It is absolutely fine to volunteer to drive your private car to events, matches, activities, etc. You are doing your fellow students a big favour.
What you must do
- It is SU Policy that students driving their private cars for SU activities of any sort must register their car with the Transport Office before driving. Please email a scan/photo of your insurance certificate to sutransport@bath.ac.uk
- If driving to a BUCS match, the trip must be approved by SU sports staff BEFORE you go, and the green form must be signed by SU staff, not your treasurer. If driving for any other reason, the trip must be approved by your Chair or Treasurer before you go.
- You can claim 25p per mile using the Xpense365 app. Contact your student group Treasurer if you're not sure what to do.
However, there are some things which you must know, and some others which you must do. You must never drive outside of the restrictions of your insurance certificate. It is not good enough to say that your "Dad or Mum sees to all that," - you are legally liable for everything you do in your car, so you must know what you can and can't do.
What you must know
- You need to read your insurance certificate to make sure that you are aware of its restrictions. Some insurers do not even cover you to drive onto campus, let alone take students to matches.
- You may need to inform your insurers that you are using the car for "volunteering purposes." Some insurers will not cover you for this unless you inform them first, and they may charge for it. You can check whether you will need to inform your insurers using this table from the Association of British Insurers. If your insurer is not in the table, you will need to check with them directly. You do not, however, need business insurance - as a student you are a volunteer not an employee.
- You are a volunteer. You do not have to drive your car if you do not want to and must not be pressured into driving just because you have a car.
Finally, a note about "insurance fronting."
"Insurance fronting" is a criminal offence, with a fixed penalty of £300 and 6 licence penalty points for both the driver and the insurance policyholder, and associated insurance difficulties with vastly increased premiums for 5 years. The police also seize and impound the car, at the driver's expense, until someone with the correct insurance collects it.
What is it? It's where a driver "fronts up" a more experienced driver, usually Mum or Dad, as the policyholder, in order to make the insurance cheaper. It's insurance fraud, pure and simple, because both the driver and the policyholder are lying to the insurers in order to pay less for the insurance. It doesn't matter who owns the car, it also doesn't matter if the driver is a named driver on the policy. What the insurers want to know is, who is the main driver of the car and where is the car normally kept. They will assume that the policyholder is the main driver and that the car is normally kept at the policyholder's address, unless they are told otherwise.
The problem with fronting is, if a driver really, really needs the insurance (say there's a horrific crash), then the insurers will investigate and will find out the truth. The driver is not paying less for their insurance, in fact they're paying for absolutely nothing!