Commuting to a second place of work

stattman

Hi. 

I work out of a local office however I have been asked to visit the Head Office every 2 or 3 months for a Team meeting. Not wholly unreasonable and a good opportunity to meet up with others face-to-face.

I spoke with LV my car insurers and confirmed that the "Commuting" aspect only covers a single place of work. As a result I have now included Business Insurance which to be fair is about £20 extra, so not a great deal more.  But it got me thinking how often this actually happens and should insurers recognise people may have a local and head office?  

Also are there any insurers which would have a broader definition of "commuting" so as not to trigger the threshold for business insurance? 

Flugelhorn

Happens a lot - used to be based in one hospital but had to travel to another to do a clinic - always have to have cover for business use 

Aretnap

Presumably you can claim travelling expenses for your trips to head office? Assuming it's a longer drive than your normal commute? 

The rule of thumb is that if you can claim mileage for a journey then it's business use, not commuting. And one of the things that the 40p/mile is supposed to take account of is the extra insurance cost of business use.

(Whether it does take account of the full costs of running a car these days is open to debate - it hasn't increased for years and years after all - but in theory that's what it's supposed to cover)

kempiejon

At least one place I have worked would only allow claims for business mileage on sight of business insurance, I think tax/MOT too, inspected annually. My extra miles to conferences and occasionally visiting off site more than covered the small additional premium.

mebu60

Aretnap said:

 

The rule of thumb is that if you can claim mileage for a journey then it's business use, not commuting. And one of the things that the 40p/mile is supposed to take account of is the extra insurance cost of business use.

45p per mile since 2012, for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, 25p >10k. 

stattman

Thanks for the replies. Really helpful.

theoretica

I think Direct Line includes business use as standard.  It just changes slightly your search when choosing an insurer.

DullGreyGuy

theoretica said:

I think Direct Line includes business use as standard.  It just changes slightly your search when choosing an insurer.

They do SD&P or Business, so have dropped SDP&C.

For most insurers if you add Business Class 1 at the point of purchase its negligible difference to SDP&C. If you add it mid term then you can find its more expensive but thats more because you are making a mid term adjustment which may be rated on different tables and/or attract an admin fee. 

It is worth noting that Class 1 only applies to the policyholder and not named drivers who'll effectively continue to have SDP&C. Class 2 extends the business use to either spouse or all named drivers however many insurers require "the business" to be the same as the policyholder so if husband/wife share a car but work for different companies you need to be careful on your choice of insurer if both of you use the "cruiser" for long distance driving for meetings