Working Hours? Do you ?

[monty]

Likely named driver on Unit's business........ but if not officially working i.e being paid ...likely to be invalid..... legal knowledge needed on this one !

[Dinosaur]

At least you can have a fag while you're being arrested?

[kevin wooldridge]

Likely to be legally classed as NOT insured....as driving to site from office without being paid is also likely to be classed NOT insured....one day the s**t will hit the fan when a nasty accident occurs.... this poor practice should be outlawed immediately......there is a LOT of it happening !

It doesn't even have to be very nasty....what happens if you get rear-ended in the Tescos car-park or vice versa and the driver gets personally landed with a hefty bill from the hire company after the insurance company refuses to pay out AND the possibility of criminal action for driving whilst uninsured...

[Unitof1]

http://www.nationwide.com/company-car-insurance.jsp

thing is if you are driving, you should see the insurace document. If the company has said that you can drive the car- van out side of company hours or locations I dont see the problem.

[monty]

Kevin's scenario says it all and in all probability will happen sooner or later ! The grey area in legal terms being even if given permission to drive outside company hours, are you insured if not actually working i.e. being paid !?

[RedEarth]

What Unit says is surely true, if you are insured to drive a hired car it matters not whether you are 'at work' at the time of accident. After all, if you hired it for your own personal use while outside of work it wouldn't make any difference.

The issue that would remain is whether you were covered by any employer's liability-type insurance for personal injury caused by, for example, an accident in a Tesco car park while doing your shopping on a stay-away job. Although would you need it, in the same way you wouldn't be covered if you had an accident in your own time, since work surely didn't cause it? Now, if you were in a vehicle owned by the company you were working for you really would need to check the insurance documents.

[Wax]

I wonder how many of us who use our own vehicles to get to and from site and carry kit and staff between sites have the appropriate business use insurance on our personal policies? I do and it's bl..... expensive but I would not use my personal vehicle for work without it. If you are driving or using your own vehicle as part of your job make sure you see and understand the policy.

[monty]

I wonder how many of us who use our own vehicles to get to and from site and carry kit and staff between sites have the appropriate business use insurance on our personal policies?

Not many.........

[kevin wooldridge]

One further scenario to add to the confusion....if you are using a hire car on company business then it is a tool supplied through your employment...however if you are allowed to use it outside of work hours surely then it is a benefit and ought therefore to be taxable....does HMRC have any advice on this? Of course they do.....http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cars/employee-guidance.htm

If you are provided with a car by the company and use it for getting to and from the job (commuting) in your own time, then you are (according to HMRC) liable for tax, as that is considered as a benefit of the job. Likewise using a 'company' car for private use....This seems to me to be a reasonable case for suggesting to your employer that travelling time in company supplied vehicles has to be part of the working day...

[RedEarth]

Going back to the topic a little, people could of course use this situation as a means to refuse to do excessive travelling outside of work hours by simply saying 'I'm not sure whether I am breaking the law or not because of the vehicle insurance'! Not sure how that would go down.

Sorry, just realised that Kevin had basically said exactly that!