Let’s talk about Insurance…
Probably not the greatest opening to a blog post but an important one to read if you’re going to be hiring out your car. You may have been thinking about listing your car on our directory but stopped to wonder how car insurance works in these rental scenarios. Do I have to be insured? Does the hirer insure the car? Who’s at fault if something happens to my car? In this article, we’ll delve into the exciting world of car insurance and answer all of these questions.
The first thing to understand is that car insurance products are very segregated to cover specific scenarios. Insurers like things to be mundane and predictable – that way it’s easy for them to anticipate the liklihood of a claim and the potential pay out. They do not like the unknown, it scares them! Accordingly, car insurers have created products and policy addons for situations that they are comfortable with. In regards to car hire, these generally include the following.
Wedding Hire – To insurers, this is a known entity – pick up some people, drive to the church and then off to the reception venue. Accordingly, this is a standard product that is often included in a classic car policy or can be added for additional cost. Typically there is a limit on how many weddings you are supposed to attend in a given year.
Self drive hire – A dedicated product typically for a fleet but can occasionally be obtained for a single vehicle. The nice thing about this type of insurance is that a car can usually be added to someone else’s policy.
Example – a hire company has a fleet of Fiat 500s but needs an additional car for a particular job. Your own Fiat 500 could be temporarily added to that self drive fleet policy.
This type of hire would be applicable where someone wants to hire your car for recreation or for filming where there are scenes to be shot on public roads.
Hire & Reward – A somewhat misleading name as this is purely for transporting people and or items. This is typically used for Uber drivers, food deliveries etc. There are also products that are termed ‘Chauffeur insurance’ that fall under this category and often include public liability.
Film & TV Work – This is where car insurance companies are not so comfortable and as such, there are no dedicated car insurance products for this. It makes sense as there are just far too many variables. There are some exceptions to this, for example if you’re profession is related to journalism. This is often how car reviewers create content with other people’s vehicles.
If you rent out your car and it’s used on a closed set for Filming, Photography etc. the production company/media outlet normally provide insurance to cover your vehicle. This is usually called something like ‘Film Production Insurance’ but we’ve also seen policies such as ‘Borrowed Property Insurance’. These are not car insurance policies, they cover equipment on set and or damage to the set itself. Anyone who is hiring your car for these types of jobs should be forthcoming with how they plan to protect your car and supply the necessary paperwork.
Transport – if you or a production company use a 3rd party transport service to move a car between locations, said party should cover liability of the vehicle whilst in their possession and be able to present the necessary paperwork.
A closing thought…
That wasn’t too painful after all and now you know how to protect your classic car! When receiving hire enquiries, don’t be afraid to ask specifics about insurance and the details of what the job entails. For example, if it’s a film hire job – will it be a static shot or is the car being driven? Will actors be sitting in the car? It’s important to have transparency from the beginning so there are no disputes later.
Ultimately, it’s your car and up to you how diligent you are with all this information. Finding the right people to work with is key as this makes the experience much smoother. That way, not only can you earn some money, you can enjoy the experience of a special event or seeing your car on a film set!
If all this talk of insurance hasn’t put you to sleep and you’re keen to add your car to our free directory, you can do so here. It’s a very quick process and your listing will be published within 2 working days, although we usually do it a lot faster!