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Commuting/business Use Car Insurance Query


Turvey
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A little background...

I work for our local council and up until quite recently if working overtime esp evenings and weekends we were allowed to take a pickup/van home to save using your own transport for 'council business' For instance I used to frequently go down to the pier and load/unload lorries for the outer isles before and after normal working times.

This 'perk' has now been taken away and we now have to use our own cars. However we can claim mileage under some circumstances which I wont bore you all with!

But here's the rub. When claiming for mileage for the first time you had to provide them with MOT and current insurance certificate(no problems so far) HOWEVER someone in the 'top office' had decided that travelling to/from work for overtime is classed as 'Business use' and must be insured as such otherwise mileage claims will be refused.

So the question is, is travelling to/from work for overtime classed as business or just normal commuting? Or, as is suspected, are our employers just trying to save money because they know fine that the majority of workers will just accept it and think the probable extra hike in insurance premiums isnt worth the small amount of mileage payments?

It would be interesting to hear a lawman's take on this as well. ;) i.e If someone was stopped and said they were going to work outwith normal working hours and their insurance documents stated 'Social. domestic and commuting' only would they be reported for no insurance?

Don't worry I won't be quoting any replies to anyone, it's just for my own curiosity as I personally can't claim as I only live about a mile from work and I think the minimum they accept is a 5 mile journey :rolleyes:

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The best person to answer this question would be the car insurer but I have always used my car for travelling to work and my insurance company added this to my policy under business use. I do not think it costs any extra and it is better to be sure you a covered for all uses rather than argue about what you were doing when something occurred. e.g. a crash on the way to work! Insurance companies do not exactly fall over themselves to pay out money.

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If it's solely to travel to a place of work i.e. your office to work regardless of whether its overtime or not its classed as commuting, so you usually get social/domestic/commuting. If you are driving around in you car for your job within your working hours, i.e. visiting a customer /other sites etc then that's business use.

As for the Police, I would say all they see is if there is no insurance, I have never seen on any of these police programs the police officer picking apart the details on the insurance proposal. However I'm sure our resident lawman could shed some light on this. I think the problem would be if you had an accident the insurance company would then invalidate the claim if they knew it had been used for business use when you hadn't insured yourself for this.

Last year I queried what communting to a single place of work meant as both me and the Mrs use the car to go to work as I work shifts and she works 9-5 mon-friday, they said that was fine as long as we both were just going to one place of work

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I'm pretty sure from an insurers point of view commuting is classed as going to and from a single place of work. Doesn't matter what hours you do? I would get something from your insurance company in writing and show it to your boss. That should shut them up!

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As mentioned, Commuting is the term for travelling to and from.

Business use is ONLY required when you are using your vehicle during work hours, travelling for business purposes. For example, during your daily shift, you have to drive your vehicle to the docks to unload the van's, then you need to drive back to your office point. I suspect that your boss is taking precautions, because if you need to drive your vehicle to and fro during working hours, if you have business cover already, then your fully insured. Otherwise, you wouldnt be, and a claim can be dropped by the insurer for this.

If you do add business, just adding 1000 miles per year will be all you need. I did this in a previous job, and it only added a few quid (were talking making that money back within the first week of mileage claims!) its only if your driving mile after mile on business use that you would be stuffed!

I often just add business mileage on for the sake of it. for the few quid it adds, its best to have it as you will never be caught out!

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I had to add business insurance to my policy. Taking from 700quid to 800quid

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I had pretty good offers, I got business policy for £30, I earned that back in about 2 days of driving...

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Better a £100 than discover that your insurer refuses to pay out if you make a claim! Claims handlers look at your policy very closely if you make a claim and unless you come within the terms and conditions you are your own insurer - in other words, you are left to cover your loss.

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Thought I'd contribute to this as I've nearly been caught out with this myself.

I have had to add 'business use' to my own insurance as my company have included a similar clause in the making of mileage claims, to say you declare that you have it and any claims may be cancelled or even recalled if they find out otherwise!

Another point worth mentioning is that my contract states that although I have a base office I may be required to travel to other locations, and we have another office around 25 miles away which I commute to around once a month.

As commuting is considered 'to and from a single place of work' I was technically driving uninsured the first few times, and had to pay an admin fee in addition to hiking up my payments to add the business use after the policy had started (paying monthly sucks huh!)

The increase was quite significant due to my age, apparently 21 y/o's in XR3is are considered a 'high risk' :P

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and for the small cost, its really not worth the gamble.

I just checked my policy, I took off the business cover from a couple of renewals ago... not too long ago I had to do a couple of trips during work. I didn't realise but I would have not been covered in the event of the worst case scenario!

I don't want to pay out the business cover at the moment, so I wont be driving at all (not even down the road) for the purposes of business.

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Thanks for the replies guys :)

So the general consensus seems to be that seeing as we're only travelling to one place of work regardless of what time of day or night, it's regarded as commuting and not business.

But you also recommend 'upgrading' to include business just to make sure. Better to be safe than sorry.

Spoke to a couple of the lads today and this seems to be what they are going for, one lad even had his upgraded for NO EXTRA COST!!! :o :o :o Needless to say he's chuffed :)

Thanks for all your help again ;)

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I'm civil service and we must not only have business use to claim mileage but also an indemnity clause that no claim will be made against them if accident is on business, that is not the easiest thing to get from some insurers. Hence stuff them won't use my car for them and they have to hire me a car every time I need to go anywhere and they have to pay fuel etc.

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