Hypothetical insurance question

[SiH]

Quick question based on some common practice at work.
I drive to work and have SDP+C (to one place of work). There is another site that isn't a million miles from there that some people go to and let's assume that their insurance covers commuting to more than place of work.
From time to time an e-mail will go out to say words to the effect of 'is anyone going to the other site and can they take a document across?'.
If their insurance is only SDP+C then is their insurance technically invalidated if they're taking work related documents which wouldn't be a normal part of their work (i.e. they're not a company courier)?
I know that the correct response would be 'read the Ts+Cs of your insurance contract' but this is a question regarding insurance companies in general. I was under the impression that if you were doing things beyond the normal scope of your employment that therefore went beyond the bounds of simple commuting then full business insurance was required.
Any thoughts?

[Rick101]

In a word yes.

Commuting is to one fixed location.

How they would ever differentiate I do not know unless you're one of these clever ones that tells them 'for info only'

[V8forweekends]

I think you are right - you'd need business cover for this (the document delivery or even travel between sites). However in many cases it won't be much more expensive - some insurers don't offer SD&P&C so in their case it's "free".

I seriously doubt whether your policy limits your commuting to a single place but I may be wrong. If you worked for a supermarket who told you you had to go and do your regular job at another branch for a week I can't see that being reasonably excluded from commuting.

[Magic919]

As always, the policy wording is key. Direct Line are pretty clear about it being one place.

Direct Line's Social, Domestic and Pleasure policy cover includes commuting. This allows you to drive to and from a permanent place of work.
By 'permanent' place of work, we mean a single office, site, location or place of work that you intend to travel to for the duration of your contract of employment.

[Rick101]

I recall having a conversation with a insurance expert call centre monkey.

When I told him I was an Operations Manager he said I needed business cover as operations managers 'go to different sites init'.

However many times I told him I had a single place of work he was insistent he knew my job better than I.

Can't recall who it was but they came out more expensive (possibly because of adding business) so they never got the deal anyway.

[CYMR0]

What about training? Would you ever meet with a client at a client site?

Honestly unless you work for a single employer, with a single site, and no regular off-site meetings that you drive to (including the bank, post office, and customers) you need business cover and not just SDP&C.

[Foliage]

I enquired about adding business to my insurance and it cost me iirc £20 for the year extra on a £600 insurance policy, i think it might be worth just adding how much extra it would be. I only do 5000 miles a year so not sure if that effects it.

[omgus]

So now my question would be:

I work at mulitiple sites, it could be somewhere different each day, but i never move between them during work hours.
Effectively i commute but to anywhere up to 20 locations.

Will i need to add business?

[anonymous-user]

omgus said:

So now my question would be:

I work at mulitiple sites, it could be somewhere different each day, but i never move between them during work hours.
Effectively i commute but to anywhere up to 20 locations.

Will i need to add business?

Yes, almost certainly.

[LoonR1]

Class 1 business use will suffice. I've had it on every policy I've ever had since I learned to drive. So far I have paid the sum total of £0.00 extra for it.

This topic comes up far too often.

[omgus]

Thanks both.

Calling broker now.

[Rick101]

CYMR0 said:

What about training? Would you ever meet with a client at a client site?

Honestly unless you work for a single employer, with a single site, and no regular off-site meetings that you drive to (including the bank, post office, and customers) you need business cover and not just SDP&C.

Honestly, I understand what the requirements are.
No, never. Never ever ever would I be working anywhere but my booked location, ever ever ever. If that situation did somehow arise, I would be given train tickets or a pool car. Even in the case of bomb threats, contingency is in place for transport to a safe location.

I'm glad both you and he have my best interests at heart, but i'm not thick and after explaining it to him twice, it seemed it was maybe he who was a bit thick.

Edited by Rick101 on Wednesday 4th February 15:53

[CYMR0]

Fair enough... I've just come across lots of people who are adamant that they only pop to the shops once a week for work or whatever and don't 'consider' that business use, both on here and in real life, and do know someone who actually had cover denied while transporting files for a previous employer.

[Rick101]

Here's a question then, not related to me btw.

You're a salaried employee. You nip out on a butty run to get some snap. You're not actually on work business but you are on work time.

How would an insurer look at that? What if they had to clock out on leaving?

[CYMR0]

I would argue that given their plain and natural meaning, the purpose of the journey is social (helping out work colleagues), domestic (not really) or pleasure (mmmm butties).

If you were getting catering for a meeting, it'd be business use, but that seems fine.

However it would always depend on the specifics of the policy wording, etc. (And yes, this example does illustrate how similar the risk profile can be, which is probably why the premiums are also so similar).

[Pit Pony]

Funnily enough wife's insurance went DOWN when we added commuting and class one business use.

The Commuting is a 1 mile journey to the station, where she gets a train to town, where she works unpaid for a charity. (Who pay her train fare). Just one day a week, though.

The Business use is because I employ her to work from home and occasionally perhaps once every 3 months she will go and buy stuff for the business, and maybe twice a year I use her car, to do a trip across the country to a client, if she needed a bigger car that week, or my car is broken.

I thought about why it might be cheaper, and I think it's because we had our daughter on the policy, and if the car was used for commuting and business, she couldn't be using it to drive to college (which was definately NOT allowed as apparently that might be perceived as fronting)