Business Use Definition

[ukaskew]

My insurer seems a little bit confused by this...

I have 3 'normal' places of work in my job as we are a multi-site business, however I only ever commute to and from one of them in a day, i.e. we never travel between sites during a work day.

For whatever reason this seems to be a weird grey area, my insurer (Aviva) has this to say, and yes, I've spoken to them on the phone, and no, they couldn't really help.

If you drive to and from the same place of work every day, you will need to select Social Domestic & Pleasure including Commuting


If you travel to different places of work in the same day, you will need to select Business Use

I potentially don't fit either of those, but I'm closer to the first than the second depending on how you define 'same place of work'.

Any thoughts, or anyone in a similar situation with regards to commuting to different sites? I'm going to speak to them again soon, but after searching online I can't find anything that backs me up with a bit of knowledge. It may seem like a fairly minor thing, but it's causing quite a few issues amongst a few colleagues so I'm trying to get to the bottom of it.

 

[bloke]

you don't need business use.

 

[Neil@greenlight]

You would need class 1 business use to travel between different locations.

Example of commuting: You work at Tesco Supermarket and drive to the same location everyday (social domestic and pleasure including commuting to one permenant place of work)
Example of Class 1 Business use: You work as an area manager for barclays bank. You are based at one branch but have to visit different branchs a couple of times a week.

To be honest its unlikely to change your insurance price much (if at all) to add class 1 business use. Plus if you claim the fuel back for work your employer will normally ask to see an insurance certificate showing business use.

Best Regards
Neil
Greenlight

 

[LiamR172]

Its commuting to and from your place of work... your not using your car for actual work. Imo anyways.

If you were to go to your base, then have to travel to/from the other places then id see that as business use. But for driving to work, then driving home after work i would call commuting.

 

[ilovewilly]

If you had a full time job in the day for one company, and a part time job for another at the weekend what would that be classed as?

 

[Advikaz]

I've never got this. People use their cars for everything for the most part.

Asking what you use it for seems a bit silly IMO (it's a car, it gets driven to places). I don't know many people that solely use a car for social. Nor just to get to work.

 

[LiamR172]

When i took my policy out the lady asked me about my milage, 3k a year limit.. if i wanted SDP or SDPC. I saod SDP, she then asked me how much of the 3k miles id be using for work >.>

If your driving 10k miles a year, why does it matter if your using it to go to work, or go to a shop. What is the actual difference? I dont understand half the questions insurers ask. Seems mental that stuff like that makes a difference to the price

 

[Neil@greenlight]

I've never got this. People use their cars for everything for the most part.

Asking what you use it for seems a bit silly IMO (it's a car, it gets driven to places). I don't know many people that solely use a car for social. Nor just to get to work.

We find that pleasure use only policies actually have less claims. I dont work in the statistical analysis side of insurance.....but my personal take on this is that if you use the car purely for pleasure you are going to take it out for the fun of driving or to the shops etc. If you have to use it for work everyday you will be commuting in rush hour/in all weather/when you dont feel like driving but have no choise to get to work.....so im guessing thats why pleasure cars have less claims. Because we have less claims on Pleasure only vehicles it often means the prices are slightly cheaper.

We deal with 9 difference underwriters and all of them have 3 main useage claifications are:

Social Domestic and Pleasure use only: You dont use your car for travel to work at all.
Example of commuting: You work at Tesco Supermarket and drive to the same location everyday (social domestic and pleasure including commuting to one permenant place of work) **The operative word being permenant place, if you use the car for travel to varios locations throughout the policy then you would need the below*
Example of Class 1 Business use: You work as an area manager for barclays bank. You are based at one branch but have to visit different branchs a couple of times a week.

There are higher catagories of business use like Commercial Travelling for door to door sales and Courier use for delivery drivers but that is stuff that CS members wouldnt generally ever need.

In the big scheme of things the difference between a pleasure use only policy and one with class 1 business use on is likely to only be a few ££'s

Insurance is all driven by statistics and companies will only ask questions that are relevant to their rating.

Best Regards
Neil
Greenlight

 

[Advikaz]

Thanks for the explanation Neil.

 

[Neil@greenlight]

Thanks for the explanation Neil.

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