Hello,

Can anyone advise me please, I have been asked to attend a training course for work along with 2 other colleagues, which is out of our local area. One of my colleagues is a senior manager and has offered to drive us all to location in their own car, which is all fully road legal well maintained etc.

The question I have is this, should an accident occur are we covered as the vehicle is being used for work purposes, or should I try and convince them a taxi or train or car hire would be the better way to go ??? We don't have a company car.

Can anyone advise me of legalities or relevant regulations that I could use to approach the manager in question???

Thank you in advance.

Sam I would get manager to ensure he is covered for business use with insurance and not just social, domestic and pleasure

Hi DP, In answer to your question - No it is not a company car.

Clive / Kdrum, I have already has this conversation with the manager and the response was " well if we get stopped for any reason we can say we are visiting friends or something" ( I am not happy about this)

I did think that it would be covered by a separate insurance, So thanks to everyone for backing up my original thoughts.

Sam, if he has not got adequate business use insurance, take the public transport option.

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the advice, it does look as though public transport is the way to go !!

From my experience if the vehicle is not normally used for business use and this is a rare occurrence then it will be covered by the normal policy.If the car is used for business on a regular basis the he should already be insured.
It would best for him to call his insurance company to confirm this . It may be just my insurance company but when i did ask they didnt charge me for business use .
regards Dave

Is traveling to a one off training course classed as work related travel? Any insurance experts out there please.

Why not ask the driver to check with his insurance company.

Not an insurance expert, but try this. There are two topics here. The first is motor insurance, and the second is employer’s liability insurance.

On the first (motor insurance) it is not your responsibility to ensure the vehicle you are travelling in is insured that responsibility is the driver’s. if are knowingly travelling in a vehicle that is not insured for a particular journey, because the journey is business not social domestic or pleasure, there is an outside chance of being prosecuted for adding and abetting (or whatever it is called these days). That is a VERY outside chance and is not reasonably foreseeable even in the event of an accident. If you were injured in an accident the motor insurance would not officially cover you but the insurer may payout due to the circumstances. If they do not, there is some cover provided by a non-insured drivers fund that insurance companies pay into.

On the second point (employers liability), as our employer has instructed you to attend the training you are at work, and presumably in normal working hours. Your employer’s insurance will continue to cover you for any incidents that occur. The actions of the driver are covered by vicarious liability. This is not normally used by employees as there is a more specific insurance normally in place, motor insurance, but this cover will extend to all work activities, and this is a work activity. This may even provide a greater level of cover.

The first place to look for detailed information is your companies driver policy, which should detail the requirement for the use of vehicles whilst on company business.
For occasional users such as myself, the company i work for provide a hire vehicle for anyone who requires occasional travel whilst on company business, which works fine, as the insurance onus then lies with the companies motor insrance policy and not the owner/ driver.