When you phone up Call Wiser for a car insurance quote, you will be asked by one of our staff members what you will be using your vehicle for. Known as ‘Classes of Use,’ the insurance companies we work with need to know why you use your vehicle for whether it’s personal, social or business use.
By understanding the usage of your vehicle, it will determine the premium that you pay and make sure that you will be insured for any related claims to do with accidents, fire, flood or theft.
Applicants are required to be honest about what they are using their vehicles for. By not stating the correct usage of your vehicle, such as saying you don’t drive to work when you do, you may not be able to claim in the event of an accident on the way to work. Also, some individuals do not give the correct use of their vehicle because it might be cheaper to do so but this may lead to prosecution by the police for failing to comply with the Road Traffic Act.
To make things clearer, we give a brief explanation below of the different classes of use for car insurance.
Social, domestic and pleasure (SDP)
This is the most common use for insurance policies and covers you vehicle for the following activities:
- Driving to the shops
- Visiting family or friends
- Holidays
- The school run
This usage is non-work related and is very low risk for insurance companies.
Commuting (SDP+C)
In addition to the social, domestic and pleasure uses, you can add ‘commuting’ to your policy. This provides insurance to those that drive socially but also use their car to commute to work. The commuting cover includes parking at the station to take the train to work and also if you drop someone off at work everyday.
You can reduce commuting cover from your policy at any time if you are retired, no longer drive or use alternate means of transport such as walking or taking the bus.
Business Use
Using your vehicle for business use falls under three different classes to accommodate for company cars, named drivers and delivering light goods.
Business Class 1/Class A
This Class allows the policyholder and their partner or spouse to use their car to travel to multiple work locations and also for social and domestic use. The Class would be appropriate for those that need to drive to more than one work location including on-call doctors, care workers and tutors.
The main driver and their partner or spouse are the only ones that can use the vehicle for business purposes. Any other named drivers must be mentioned separately on the policy. Class 1 does not provide cover for any commercial use relating to delivering goods or selling products door-to-door. So if you do small deliveries using your car for things like flowers, cakes or presents, you will not be able to claim for these if they are damaged during transportation.
Business Class 2/ Class B1
This Class is a way of extending Class 1 to include named drivers on the policy. Accordingly, the main policyholder can name other drivers to use the car for business purposes.
This is ideal for company car insurance where a number of staff may require access to a vehicle to make regular trips to the post office or bank or pick up other people on the way to work.
However, the same restrictions apply as they do for Class 1 meaning that delivering or selling goods through this level of insurance will not cover any products that are damaged on the road.
Business Class 3/ Class B2
This is the broadest level of cover you can receive for business use. In addition to adding named drivers to the policy, the car insurance can be used for ‘commercial travelling’ allowing the drivers to go to an unlimited number of locations.
This cover is best suited for high mileage drivers that spend a lot of time on the road going to different locations everyday including estate agents, salesman, consultants and plumbers.
Policyholders can also transport light freight so it’s perfect for those making small deliveries like meals, flowers and gifts.
