Car insurance for occasional work use- am I covered

mikezoe65

We are married have two cars and are named drivers on each other's policy for social, domestic and pleasure.
My partner apart from commuting, occasionally uses either car to drive to courses run by separate training companies but paid for by his company. Is he covered by his policy?
His work is often based at various locations around the UK and he occasionally takes his car rather than a company van. Is he covered for this driving? (Of course he might be covered on his company's policy)

Quentin

mikezoe65 wrote: »

We are married have two cars and are named drivers on each other's policy for social, domestic and pleasure.....

He (and you) are only covered for social domestic and pleasure!


That means he is not insured when commuting or driving anywhere on company business.

mikezoe65

I may have got the categories wrong because most policies allow commuting to your workplace.

fb1969

Social, domestic and pleasure is one "level" of insurance.

Social, domestic and pleasure and commuting is another "level" altogether.

From experience, "commuting" usually means travelling to and from a fixed place of employment. By that definition, your partner would not be covered even if "commuting" was included.

Quentin

mikezoe65 wrote: »

I may have got the categories wrong because most policies allow commuting to your workplace.

You need to check your certificate wording as most policies do not allow commuting unless it is stated (SDP + Commuting)!


No policies will cover you for commuting or business travel unless it specifically says so on the certificate! (Your partner needs business cover for the journeys you are enquiring about)

Aretnap

You need to check the exact terms of the policy, but generally there are three levels of cover:

(1) Social, domestic and pleasure (does not include ANY work related use)
(2) Social, domestic and pleasure + commuting (generally covers commuting to a single, regular place of work only)
(3) Business use (includes travelling to multiple places of work)

Your partner needs (3) if he's travelling to multiple places in connection with his job. By not having it he's at risk of points and a fine for driving without insurance - not to mention the possibility of being left with the bill if he has an accident while driving to one of his courses.

In my own experience adding business use if not generally expensive. My current insurer (Direct Line) actually include it as standard - the last time I had to add it to a policy it raised the premium by less than £3 as I remember.

Quentin

Aretnap wrote: »

You need to check the exact terms of the policy, ......

As posted, the correct place to check what cover you have (and the only document the police will be interested in) is your certificate.

Look for the wording in the "limitations as to use" section of the certificate

agrinnall

His company's policy is very unlikely to cover use of his personal car.

forgotmyname

Since stopping work my policy now excludes commuting.

mattk_180

agrinnall wrote: »

His company's policy is very unlikely to cover use of his personal car.

Depends on the company. Most large company fleet policies give the option for Occasional Business Use on their employees personal car and most of those companies would take that option, albeit they might restrict it to say, 10 cars, to cover their directors and managers etc.


In this scenario, sounds like the OP isn't covered and needs to ring their insurer and/or check with the employer ASAP!