Dilemma: Asked to use car for business purposes

Ezmondino

Hi!

One of my friends was asked to make a delivery for their workplace to a customer using their personal car. The personal car is insured for the usual social, domestic, pleasure and commuting to a place of work and back.

I was thinking about this last night.
Putting aside the cheekyness of the company asking them to do this, my question is, if they had done it, would it have invalidated their insurance?

I feel it might have done as they would have been using their car to deliver products to a customer, almost acting as a courier, so using the car for business. I suppose it could be a bit of a grey area.

Thanks for any opinions.

topgearfan08

Yes it would have been invalidated in the event of an accident and they found out....

Though ive had to do this once or twice and if anything had happened I would have said I was on my way shopping...

Its not worth insuring for business purposes always (depending how much it is extra for you, for me it was over £150+) for use once or twice, and the company would only pay you 40p per mile which would leave me out of pocket...

But still it is a cheek, but the friend is legally within their rights to refuse to do it...

heretolearn_2

It depends what sort of business use it is whether you get charged for it or not on your insurance. I added business use to mine once because of my job, and because it wasn't heavy deliveries or anything, I wasn't charged any extra.

DaveF327

This reminds me of a story I read long ago (may have been on this forum) where an unemployed man carried a lawn mower in his car to do a favour for an old lady who offered him a one-off payment in return. Stopped by the police, he was too honest and told them the whole reason for his journey, so they prosecuted him for driving without insurance as his policy didn't cover business use.

Moral of the story: Don't say anything which may incriminate you. "No comment" saves you from a lot of crap in the future.

Haarlem

Employers have a duty of care for anyone who drives on company business for both company vehicles and those using their own car. See:_

http://www.rhg.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=120&articleType=ArticleView&articleId=14&language=en-GB

My employer has just gone through the excercise with all drivers.

EycplUK

Makes you wonder how many of the "Take-Away" delivery drivers using thier own cars are aware of this !
Car driver in home town got pulled over by local police while doing a delivery of Pizza , was insured but not for delivery , 3 points and £100 fine !
AND he got a £15 Victims surcharge as well ! what victim ??

PasturesNew

EycplUK wrote: »

AND he got a £15 Victims surcharge as well ! what victim ??

That's a payment that's made to victims of crimes.... it all goes in the pot for some compensation for victims of other crimes.

hyltonlad

i am a pizza delivery driver when i first started doing the job i was told i needed buisiness insurance yes you need to have it when got the extra cover i phoned my insurer they said they dont cover this sort of thing one week later i got some quotes that were out this world.so i phoned my insurance company back i said i just want the extra cover to have the food in the car rather than have food and cash covered if i was robbed yes it happens .they said tes it was £17 a year.
hyltonlad

dacouch

hyltonlad wrote: »

i am a pizza delivery driver when i first started doing the job i was told i needed buisiness insurance yes you need to have it when got the extra cover i phoned my insurer they said they dont cover this sort of thing one week later i got some quotes that were out this world.so i phoned my insurance company back i said i just want the extra cover to have the food in the car rather than have food and cash covered if i was robbed yes it happens .they said tes it was £17 a year.
hyltonlad

Bing covered for theft of food or money makes no difference to the class of businss use the Insurers cover you for (A policy will not cover the actual theft of these items anyway).

I think you will find the person you spoke to has made a mistake and covered you for Class One Business Use. This is not the correct businesss use for fast food delivery which is regarded as very high risk by insurers. You could find you have problems when / if the police ever stop you whilst doing pizza deliveries.

If you have an accident whilst driving for business and the police attend they will look into certain things eg whether you have the correct Insurance and has H&S laws been abided by

http://www.capitallaw.co.uk/site/publicationsandnews/employmentlib/driving_on_company_business.html

hyltonlad

ive get stoped aleast 2 a year and a few times given a producer and all is ok the main reason drivers are stopped in the first place is when its late at night either because of drink drivers or car thieves but every few mounths they do clamp down on delivery drivers.when i first got my extra insureance i let a mate of mine check he is a traffic policeman and he said thats fine. our boss hands all our reg and insurance details in at our local police station i can asure you this is all you need
hyltonlad

skiddlydiddly

I often wonder how postmen who keep their sacks of mail in the back go on.I can't see Royal Mail offering to pay the increase in premium.