Business car insurance covers you if you use your car for work-related purposes. This includes travelling to different offices or across the country for work.

The other, more common types of insurance are social only or social and commuting:

• Social only means you’re covered for everyday driving like going to the shops or visiting friends.
• Social and commuting includes cover for everyday driving but also covers your commute to your permanent place of work.

If you use your car for work and that involves more than just commuting to a single place like an office or factory, you’ll need business car insurance.

More detailed reasons you might need it include:

• Regularly commuting to different locations

If you’re travelling to different offices on a regular basis every week.

• High mileage for work purposes

If you’re clocking up 1000’s of miles driving for business purposes then you’d be better suited with a business car insurance policy.

• Driving colleagues around

If colleagues come with you to meetings or other business at different locations.

• Using your car for tasks related to your work 

If none of the above applies to you but you still need your car for tasks related to your job. This could include things like trips to the bank or post office for work or attending training courses or away days.

If you’re still not sure about which policy you need, contact your insurer to talk through your options.

Once you’ve decided you need business cover, you need to work out which type best suits your needs. There’s no one-size-fits-all but the following examples should give you an idea of what cover you need: 

• Business use by you covers you for social and commuting, plus driving away from your normal place of work for business-related purposes
• Business use for you and/or a spouse/all drivers extends business use to include you and your spouse, just your spouse or you and all named drivers
• Commercial travelling might be needed if driving is a permanent part of your job, and you are selling goods or services. This could include sales reps or taxi drivers. 

It's important to remember that commercial car insurance is different from business car insurance. Commercial car insurance is aimed at people who use their car for their job e.g. couriers or delivery drivers. It’ll usually provide additional cover for any cargo you’re carrying so it’s a good way to make sure you’re properly covered. 

If you’re a taxi driver with a private hire or hackney license you should take out taxi insurance rather than business insurance. Many of these policy types can be complicated, so it’s always worth checking the terms and conditions and confirming with the insurer that the policy fully covers you for your business needs. 

As business car insurance policies offer a different type of cover from standard social and domestic use policies, they can be more expensive. This is usually because you’re spending more time on the road, you might be driving on unfamiliar roads and you’re travelling to and from different locations, which increases the risk. Insurers use lots of different factors to calculate insurance prices, including:

• When and where the car will be driven
• Who will be driving the car
• How many business and social miles the car will do
• What the car will be used for. 

It can be tempting to get social-only or social and commuting use to keep your costs down. But if you’re involved in an accident while using your car for work and you’re not properly covered, you might not be able to make a claim. We’ve covered ways to save money on your insurance in our guide to cheaper car insurance. 

Getting a quote only takes a couple of minutes and you can help speed things up by having the following information to hand:

Personal details:

• Your occupation
• Previous claims or accidents from the last 5 years
• Details of any additional drivers you want to insure
• Your driving licence number
• Number of years no-claims-bonus

Car details:

• Registration or make and model of your car
• Details of any additional modifications (things like spoilers, exhausts but not tow hitches)
• Estimated annual mileage (including business mileage)

This depends on who the owner or leaseholder is. If the car is owned or leased by you, it’s your responsibility to insure it. If it’s owned or leased by your employer, it’s their responsibility to insure it. If you’re not sure, it’s always best to check with your employer.