Motor insurance - the cost of commuting use post-pandemic

Stokka

I currently have commuting use on my car insurance policy and assume this impacts my premium (although it isn't visible in my premium breakdown). Pre-pandemic this made sense, I commuted approx. 100 miles a day, 5 days a week. Post-pandemic, I now work from home 4 or 5 days a week so my commute has been reduced by at least 80%. So for scale my commuting mileage has reduced from  about 2,200 miles per month, to about 440 or less. 

I have adjusted my mileage to reflect this but with hybrid working, this must be common but when getting motor insurance quotes, I haven't noticed any change in questions about the extent of commuting. Are insurers reflecting this change in use?

daveyjp

I've never been asked to estimate or extent of commuting use, only an estimate of business mileage.

DullGreyGuy

Insurers dont ask what proportion of your mileage is commuting. Some will ask what percent is Business if you upgrade from SDP&C to Business Class 1 but many dont ask that either. 

Premiums will reflect the overall 24k reduction in mileage you are now declaring there won't be any consideration for what sort of mileage it was

Stokka

This is what I'm trying to understand. If it's reflected in my mileage why do insurers need to know whether to include commuting (not business use)? Why not just include it, unless it impacts the premium (which it appears to, independent of mileage)?

I've never been asked the extent of my commute but pre-pandemic, if people commuted, it was generally fairly standard (5 days a week). Post-pandemic, with levels of hybrid working much more common and so different, perhaps definitions of commuting need to be refined?

BarelySentientAI

So you're suggesting that because people in your view commute less, the concept of SDP vs SDPC should just be removed?

Zbubuman

Insurers would simply rate the risk on the amount of mileage you do per year ( if you are more on the road, more chance of an accident), and whether you commute or just social driving ( commuting carries a slightly higher risk than just popping to the local supermarket over the weekend). they don't care if there is a split. 

Also be wary of the mileage ( depends on insurer's criteria) but anyone driving under 2,000 or 3,000 miles is also seen as a higher risk ( seen as being less experienced than someone who does more mileage - you don't drive enough). 

DullGreyGuy

Stokka said:

This is what I'm trying to understand. If it's reflected in my mileage why do insurers need to know whether to include commuting (not business use)? Why not just include it, unless it impacts the premium (which it appears to, independent of mileage)?

I've never been asked the extent of my commute but pre-pandemic, if people commuted, it was generally fairly standard (5 days a week). Post-pandemic, with levels of hybrid working much more common and so different, perhaps definitions of commuting need to be refined?

Because SD&P is cheaper than SDP&C assuming all other variables are equal. 

Its likely no one has enough data to analyse what different commuting patterns do to the claims experience and if you wanted to introduce it you'd need to convince Confused.com etc to all change their websites and APIs to consider the new questions. Thats doable if you are an insurance giant, you'll be told no if you are a small tech innovator who thinks they've got a new idea. 

They may be able to infer some aspects from questions... where is the car kept day/night... if its Home in the day and Work CarPark in the Night you're probably doing night time commuting but won't know if its 2 miles or 100 miles. If it's all A roads or single track country lanes. 

There is a point where extra data just causes blindness and the variability of life more than outweighs the differences between someone doing 50 miles a day and someone else doing 65 miles. 

TELLIT01

When my wife started to use her car to commute I called the insurer and there was no additional charge.  That does raise the question of, if there is no additional charge why don't they just include it by default?

BarelySentientAI

TELLIT01 said:

When my wife started to use her car to commute I called the insurer and there was no additional charge.  That does raise the question of, if there is no additional charge why don't they just include it by default?

Because that might not be true for every policyholder.

DullGreyGuy

TELLIT01 said:

When my wife started to use her car to commute I called the insurer and there was no additional charge.  That does raise the question of, if there is no additional charge why don't they just include it by default?

1) Not necessarily true for every customer

2) People are used to be asked and so if you gave everyone SDP&C or even Business as standard you then have to field loads of calls when people say they want to reduce it to SD&P because they get the bus to work etc. 


For one client we removed the "where is your car kept at night" question because our analysis showed it made little difference and its one of the questions people lie on often. The CCO at the time was of the mind that every question asked lost business so it was removed but the project was done on the cheap so was removed from the website, left in the call centre screens but made non-mandatory but if a value was held (ie its a renewing policy) it would still be printed on letters. 

Our contact centre saving was only just about made because customers still called to say they've got a second car now so their old car is now on the road rather than the driveway; made little difference if they were customers which had an answer printed on docs or not. Clearly just used to it being a question. 

Mustbeananswer??

Is there not a case for a 5 Star Insurance expensive policy where everything is covered,10 YEARS AGO ,,,,Comprehensive covered everything(did what it said on the tin).Who can predict how many miles they are going to do next year ...and at what point do you void the insurance if there is a claim and you have under estimated.Everything is far too complicated nowadays.ALSO people change occuations more regularly and retire or de retire a lot more.