FAQs

It can’t!

But…your insurer may be able to. If for example you are paid to use your car to deliver food in the evening or at weekends, but you choose not to disclose this fact to your insurance company, then any claim you submit will be closely scrutinised. The claims handler will ask what the car was being used for at the time of the accident, and will look to corroborate the answer you give with information from other sources.

Honesty is the best policy – tell your insurance company in advance if your circumstances change and you take on additional work which involves using your vehicle as a taxi or to deliver goods. Your premium will go up, but you’ll have the peace of mind that you’re driving legally and you’re properly insured!

Many delivery drivers aren’t aware that they can’t just jump in their car and start using it to deliver pizzas or curries. It’s a mistake that could cost them their job, hundreds of pounds in fines and even their driver’s licence. Standard car insurance does NOT cover you for delivering fast food…even if you have ‘business use’ added to your policy. If it becomes known to the authorities that you are operating without the correct type of insurance for delivering hot food, you will be penalised for driving without valid insurance.

Fortunately though there are a number of specialist insurance providers who can help you navigate this tricky area. To be properly covered and work within the law, you will need to ensure that you have fast food delivery driver insurance. Hot food delivery insurance is a special form of hire and reward insurance. Hire and reward simply means delivering a passenger or somebody’s goods from A to B in exchange for payment.

Using a broker that specialises in hire and reward insurance policies will definitely help to keep the cost of your cover down, whilst at the same time ensuring that you stay legal.

In a nutshell : you may do, but it’s certainly not guaranteed.

I can use my own car insurance policy to illustrate this. I’m the Policyholder, and my partner is the only Named Driver on the policy.

Here’s what my insurance schedule says that I can use the vehicle for :

And here’s what my partner is covered for :

So in this case if my partner borrows my car then they have cover for Social, Domestic, Pleasure and Commuting to a single place of work – but they don’t have cover for any other business visits they may make.

This can be a common cause of uninsured driving – if my partner borrowed my car (say whilst their vehicle was being serviced) then they’d be covered for their commute to and from their normal office but they WOULDN’T be covered if they drove to a training course, or to visit a client, or even to drop a letter off at the Post Office on their way home!

The answer to this one is……”It depends!”

If for example the vehicle is a company car and the company for whom you work are responsible for the insurance, then as long as you and your colleague are both authorised drivers on the company Motor Fleet policy (and you both have the correct licences and permissions to drive the vehicle) then you should be ok to share the driving. You’ll still need to check beforehand though and get confirmation from your admin team – it’s not unusual for Fleet insurers to restrict driving on certain higher powered or more expensive vehicles, say to named drivers only or to drivers over a certain age. If the colleague does not normally drive company cars, then it’s even more important to check before they get behind the wheel. Sometimes in situations like this the Fleet insurer will add the colleague as a temporary authorised driver but depending on the colleague’s experience/driving history they may decide to impose additional terms. This might be an increased excess, or cover reduced to Third Party Only whilst the colleague drives.

If the vehicle is not a company car, there are still a number of things you’ll need to check before the colleague drives :

– if the colleague is likely to need repeated use, is it worth adding the colleague as an Additional Driver on your annual policy? If you decide to do this, make sure you tell the insurer that the colleague requires Business Use.

– if the sharing of the driving is a one-off/unlikely to be regularly repeated, you could direct your colleague towards a temporary insurance policy to cover their use of your vehicle. The good news here is that most short-term insurance providers include Class 1 Business Use in their standard cover – just make sure your colleague checks this before they buy their short-term policy, as sometimes it’s difficult to get a refund if you do realise you’ve made a mistake!

– another possibility is that the colleague has Driving Other Cars (DOC) cover under their own insurance policy. They will need to check this extremely carefully though : as the Car Sharing FAQs section above shows, this cover is not provided universally and when it is provided it usually comes with a lot of strings attached!

If you drive to the station, then “Yes” because that part of your journey counts as Commuting.

If you don’t drive to the station, then on the face of it “No” – but tread warily…

Commuting cover will typically add around 10-15% to the cost of your insurance. If you chose not to buy this cover, then your annual insurance will not cover you :

– if you use your car tyo drive to work in the event of a train strike or other know disruption

– if you drive to a training course or to another office

These scenarios highlight one of the main problems with annual car insurance : its inflexibility. When your annual insurer asks “Do you want to add Commuting cover?” the possible answers are either “Yes” (which means you’ve got it for 365 out of 365 days a year) or “No” (which means you’ve got it for 0 out of 365 days a year). If there was a box that said “No, but I might just need it once or twice a year” then that would be many people’s ideal answer, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist!

However, there is some light at the end of this particular tunnel. In recent years, the short-term insurance market has become more established and these companies have led the way with flexible, innovative products which allow customers to “fill in the gaps” between annual insurance. One such product is Business Use Only Insurance. For a very reasonable premium (typically less than £10 a day) customers who already have Social Domestic and Pleasure cover can add Business Use just on the day(s) they need it. in fact it can even be bought by the hour! This might just help you out of some of the situations outlined above.

This is a very important question, as UK insurance companies tend to use a very narrow definition.

You’ll need to check with your individual insurer to see what definition they use specifically, but typically insurers define commuting as journeys to and from your usual single place of work.

Have a think about scenarios that could fall outside of this definition :

– you’re asked to cover an illness at a nearby branch for a few days so as they’re not short-staffed

– you work between 2 offices (an increasingly common occurrence as companies for example split Operations and Sales and Marketing between different “Centres of Excellence”)

– your company organises a training day at a nearby hotel

– your role is normally office-based, but one of your company’s biggest clients is on your way home so you sometimes drop something off there on your way home

– you take a second job

And so on…

And even though this may just seem like semantics, the implications of getting it wrong can be severe : if the police have cause to stop you – for any reason – and discover you’re not insured for your daily commute, you could receive six penalty points and a fine of up to £5,000.

The basic classes are :

• Social, domestic and pleasure: This covers normal day-to-day driving – such as shopping, visiting friends and going on day trips, but it doesn’t include commuting
• Social and commuting: If you commute you’ll be regularly driving at peak times which carry a greater risk. Even something as simple as driving your car to the train station or dropping someone off at work counts
• Business Class 1: You use your car to drive to places for work – for example, such as switching between sites. It’s not the primary use of the car, but nevertheless, requires a slightly higher level of cover
• Business Class 2: Much the same as Class 1 – but covers you, the policy holder and a named driver
• Business Class 3: For someone who is really racking up the miles – such as a travelling salesperson
• Commercial: This covers cars which are primarily used for business, such as if you’re a driving instructor using your own car to give lessons, or a taxi driver.