Aviva say normal commuting to work is 'business'

redback

My wife works for the NHS and has to visit several places in the course of a normal working day (i.e. morning sessions may be in one school, afternoon sessions in another).

Aviva have said they don't recognise this as normal commuting and have asked for an additional premium for cover for business use. Does this seem to be a correct interpretation ? Can anyone recommend an insurer that *does* recognise what must be a standard working situation for many people ?

dacouch

Driving to various places of work is regarded by most Insurers as a low form of business use.

I would have thought the charge Aviva are making is circa 10% of the premium a year for what they call "Class A Use".

iamana1ias

redback wrote: »

My wife works for the NHS and has to visit several places in the course of a normal working day (i.e. morning sessions may be in one school, afternoon sessions in another).

Aviva have said they don't recognise this as normal commuting and have asked for an additional premium for cover for business use. Does this seem to be a correct interpretation ? Can anyone recommend an insurer that *does* recognise what must be a standard working situation for many people ?

Aviva are right. The standard term for commuting in insurance (and taxation) is to one fixed place of business. Anything else requires business cover (because the school to school travel isn't commuting as it didn't start or finish at home).

Why not just take the business cover?

HappyMJ

If she claims a mileage allowance from her employer/tax office then yes it is fair.. and few insurers will recognize it as commuting. The only "standard working situation" is commuting from home to "one" place of employment. Maybe the risk is lower...I don't know....

edit: way too slow...as they say above...

redback

Ok. Thanks for that. Not the answers I was expecting, but at least it's clearer now. We obviously had to take the cover, and it is actually a very small amount. It was just a bit of a surprise that we have effectively been driving without full cover for the last 30+ years (and I'm sure we're not unique). Ah well.

dacouch

Unfortunately call centre staff are not very well trained, a proper broker would / should realise a midwife needs class one / A business use due to their job and point it out to you

fred7777

In my experience the trick is to shop around & work out exactly how much mileage you are doing. Business policies are usually more expensive because they assume high mileage.
I changed jobs last summer and my new employer expects me to use my car for occasional visits to suppliers. I took a good look at the mileage I do (around 10000 miles last year) and got a policy with Bell which covers 9000miles social domestic & pleasure use & 3000miles business use. This cost less than last years 15000mile social domestic & pleasure only policy with Elephant.

NineThreeNine

dacouch wrote: »

Unfortunately call centre staff are not very well trained, a proper broker would / should realise a midwife needs class one / A business use due to their job and point it out to you

Yep. Some schemes force business use on the policy if the driver's occupation requires it. Unfortunately, these will probably be more and the call centre staff will choose the cheapest rates...

I changed jobs last summer and my new employer expects me to use my car for occasional visits to suppliers. I took a good look at the mileage I do (around 10000 miles last year) and got a policy with Bell which covers 9000miles social domestic & pleasure use & 3000miles business use. This cost less than last years 15000mile social domestic & pleasure only policy with Elephant.

You might want to check this, as it depends on the software used and your policy wording. You may have asked for 9k miles and 3k business; some insurers see this as 9k miles of which 3k are business. Others will see this as 12k as you do. The system I worked on used the former.

Even the 'business analysts' and management at many brokers get this wrong...

Quentin

Adding business use isn't expensive with many policies (as the OP has already found out!)

paulofessex

In fact l have never had to pay extra for business cover. I am sure of this as l have always waited until l got the quote and then said "oh l need business cover" and the price/s have never changed. My insurance is via 'Key Connect'