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UK hire and reward insurance
Hire and Reward insurance claims for UK PHV and hackney drivers
The insurance-class deep-dive. Section 143 RTA 1988, Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 cover scope, the App-On / Trip-Active / Idle three-state model, Aviva, Markel, Zego, AXA, RSA, Allianz, ERS and Inshur, the platform top-up layer for Uber, Bolt and Addison Lee, the section 151(8) recovery right, CIDRA 2012 misrepresentation and the FCA fair-value rule under PS21/5.
- Section 143 RTA 1988
- App-state cover analysis
- CIDRA 2012 defence
- Non-regulated accident support
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Recovery dispatch and live claim handlers, 365 days a year.
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Hire-and-reward insurance is the dividing line between a lawful licensed journey and an uninsured-driving offence under section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Every UK private hire vehicle driver and every hackney carriage driver must hold a hire-and-reward certificate that names the use to which the vehicle is actually put. The class of cover (Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3) follows the licence class. The app-state scope (App-On, Trip-Active, Idle) follows the policy schedule and the endorsements on it. The platform top-up layer - Uber Partner Protection, Bolt's Markel/Zego arrangement, Addison Lee's bundled fleet cover - sits above that primary, and the operator's separate Employers' Liability cover under the 1969 Act sits alongside it. This page maps the structure. Every statement of law cites the statute or the FCA policy statement that backs it. The named insurers are the major UK underwriters and MGAs in the segment; we do not endorse any one of them and we do not advise on policy selection.
The legal definition: section 143 RTA 1988 and the named-use rule
Section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is the foundation stone of UK motor insurance. The wording is short: a person must not use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that person such a policy of insurance as complies with the requirements of Part VI of the Act. The phrase that does the work is “in relation to the use of the vehicle”. UK motor cover is named-use cover. A policy that responds to social, domestic and pleasure use does not respond to the use of the vehicle as a private hire vehicle, because that is a different use. The cover that responds is a hire-and-reward policy that names PHV or hackney use on the schedule.
The criminal consequence of failing to hold the right cover is set by s.143(2): a summary offence carrying six to eight penalty points, an unlimited fine and the possibility of disqualification. The civil consequence is more serious for the driver in practice. The insurer is bound by section 151 to satisfy a third-party judgment against the driver even where the use was misrepresented, but section 151(8) gives the insurer a statutory right of recovery against the policyholder for every penny it has had to pay out. For a fare-paying minicab journey that turns into a serious-injury claim, the recovery can be six or seven figures - personally enforceable against the driver, not the operator and not the platform.
Section 152 supplies the third leg of the framework. The section 151 duty is disapplied where the insurer has obtained a court declaration entitling it to avoid the policy before the event giving rise to the third-party liability. In practice insurers rarely pre-empt with a section 152 declaration; they pay under section 151, then turn round and recover under section 151(8). The CityGrip position is to identify on day one whether the driver was on the correct hire-and-reward use clause, because that single question decides the section 151(8) exposure and the integrity of every other head of loss on the file.
Hackney HR (Class 3) versus private hire HR (Class 1 / Class 2)
The UK insurance market sorts hire-and-reward risk into three rate bands that map onto the two licence classes. Class 3 is hackney cover. A hackney carriage - still the formal name for the traditional black-cab style taxi - is licensed to be hailed in the street and to wait on a designated rank. Hackney plates carry an exposure profile that includes high-density urban driving, frequent door-opening in traffic and a wider passenger demographic than the pre-booked PHV market. The Class 3 rate reflects all of that.
Class 1 hire and reward is single-named-driver private hire vehicle cover. This is the dominant shape of policy in the UK app-driver market: a self-employed Uber, Bolt or local minicab driver buys cover on the vehicle they own and drive, with themselves as the sole named driver. Class 2 hire and reward extends the named-driver scope to a fleet with additional drivers - a husband-and-wife minicab, a small operator with a pool of cars and shifting drivers, a family business. The rate band sits between Class 1 and Class 3 because the additional drivers raise the exposure but the work is still pre-booked.
Practical wrinkles for the claims file: a hackney driver who has accidentally bought a Class 1 PHV policy is on the wrong cover. The same is true in reverse - a PHV driver who is on a Class 3 hackney policy is on the wrong cover. CIDRA 2012 makes the consumer responsible for taking reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, and the misrepresentation here is about the use to which the vehicle is put. An insurer that discovers the wrong class on the schedule has proportionate remedies available - including, in a deliberate or reckless case, avoidance of the policy in full. Always check the class on the schedule against the class on the licence plate before the renewal date.
Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3: named-driver scope and rate band
The three classes differ on three axes: the named-driver scope, the permitted-use scope and the rate band the underwriter applies. Class 1 is one driver, named on the schedule, on a vehicle licensed for PHV work. The schedule will identify the vehicle by registration, the licensing authority (Transport for London or the relevant district council) and the platforms the driver works on. Telematics products such as Zego Sense rate the policy on driver-behaviour data pulled from a paired app; non-telematics products rate on age, postcode, claims experience and fleet history.
Class 2 widens the named-driver scope. Each additional driver is named on the schedule and rated individually for age, claims history and entitlement. The underwriter aggregates the drivers' risk profiles and applies a fleet adjustment. The Class 2 rate is higher per vehicle than Class 1 because the exposure is broader, but the cost per driver is normally lower than running multiple Class 1 policies. Class 2 is the standard for small minicab operators that own their fleet and supply vehicles to drivers under sub-contract arrangements.
Class 3 is the hackney class. It is structurally a Class 1 or Class 2 shape with an enlarged permitted-use scope: street-hailing and rank work are explicitly covered. The rate is higher again, because hackney work concentrates exposure in town centres, transport hubs and night-time economy zones, and because hackney vehicles are often older, higher-mileage and more expensive to repair (the purpose-built TX4 / TXE black cab, for instance, has a specialist parts market). A hackney driver who also undertakes pre-booked work - common on the platforms that operate hackney fleets - needs the schedule to confirm that pre-booked PHV work is covered on the Class 3 certificate; not every Class 3 wording extends to the full PHV use.
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03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
Why a standard SD&P policy invalidates the moment a fare is accepted
A social, domestic and pleasure policy is the ordinary private-motorist's certificate. It names a permitted-use scope built around private journeys - commuting, school runs, shopping, family travel. Every SD&P certificate excludes “use for hire and reward” on the face of the schedule. The moment a driver accepts a fare - and on most platforms that is the moment the accept button is pressed in the app, not the moment the passenger steps in - the vehicle is in use for hire and reward. The named-use exclusion bites and the cover ceases to respond.
Insurers' canvassing of platform data after a claim is the operational reality here. A driver who tells an insurer that the crash happened on a private journey will normally face a subject access of the platform's trip records and a cross-reference against the dashcam timestamps. Where the data shows the app was open and a trip was active, the insurer's underwriting and counter-fraud teams will treat the SD&P certificate as having been misrepresented. Under CIDRA 2012 the consequence is proportionate to the type of misrepresentation: deliberate or reckless means avoidance and premium forfeiture; careless-and-would-not-have-written means avoidance with premium refund; careless-and-different-terms means proportionate reduction of any claim.
Separately the insurer can rely on section 151(8) RTA 1988 to recover from the policyholder any sum it has paid out under the section 151 duty on the third-party claim. That recovery - backed by enforcement of a county-court judgment against the driver's personal assets - is the practical penalty for working on the wrong certificate. The Insurance Fraud Bureau records add the cross-market data flag, which then drives the policyholder's renewal premium up across the rest of the market for the next five to seven years. Put simply: there is no SD&P-and-do-a-few-fares cheat code that ends well.
The App-On, Trip-Active and Idle three-state model
A UK app driver works through three vehicle-use states. In the Idle state the app is closed, the driver is at home, doing the school run, shopping or otherwise using the vehicle privately. Only the underlying hire-and-reward certificate responds - and it does so under its social, domestic and pleasure endorsement, which most hire-and-reward policies include precisely so the driver can use the car off-platform without having to swap certificates.
In the App-On state the driver is signed in to the platform, the device shows the available-driver map and there is no booking accepted. The driver's hire-and-reward policy is primary on this state for most modern HR wordings: the cover responds in full, with the platform's contingent layer (if there is one) sitting behind it as a secondary indemnity that activates only if the primary declines. A small number of older or narrow hire-and-reward wordings treat App-On as outside the use scope; those policies need an explicit App-On endorsement, and the digital-first products such as Zego Sense were designed to close exactly that gap.
In the Trip-Active state the driver has accepted a booking and is en route to pick-up, has the passenger in the vehicle, or is in a short post-trip window after drop-off (typically up to fifteen minutes on Uber). The cover position flips: on most UK platform schemes the platform's primary cover is the lead policy for third-party motor liability on-trip, with the driver's hire-and-reward sitting as contingent. Other heads of loss - Personal Accident, sickness, hospitalisation - may be added by the platform's separate top-up product (Uber Partner Protection via Allianz Partners is the most widely cited UK example). The exact division varies by platform and city, so the policy schedule and the platform's published cover summary should always be cross-checked.
The major UK hire-and-reward insurers
The UK hire-and-reward market is concentrated in a small number of specialist underwriters, managing general agents and digital-first carriers. The mainstream composite Aviva plc is the largest player by gross written premium and is active in the Uber-driver segment as a primary hire-and-reward underwriter on broker-placed schemes. Markel International, a Lloyd's-market specialty insurer, writes private hire and taxi risks and is named on Bolt-affiliated scheme arrangements. Zego is the digital-first UK insurtech in the segment - its Sense product rates premium on telematics behaviour data linked to a paired app, and the Zego shape of policy is explicitly app-state-aware on the schedule.
The mainstream composites round out the panel. AXA UK writes commercial motor including PHV and hackney hire-and-reward. RSA Insurance (Intact Financial group) writes the same segment through brokers. Allianz is significant both as a UK underwriter and through Allianz Partners as the accident, sickness and hospitalisation carrier behind Uber Partner Protection. ERS Insurance is the Lloyd's specialist motor insurer with a dedicated taxi and private hire product line. Quotax is a long-established specialist broker. Inshur is the US-import digital-first carrier most widely used by Bolt drivers (a single Inshur certificate normally lets a driver work both Uber and Bolt without switching product).
The right insurer for a given driver depends on age, postcode, claims experience, telematics willingness, fleet size and platform mix. None of the named carriers pays CityGrip a referral commission for this page and none should be read as a recommendation. The point is structural: hire-and-reward is a thin specialist market and the underwriting cohort matters as much as the price headline.
The platform top-up layer: Uber, Bolt, Addison Lee
Above the driver's primary hire-and-reward policy sits the platform top-up layer. Each major UK ride-hailing platform takes a different approach. Uber's Partner Protection is underwritten by Allianz Partners. It pays personal-accident, sickness and hospitalisation cash benefits to the driver while a trip is active and during a short post-trip window. It is not third-party motor cover and it does not substitute for the driver's hire-and-reward certificate; it adds a personal-injury cash benefit layer that the driver's HR policy typically does not include in any meaningful form.
Bolt's UK arrangements are placed through Markel and Zego on broker-placed schemes. The Zego-Bolt combination is the most widely visible, because Zego's app-state telematics product pairs naturally with the Bolt driver app. The contingent cover sits behind the primary HR policy in the App-On state and slides into a primary position in the Trip-Active state on the schemes that operate that way. The detailed division depends on the wording on the day.
Addison Lee is the structural outlier in the UK market. Drivers do not normally buy their own hire-and-reward certificate; they rent a vehicle from Addison Lee on a package that bundles fleet motor insurance, MOT, servicing, maintenance and roadside assistance. The motor cover is an Addison Lee fleet policy with the driver as a named driver under the fleet. FreeNow operates a mix of pre-booked PHV and hackney fleets in different UK cities and the cover position follows the vehicle licence - hackney drivers carry their own Class 3, PHV drivers their own Class 1, with the FreeNow top-up layer adding passenger safety protections and an in-app safety report flow. Wheely operates a chauffeur-style fleet at the premium end with insurance specifications set in the driver agreement.
PHV-driver insurance fraud risks and the post-claim app-state subject access
The headline fraud risk in the segment is driving on SD&P while logged into a ride-hailing app. The temptation is obvious - SD&P is cheaper than hire-and-reward, sometimes by a multiple of three or four - and the rationalisation goes that the App-On time is a tiny fraction of the policy year. The data tells a different story. Major UK insurers now canvass app-state and trip data from the platforms via post-claim subject access requests as a matter of course. The platforms hold the trip records, the driver's stored chats, the accept-and-decline log and the in-app safety toolkit reports. A claim that does not match the trip data triggers a counter-fraud investigation.
The consequences cascade. CIDRA 2012 gives the insurer proportionate remedies on the misrepresentation: avoidance, refund of premium, or proportionate reduction. Section 151(8) RTA 1988 gives the insurer a recovery right against the policyholder for whatever it has had to pay the third party. The Insurance Fraud Bureau adds the cross-market data flag that drives every subsequent policy quote up. And a deliberate false-representation can carry a Fraud Act 2006 charge for serious cases.
The often-quoted “£5,000 penalty” circulating on driver forums is a misunderstanding of two separate numbers. There is no statutory £5,000 fine specific to a misrepresentation on a motor insurance proposal. The £5,000 figure that drivers hear most often is the small-claims-track limit for road traffic injury claims under the Civil Liability Act 2018 - a completely unrelated rule. The actual financial exposure on a misrepresented hire-and-reward policy is the section 151(8) recovery, which is unlimited and tracks the third-party loss. CityGrip's standing advice is plain: do not work on the wrong certificate.
The operator's separate cover: Public Liability and Employers' Liability under ELCI 1969
A hire-and-reward motor policy insures the driver against third-party motor risks. It does not insure the operator. Every UK licensed private hire operator runs a separate business with its own staff - controllers, dispatchers, call-handlers, account managers - and that business carries its own compulsory cover under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. Every UK employer must hold employer's liability cover with a minimum indemnity of £5 million per claim against employee injury or disease, and must display the certificate at the place of business. Failure to do so is a criminal offence under the Act.
Almost every UK licensing authority's operator-licence conditions then layer Public Liability cover on top. Transport for London's PHV operator licence conditions require the operator to maintain cover for claims arising from the operator's business. District councils issuing operator licences outside London under section 55 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 impose similar conditions on the face of the licence. Indemnity limits vary by authority but £5 million Public Liability is the common floor; £10 million is routine for larger operators.
For an accident claim the practical consequence is that an injured passenger may have parallel routes of recovery: against the at-fault third-party driver under the motor policy, against the operator under the operator's Public Liability cover where the operator's own conduct caused or contributed to the harm, and (rarely) against an employee of the operator under ELCI 1969 for a workplace injury to that employee. The driver's hire-and-reward policy and the operator's PL and ELCI policies are separate contracts of indemnity with separate underwriters, separate limits and separate notification deadlines.
Renewal and post-claim premium impact: NCD, fault-share and FCA PS21/5
Every at-fault claim leaves a trail across the UK motor insurance market through the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) and the Motor Insurance Database (MID). The driver's no-claims discount is the first casualty. A standard NCD steps back two years on a single at-fault claim and resets to zero on multiple claims in a policy year; the loss of NCD typically increases the renewal premium by twenty to forty per cent in the year after the claim. Protected NCD is sold as an add-on at most insurers and ringfences the NCD against one or two at-fault claims in a five-year window, but the wording varies - read the schedule before assuming protection extends to a hire-and-reward at-fault loss.
Fault-share apportionment matters as well. Where liability is split - for example a 70/30 or 50/50 apportionment - both insurers record the outcome and both drivers see a non-zero impact on renewal. Non-fault claims should not move the NCD but they do show up on CUE and the renewal premium often rises anyway, because the underwriter prices the risk on the broader data the claim reveals (the postcode, the time of day, the platform). The honest answer to a driver asking whether non-fault claims affect future premium is “not the NCD, but yes the premium, by a variable amount”.
The Financial Conduct Authority's General Insurance Pricing Practices Policy Statement PS21/5 came into force on 1 January 2022 and bans the so-called “loyalty penalty”. A renewal price for an existing customer cannot exceed the equivalent new-business price an otherwise identical new customer would pay. The same policy statement requires insurers to assess every product at least every twelve months to confirm it delivers fair value, and to attest annually that the fair-value assessment has been done. For hire-and-reward customers the practical effect is that the historic loyalty penalty has been removed, but the underwriter still moves the price on claims experience, rating-factor changes and the underlying loss ratio of the book. PS21/5 is a transparency and fairness rule, not a price-control rule. CityGrip's role on the claim file is to make sure the at-fault driver's insurer pays what the law requires it to pay, so that the non-fault driver does not absorb the cost.
06H-AND-RKey takeaway
Defending a section 151(8) recovery and a CIDRA 2012 avoidance
Where an insurer asserts a section 151(8) recovery right or attempts to avoid a policy under CIDRA 2012, the defence runs on three lines. The first is the use question itself: was the vehicle in fact in use for hire and reward at the moment of the collision, or was the driver in the Idle state on the policy's SD&P endorsement? Dashcam timestamps, platform app-state logs and witness statements go to that question. The second is the misrepresentation question: did the consumer take reasonable care, in the words of section 2 of CIDRA, not to make a misrepresentation? A driver who answered the proposal questions honestly on the information they then had - and who later changed platforms or work patterns without notifying the insurer - has a different defence to a driver who lied at inception.
The third line is the proportionate-remedy question. Section 5 of CIDRA limits the insurer's remedies to those that match the type of misrepresentation: deliberate or reckless, careless, or innocent (innocent misrepresentations carry no remedy at all). The case law since CIDRA - Tesco Underwriting v Achunche on motor and the various FOS decisions on consumer motor - confirms that insurers must analyse the misrepresentation category before applying the heaviest remedy. An insurer that jumps straight to avoidance on a careless misrepresentation is acting outside its statutory authority.
The Financial Ombudsman Service and the courts are the two forums in which a contested avoidance is resolved. FOS has compulsory jurisdiction over consumer motor disputes up to £415,000 in 2026; the courts hear larger claims and matters outside FOS jurisdiction. The driver who receives a section 151(8) recovery letter should not pay it on receipt - the recovery is enforceable only with a court judgment, and the underlying coverage decision is contestable.
Continue reading on hire and reward
The hire-and-reward question runs through every minicab claim, every Uber-Bolt-Addison Lee accident file and every TfL or council post-collision inspection. Use the hub page for the wider claims-management picture and the platform-specific pages for the carrier-by-carrier breakdown.
Up to the minicab / PHV hub
Platform pages and licensing
- Uber accident claims
- Bolt accident claims
- Addison Lee accident claims
- FreeNow accident claims
- Wheely accident claims
- TfL private hire licence and accidents
- Local authority PHV licence and accidents
- Minicab driver accident claims
Adjacent topics on the wider site
Five-step pre-trip check: confirm your hire-and-reward cover state
Step 1
Read your hire-and-reward schedule and locate the use clause
Open the certificate of motor insurance and the policy schedule. Find the use clause - typically headed 'Limitations as to use' or 'Permitted uses'. Confirm it includes 'use for hire and reward' or the equivalent wording for your licence class. Note the policy class (Class 1 PHV, Class 2 fleet, Class 3 hackney). If the schedule lists only social, domestic and pleasure use, the cover does not satisfy section 143 RTA 1988 for a fare-paying journey.
Step 2
Identify the platforms named on the schedule
Hire-and-reward policies normally list the specific platforms covered - Uber, Bolt, FreeNow, Addison Lee, Ola, local firm names. If your platform is not named, the cover may be valid only when working off-platform. Telematics policies such as Zego Sense rate on data from one or more linked apps; check that the apps you actually use are paired to the policy.
Step 3
Identify the app-state endorsement (App-On / Trip-Active / Idle)
Locate the wording that describes when cover applies. Some policies cover all three states from app-on through to drop-off. Some require a specific App-On endorsement to cover the waiting period. A small number have a coverage gap between the SD&P sections and the trip-active sections - these are the policies for which platform top-up cover was designed.
Step 4
Cross-check the platform's published cover summary
Open the platform's driver help page (Uber Partner Protection, Bolt insurance summary, Addison Lee driver pack, FreeNow driver terms). Read what the platform claims to cover and read what it explicitly excludes. Where the platform layer is contingent (responds only if the driver's cover declines), the driver's primary policy is the lead policy. Where the platform layer is primary (responds first on-trip), the driver's policy sits behind it.
Step 5
Confirm the policy is in force on the date of travel
Check the start date, end date and any payment-default suspensions on the certificate. A direct-debit miss on a 30-day rolling hire-and-reward policy is the most common cause of an inadvertent uninsured-driving moment. If the schedule shows a renewal date in the next seven days, set a calendar reminder. Drive only when both certificates - primary hire-and-reward and any platform top-up that is required - are live.
Hire and Reward insurance FAQs
- What is hire and reward insurance?
- Hire and reward insurance is the class of UK motor cover that lawfully permits a driver to carry passengers or goods for payment on a public road. The legal anchor is section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which requires every vehicle on a road to be insured against third-party risks for the use to which it is put. Carrying a fare-paying passenger is a 'use for hire and reward' and must be explicitly named on the policy. A social, domestic and pleasure policy does not satisfy section 143 the moment a fare is accepted, even where the driver has not yet collected the fare.
- What's the difference between Class 1 and Class 3 hire and reward?
- Class 1 hire and reward is private hire (PHV) cover for a single named driver - the most common shape of policy bought by an Uber, Bolt or local minicab driver who owns and drives the vehicle themselves. Class 2 extends the named-driver scope so a fleet with additional drivers can be covered on one policy. Class 3 is hackney carriage cover - the class for traditional 'taxi' drivers who can street-hail and wait on a rank. The insurance class follows the licence class, so a hackney driver who tried to insure on a Class 1 PHV policy would be on the wrong cover and exposed to a misrepresentation claim under CIDRA 2012.
- Does my standard policy cover me on the way to a pickup?
- Almost never. A social, domestic and pleasure policy is named-use cover, and driving to collect a fare is plainly a use 'for hire and reward'. The insurer's right to refuse cover, to avoid the policy and to recover any third-party payout under section 151(8) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is well established. Even an app-on, no-booking journey to a hotspot will normally fall outside SD&P. The right cover is a hire-and-reward policy from a specialist insurer, either annual or on a 30-day rolling basis, with the app-state scope written into the schedule.
- What is platform top-up cover?
- Platform top-up cover is supplementary insurance that the ride-hailing platform adds on top of the driver's own hire-and-reward policy. The driver still has to hold a primary hire-and-reward certificate to drive a passenger lawfully. The top-up adds layers the primary may not include - for example accident, sickness and hospitalisation cash benefits while on-trip (Uber's Partner Protection via Allianz Partners), or contingent third-party indemnity that activates if the primary hire-and-reward insurer declines a covered loss. Top-up is not a substitute for hire-and-reward cover.
- What does App-On / Trip-Active / Idle mean for my cover?
- App-On (waiting for a booking), Trip-Active (booking accepted through to drop-off) and Idle (app closed) are the three states a UK app driver works through. Cover follows the state. Idle: only your hire-and-reward certificate responds, under its SD&P endorsement if you have one. App-On waiting: the hire-and-reward policy is primary, with the platform's contingent layer (if any) sitting behind it. Trip-Active: in most platform schemes the platform's primary cover applies on-trip, with the driver's hire-and-reward sitting as contingent. The exact division depends on the policy wording, so always check both certificates.
- Which insurers underwrite UK hire and reward cover?
- The major UK underwriters and managing general agents include Aviva (the largest mainstream player and active in the Uber-driver segment), Markel International, Zego (digital-first, app-state-aware policies under the Sense product), AXA UK, RSA Insurance, Allianz, ERS Insurance (specialist motor and HR), Quotax and Inshur (US-import digital-first). Acorn Insurance and Patons are large brokers placing risks across this panel. The right insurer depends on age, claims history, telematics willingness, number of additional drivers and which platform you work on.
- What is the section 151(8) RTA 1988 recovery right?
- Section 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 obliges a motor insurer to satisfy a third-party judgment even where the insurer would have been entitled to refuse cover - for example because the driver misrepresented the use of the vehicle. Section 151(8) then gives the insurer a statutory right to recover from the policyholder the amount it has paid out under the section 151 duty. For an SD&P driver who took a fare, that recovery can run to the full third-party payout - vehicle damage, injury, credit hire, the lot.
- What happens if my insurer finds I lied on my proposal?
- The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 sets the framework. A consumer must take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation when buying or renewing a policy. If the misrepresentation is deliberate or reckless, the insurer can avoid the policy entirely, keep the premium and refuse all claims; if it is careless and the insurer would not have written the risk on any terms, the insurer can avoid and refund the premium; if it is careless and the insurer would have charged a higher premium, the insurer can reduce the claim proportionately. Misrepresenting the use of the vehicle - saying SD&P when you actually work for Uber - is the textbook example.
- Does my hire and reward policy cover Public Liability for my dispatch staff?
- No. A hire-and-reward motor policy insures the driver against third-party motor risks. The operator who employs dispatch staff, controllers and call-handlers has a separate compulsory cover under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 - minimum £5 million indemnity per claim - and almost every UK licensing authority's operator-licence conditions require Public Liability cover for passenger and member-of-the-public claims that arise from the operator's business. The operator's cover is bought from the commercial-lines market and is separate from the driver's motor certificate.
- How does the FCA's PS21/5 fair-value rule affect my renewal?
- PS21/5 is the Financial Conduct Authority's General Insurance Pricing Practices policy statement, in force from 1 January 2022. The renewal price an insurer offers an existing customer cannot be greater than the equivalent new-business price for an otherwise identical new customer (the 'price-walking ban'). Insurers must also assess every product at least every 12 months to confirm it delivers fair value. For hire-and-reward customers the practical effect is that the historic loyalty penalty has been removed, but the new-business price still moves with claims experience and rating-factor changes.
- Will an at-fault claim wipe out my no-claims discount?
- Almost always, unless the policy carries protected NCD and the protection covers the claim type. A standard NCD steps back two years on a single at-fault claim and resets to zero on multiple claims in a policy year. Non-fault claims should not affect NCD but the insurer still records them, and the renewal rate often rises on a non-fault claim because the underwriter prices for the increased exposure the data reveals. Protected NCD is sold as an add-on and the wording varies - read the schedule before assuming it covers an at-fault loss.
- Can I check my app-state cover before a trip?
- Yes, and you should. The five-step check is: read the schedule on your hire-and-reward certificate, identify the named platforms, identify any app-on / app-off / trip-active endorsements, cross-check the platform's published cover summary (Uber, Bolt, Addison Lee, FreeNow), and confirm the certificate is in force on the date of travel. Where the schedule is silent or contradicts the platform, call your broker before the next shift. The cost of an extra endorsement is small; the cost of an uninsured shift can be the section 151(8) recovery on the whole third-party claim.
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Section 143 RTA 1988 use analysis, App-On / Trip-Active / Idle state log, CIDRA 2012 misrepresentation review and section 151(8) recovery defence. CityGrip Accident Claims (Citygrip LTD).
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