forever asking me to go places with goods and materials, and I always refused on the grounds of no business insurance. The van does have business cover, but why should I use my vehicle for their business, it’s not like they would pay me any more money for doing it.

[oldagepensioner]

Fastdruid said:

ingenieur said:

Was having a debate with someone the other day about where the line is when doing occasional work-related things with your personal car.

If for instance you pick up a work colleague from the train station and drive to 'one place of work' usually covered by the 'commuting' aspect of your policy does that then mean you're completely uninsured from the moment you leave the train station with your colleague in the passenger seat because you've turned the journey into a 'business use' scenario?

Car sharing isn't business use. You're not using it for work purposes. That would be part of commuting (as long as there is no payment received for the trip).

ingenieur said:

Or similarly if you do an ad-hoc trip to a site you wouldn't normally travel to (assuming your company has multiple branches) are you not covered even if that journey was unexpected and not repeated for the duration of the policy?

If you're travelling to a different site (for example if you live in Cambridge and normally go to your office there but one day need to go to the head office in London travelling from home there and then back again) then equally no. It's still commuting. The wording for example for Admiral is "[SDP] plus driving to and from one place of work in a day". It doesn't specify it has to be the same place all the time, just only one place of work in a day.

You need business when it's actually for business purposes, for example if you are visiting customers or visiting multiple sites in one day.

This would mean from previous example if you were to go to your normal "branch" Office then drive to the head office and then home it wouldn't be covered but if you went straight to (and then from) the Head Office it would.

All that said....each insurer is different, check your policy carefully! It'll only ever be a problem if you need it!

I have had this myself.I used to work for a company who had 4 branches throughout Kent.My main place of work was head office but i was asked to cover at other branches sometimes for weeks at a time.My insurers at the time said if i wanted to use my own car i would have to add business cover as i was only covered to go to and from my main place of work.Luckily the company provided hire cars and paid for fuel as i could never of afforded it otherwise.

[silentbrown]

gazza285 said:

I have a van for my various hobbies. One employer was forever asking me to go places with goods and materials, and I always refused on the grounds of no business insurance. The van does have business cover, but why should I use my vehicle for their business, it’s not like they would pay me any more money for doing it.

Any half-decent employer would pay the usual HMRC rate of 45p/mile., surely?

[mike9009]

I have just been asked not to cycle between our two manufacturing sites ( about five miles) unless I have business insurance.

I have business insurance on the car though.....

[anarki]

To the OP, Ultimately you will need to explain to your insurance provider as how you to propose to use your vehicle. Unless there are specific individuals on this site that can advise otherwise.

When it came to arranging my cover, upon which I had specified my expected personal use and business use via a comparison website (20k miles mixed), the insurer just wanted clarity as to what my business miles entailed (quick phone call check)

This is how it looks on my insurance certificate (I'm with the AA):

Permitted use Use for Social, Domestic and Pleasure purposes
and use by the Policyholder IN person FOR his/her
business OR employment, excluding COMMERCIAL
travelling

Basically I'm not travelling with business goods, I just go from business site to site (exactly what I need). It doesn't cover me for travelling with goods for the purposes of my business travels (like a courier) which I don't need. I'm covered when I travel from home to Birmingham, London, Norwich, etc

They were really helpful when I spoke to them on the phone, I explained my exact circumstance and they explained the difference in cover. You have nothing to lose by just contacting them.