Guide
Who can drive on a motor trade policy
Updated
The most expensive misunderstanding in motor trade insurance is not about what is covered but about who was driving. Policies are written tightly around drivers, and the conditions are easy to breach without meaning to.
Named driver versus any driver
Most policies at the smaller end are written for named drivers only. Any-driver terms exist and are priced considerably differently, because the insurer is accepting an unknown population.
If someone who is not named moves a vehicle, even across a forecourt on a public road, the policy may not respond. That is a different situation from an ordinary motor policy and it catches traders who are used to driving other people's cars.
Age and licence conditions
Minimum ages, licence duration and endorsement limits are standard conditions rather than fine print, and they are where declines concentrate. A twenty-two year old employee and a driver with recent points are both common triggers.
Get the conditions in writing and check them against every person who might realistically move a vehicle, including family members and valeters.
The statutory defence is narrow
The Road Traffic Act does provide a defence, and it is worth knowing how tight it is. A person charged with using a vehicle avoids conviction only if the vehicle was not theirs and not held under hire or loan, they used it in the course of employment, and they neither knew nor had reason to believe there was no policy in force.
All three have to be satisfied. It protects an employee who was genuinely misled; it does not protect a business owner who did not check.
What to do before a new person drives
Add them to the policy first, in writing, and keep the confirmation. Brokers will often confirm cover by email in minutes, and that email is the thing that matters if the car is damaged that afternoon.
Then check the vehicle is on the Motor Insurance Database. Between the schedule and the database you can prove both that the driver was covered and that the vehicle was insured, which is the pair of facts anybody will ask for.