What actually counts as "commuting" for car insurance?

NiNeu

I am a Locum GP; Mon+Tue I work in one place, Wed+Thu+Fri in another  BUT some weeks I work in one surgery AM  and another PM I leave my car in the surgery car park from starting my surgery until I leave; no home visits.
Do I need Social Domestic Pleasure and Commuting or need to add Business?

NiNeu

I am a Locum GP; Mon+Tue I work in one place, Wed+Thu+Fri in another  BUT some weeks I work in one surgery AM  and another PM I leave my car in the surgery car park from starting my surgery until I leave; no home visits.
Do I need Social Domestic Pleasure and Commuting or need to add Business?

PS When I work in two different surgeries I go back home or to do NON-work related activities.

dunstonh

NiNeu said:

I am a Locum GP; Mon+Tue I work in one place, Wed+Thu+Fri in another  BUT some weeks I work in one surgery AM  and another PM I leave my car in the surgery car park from starting my surgery until I leave; no home visits.
Do I need Social Domestic Pleasure and Commuting or need to add Business?

PS When I work in two different surgeries I go back home or to do NON-work related activities.

Depends on your insurer.

Some will say your permanent location is your place of work
Some will allow multiple locations as long as it is only one location per day and is the employer's workplace.
Some will insist on business use where it is multiple locations per day.

You need to ask your insurer.

Its also worth noting that some occupations result in the cost of business travel being little or nothing more than the SDP&C.   

user1977

As above, it's probably not going to make any noticeable difference. Have you checked?

I have business use on mine but it's years since I've actually driven even for commuting purposes, never mind any other work-related journey.

Aretnap

Some companies (eg Direct Line) actually include business use as standard if your not in a high risk profession. Otherwise it often costs pennies or even zero to add, so there's often no reason not to add it if there's any possibility that you might need it.

NiNeu

I had the feeling that I might end asking QUOTEMEHAPPY about what they understand by SDP&C and Business. Tried the Fotum first to NOT-reveal myself. Do not understand why they are so strict (apparently) about commuting, different places,etc... if it bears no further charge; are they NOSEY?

DullGreyGuy

NiNeu said:

I had the feeling that I might end asking QUOTEMEHAPPY about what they understand by SDP&C and Business. Tried the Fotum first to NOT-reveal myself. Do not understand why they are so strict (apparently) about commuting, different places,etc... if it bears no further charge; are they NOSEY?

Weird way to look at it.

Insurers want as many data points as they can get on their insureds as it allows them to look for trends and correlations to claims experience, elasticity, propensity etc. This then allows them to firm up their pricing and better predict impacts of changes to pricing. 

How things are priced today doesn't necessary mean it's how they will always be priced. Whilst most insurers at the moment charge next to nothing for Business 1 over Commuting if a divergence in experience starts to emerge then pricing will change. If they don't have the data points then 1) they cannot spot the change and 2) if they do somehow spot it they then cannot bill accurately as they don't know who has what. 

There is always some tension between UW/Actuarial/Pricing who want as much data as possible and Commercial who want the lowest barriers to sale. The more questions you ask the more likely the potential customer is to give up on the process and/or raise Qs on what something means that has an operational overhead to answer. 

daveyjp

As a locum get business use added, far simpler than dancing in the head of a pin with various potential scenarios about your working  day arrangements.

MattMattMattUK

bigpat said:

Well, the insurance industry is truly baffling!!

I've contacted them and worked through all the details and the upshot is that I do need commuting to be added to my policy. So I've gone ahead and done that. That baffling part, to me, is that it's 58p CHEAPER than it was with only social, domestic and pleasure.

Nothing else has changed. Same vehicle, same address, same driver, same excess, but now I can (if I wanted to) drive at rush hour every day and somehow I'm less of a risk than I was before.

Even adding business usage to my insurance made no change, I suspect unless one works in a high risk profession it matters little to insurers that you use the vehicle for work. Most of us who have business usage will just be using it to drive to meetings which is probably no more risk than driving at any other driving we do. 

DullGreyGuy

MattMattMattUK said:

bigpat said:

Well, the insurance industry is truly baffling!!

I've contacted them and worked through all the details and the upshot is that I do need commuting to be added to my policy. So I've gone ahead and done that. That baffling part, to me, is that it's 58p CHEAPER than it was with only social, domestic and pleasure.

Nothing else has changed. Same vehicle, same address, same driver, same excess, but now I can (if I wanted to) drive at rush hour every day and somehow I'm less of a risk than I was before.

Even adding business usage to my insurance made no change, I suspect unless one works in a high risk profession it matters little to insurers that you use the vehicle for work. Most of us who have business usage will just be using it to drive to meetings which is probably no more risk than driving at any other driving we do. 

In absolute terms most accidents happen at rush hour so combine that with business use which includes going to places you are unfamiliar with and you can see why in principle it could result in a higher risk. Insurers don't work on principle though and instead statistics which presumably show it's not materially significant enough to warrant differential pricing compared to commuting or there is some other factor that makes business class users desirable customers and so the risk increase can be overlooked.