Self employed tutor - business car insurance required?

marcy990

I have fully comp car insurance for my Job. I tutor students in their home or at school. Normally I meet them at the venue suggested but recently have been asked to take the students to school as parents cannot. 

I have been asked by my agency to get business insurance and provide documents. 

I’m with the AA and contacted them online. At first the bot agent told me I didn’t need it. So I called to speak to a human, explained my circumstances. She said she would check with her manager but never got back to me. 

I’m really under pressure to do school runs by agency and parent, even though I said I wasn’t happy with this. 

My insurance states that it cannot be used for gain or reward but I’m not a taxi service. Merely being asked to help out but to  get business insurance. 

The aa underwriters told me it would cost an extra 400 for business insurance. 

Everything seems so complex and for the amount of time I’m likely to be with this student, it’s not worth it. 

Your advice is greatly appreciated. I trust the student that I’m with but can’t see a solution to this at the moment. 

Sorry for the long post. 

BarelySentientAI

If you are already driving to multiple locations for work, then you might not be covered by SDPC anyway.

400ixl

That high a cost for business use of just going to multiple locations and not being a salesperson would appear to be very high. Typically you would only need Business Class 1 cover for driving to clients.

Although if you are transporting people that you are only doing so due to a business connection then you likely need a higher level of business cover or potentially (but unlikely) commercial coverage.

You really should just avoid transporting any students (extra payment or not) and then just have class 1 business cover for your own journey to various client sites.

400ixl

BarelySentientAI said:

If you are already driving to multiple locations for work, then you might not be covered by SDPC anyway.

Unlikely, travelling to multiple client sites requires class 1 business insurance.

marcy990

Thank you. I feel more positive about this now. When I renewed my car insurance in jan I had not anticipated the work that I’m doing now. I overlooked the business insurance on top of commuting to one place of work social and domestic. I had not anticipated my work going down this line. 

Would it be an option to cancel my existing policy and take out a new one? It’s a shame as costs would be incurred and it will not be for much longer. 

daveyjp

Just change your current policy to include business use.

BarelySentientAI

400ixl said:

BarelySentientAI said:

If you are already driving to multiple locations for work, then you might not be covered by SDPC anyway.

Unlikely, travelling to multiple client sites requires class 1 business insurance.

So you are agreeing with me?

OP thinks they have valid insurance at the moment (which I infer is SDPC) but they are travelling to more than one place of work (at least 1 home and at least 1 school).

I think this might not be covered on the existing policy.

dunstonh

My insurance states that it cannot be used for gain or reward but I’m not a taxi service. Merely being asked to help out but to  get business insurance. 

Hopefully, DDG will see this post in due course and give his reply.

However, I suspect you are going to fall foul of gain or reward as you are acting as a taxi service.  i.e. you are being paid to tutor and to taxi the children.  its not a case of helping but but actually being paid to do it.

TELLIT01

Until and unless you get clarification in writing from your car insurer I would not ferry students to/from school.  Being pressured to do so won't cut it as an excuse if you are stopped and your insurance is deemed not to cover you.

marcy990

TELLIT01 said:

Until and unless you get clarification in writing from your car insurer I would not ferry students to/from school.  Being pressured to do so won't cut it as an excuse if you are stopped and your insurance is deemed not to cover you.

Agreed.  I specifically told them that I did not want to transport the students because of the nature of my assignments.  However when trust is established its ok but it is not ok to be made to transport them with out the specific insurance.  Thank you all for clarifying and I am going to be contacted today by the agency about it.  
in the meantime, I am going to contact the AA again and ask if I can upgrade my insurance to class 1. I know it will be about 400 gbp or that is what they quoted me before through an underwriter but I can explore the option now. 

DullGreyGuy

marcy990 said:

I have fully comp car insurance for my Job. I tutor students in their home or at school. Normally I meet them at the venue suggested but recently have been asked to take the students to school as parents cannot. 

I have been asked by my agency to get business insurance and provide documents. 

I’m with the AA and contacted them online. At first the bot agent told me I didn’t need it. So I called to speak to a human, explained my circumstances. She said she would check with her manager but never got back to me. 

I’m really under pressure to do school runs by agency and parent, even though I said I wasn’t happy with this. 

My insurance states that it cannot be used for gain or reward but I’m not a taxi service. Merely being asked to help out but to  get business insurance. 

The aa underwriters told me it would cost an extra 400 for business insurance. 

Everything seems so complex and for the amount of time I’m likely to be with this student, it’s not worth it. 

Your advice is greatly appreciated. I trust the student that I’m with but can’t see a solution to this at the moment. 

Sorry for the long post. 

Commuting is typically defined as Direct Line do:

Commuting is driving to and from a permanent place of work, for either part of the journey, or for the whole journey. This includes driving to and from a car park, railway station or bus stop as part of your journey to and from a permanent place of work.

So you are already driving to students homes and schools and so already need business insurance as you are not commuting per the definition. 

Now onto the student its proposed that you transport... there is certainly an argument that as it is linked to your business that you are being rewarded for it, though clarity if they are providing any additional renumeration for the lift would be good (eg an extra 15 minutes or money towards fuel etc). If it is considered you are being rewarded for transporting the person then you move out of Business insurance and require Hire & Reward which is a totally separate policy (it will cover SDP&C too) and is what couriers and taxis have to hold. 

If you were to be involved in a fault accident and it be deemed you were indeed in a reward situation but only held SDP&C or Business insurance then in short your insurers would be obliged only to deal with the third party and would be legally entitled to reclaim their outlay from you. In my claims days we had some customers repaying six figure values with charges on their homes etc too. Note that laws on bankruptcy exclude injury settlements so no way to write it off by that route. 

The price from the AA is very high for Business on someone already with SDP&C, normally its 1-2% tops but then an admin fee if added mid term. The price for Hire & Reward will be much higher. For a single student it feels a high risk to run or too expensive to take the prudent route unless you want it to become part of your proposition.