Must you have business insurance for one trip

[ingenieur]

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?

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?

I know what the authoritarians on here will say. But usually when something like this is fully debated it turns out to be more nuanced than initially imagined.

I just wondered what the general view was in this case.

[ingenieur]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Fastdruid said:

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.

Most insurers define commuting as travelling to and from a permanent place of work. So very occasionally travelling to a different place of work would not fall under commuting, but would require class 1 business use.

But if you did it once but had not had the foresight when taking out the policy to get the 'business use' upgrade would they tell you there was no insurance?

[ingenieur]

Bobtherallyfan said:

Not all insurers even include commuting under basic insurance anymore!

I'd say that's generally understood as it is one of the basic questions when getting a quote for normal car insurance.

[ingenieur]

deckster said:

ingenieur said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Fastdruid said:

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.

Most insurers define commuting as travelling to and from a permanent place of work. So very occasionally travelling to a different place of work would not fall under commuting, but would require class 1 business use.

But if you did it once but had not had the foresight when taking out the policy to get the 'business use' upgrade would they tell you there was no insurance?

Yes, they would, because that use isn't covered. If your insurance says "a permanent place of work" then that's what it says. Not "a permanent place of work, unless it's only once and you didn't know, or maybe twice, that's OK petal".

So are you saying at the same moment you realise you're going to make the journey you have to phone your insurance company, spend 40 minutes on hold, pay £35 to add business insurance to your policy and then go ahead and do that one journey and that's what every driver is expected to do when something like this comes up?

[ingenieur]

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?