Does your insurance actually cover driving for work?

Most private policies are written as social, domestic and pleasure, often with commuting added. Neither of those covers driving to a client, a site, or a second office as part of your job.

If you are claiming mileage for business journeys, it is worth checking that the policy covering those journeys knows about them.

The classes, roughly

• SD&P — personal use only. Not commuting, not work.
• SD&P + commuting — adds travel between home and one permanent place of work.
• Class 1 business use — adds driving in connection with your work, for you and usually a named spouse.
• Class 2 — as class 1, but with additional named drivers doing the same.
• Class 3 / commercial travelling — for people whose job is substantially driving: sales rounds, deliveries, mobile trades.

The gap that catches people is between commuting and class 1. Driving to your office is commuting. Driving from your office to a customer is business use, and it is a different class.

Why it matters more than the premium

Class 1 usually costs very little to add — often a few pounds a year, sometimes nothing. Driving without it does not usually mean a slightly reduced payout. It can mean the claim is declined and, because using a vehicle without valid insurance is an offence in itself, consequences beyond the accident.

This is a rare case where the cheap answer and the safe answer are the same answer.

The self-employed wrinkle

If you are self-employed, the line between "my car" and "the business's car" is often blurred in practice and completely sharp in an insurer's wording. Carrying tools, stock or goods for sale usually needs commercial cover rather than class 1, whatever the mileage looks like.

Carrying a passenger for payment — even informally, even a colleague chipping in for petrol — can also fall outside a private policy. Splitting fuel costs between friends on a shared trip is generally fine; charging a fare is not.

The connection to your mileage log

If you are recording business journeys carefully enough to claim them, you already have the evidence of how much business driving you actually do. That is the number your insurer is asking about when they ask how you use the car — and a real figure is a better answer than a shrug.

It also tends to be smaller than people fear. Many drivers who assume they need commercial cover find that class 1 is the honest description once they see the split between business and personal in front of them.

Sources

• HMRC — Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work
• HMRC — Expenses if you're self-employed: vehicles

General information, not insurance or tax advice. Cover classes vary by insurer: check your own certificate and schedule.