Car Insurance for Business use. Be Warned you may not be covered.

MrWrighty

My wife has a private car that is insured for business use class 1. Note though, not all business class 1 policies allow the transport of goods or samples.

Once or twice a week she delivers veg boxes to about 20 addresses. Her current insurer has agreed that as these are pre-arranged deliveries or appointments, she is covered by her insurance i.e she is not doing door to door selling, however if she was to collect payment for these veg boxes whilst on her round, she would null and void her insurance. The excuse being that this is deemed as commercial travelling and the risks are higher. The amount of money involvded is around 20-40 cash and probably 80 in cheques.

I subsequently did a insurance comparison on gocompare.com and selected commercial use, as this, according to their definition, covers door to door selling, I got a number of reasonable quotes, but rang the relevant insurers to clarify this issue regarding the collection of money. None of them where interested in providing cover because she was driving a private car, apparently a van would possibly (although not guaranteed) be covered.

When I spoke to these various insurers, I asked how would, Avon Ladies, Betterware sellers, catalog order deliveries, window cleaners, pizza delivery etc be covered as all of them involve the collection of payment whilst using their private vehicle they said that they could not insure them. A few put me in touch with their commercial insurance business, but they could not help either as my wife is driving a private car not a commercial van.

Eventually I decided to speak to a broker and let them do the ground work in finding a suitable policy. They too had problems, but did eventually find an insurance company that were prepared to cover my wife in a private car doing deliveries and collecting payment, but although the policy is business use class 1, a special note has had to be placed on the policy to state that the car will be carrying goods and she will be collecting payment and this process has cost us about £100 over and above her original policy cost.

I urge anyone in these circumstances to double check with their insurer, that they are insured if they are collecting payment whilst using their private car for business even though you may have business class 1 insurance. Judging by my experience and the experience of my broker, I would be tempted to say you are not insured.

This seems to be a grey area of insurance, as business class 1 use in the eyes of most would at some point involve the collection of payment for goods or services provided whilst going about your business.

Has anyone else had a similar experience.

dacouch

What job description did they have for your wife?

Is she a shop proprietor?

A mobile shop might have been a good description which in conjuction with the correct business use would be ok with a lot of Insurers (Assuming they accept that occupation and use)

MrWrighty

See is an employee working for a small business, part of which is the delivery of veg boxes. She is not a shop proprietor or grocer, but having said that the insurance that we finally got could only find grocer as a suitable description for her job.