Are You Properly Insured When Driving For Business?
Saturday, 11. June 2011
I’ve warned about this before but if you are an employer and you have staff who drive their own vehicles on company business you have a responsibility to ensure that the employee is properly insured. Research by Trimble MRM found that more than half of those driving, what are termed, ‘grey fleet’ cars, are not properly insured. This leaves the employer liable in the event of a crash. In the survey 72% of the respondents said they used their own car for business but 57% did not realise that you needed more than just social, domestic and pleasure insurance cover. Whilst the driver could receive a heavy fine and points for causing an accident, the employer could face punishment as well as the cost of repairing any damage caused including damage to the employees car.
It seems that far too many employers believe that by allowing employees to drive their own cars for a mileage allowance that they have removed all their responsibility to ensure that the driver and the car are both legal and roadworthy.
And we aren’t talking about regular use, even if the car is used to occasionally buy some stationary or drop off the post at the post office, this constitutes business use and is therefore the responsibility of the employer to make sure that all health and safety rules as well as legal obligations such as full insurance cover and driving with a valid driving licence are adhered to.
It needn’t cost more than a few pounds per annum if the car is only going to be used no more than say 1,000 business miles each year. So both employers and employees should check, this could save a lot of money and distress.
And if you are an employee don’t forget that the mileage allowance is intended to cover not just fuel but all these other costs including depreciation, servicing, tyres, insurance etc. Have you checked if you’re covered if you use your car for business? By Graham Hill
