Any Driver Fleet Insurance

The conditions that sit behind the words

Conditions commonly include a minimum age, a full licence held for a set period and limits on convictions. They are part of the cover, not guidance, so a driver who fails one of them is not covered for that journey.

That is why the clause is worth reading rather than relying on its name. Our guide on what to tell your insurer covers how to describe your driver pool accurately in the first place.

Permission and authorisation

The difference between “any driver” and “any authorised driver” matters in practice. Where the wording requires authorisation, a driver who takes a vehicle without permission is unlikely to be covered for their own benefit.

A written rule on who may drive, and a controlled way of handing out keys, is what makes the word “authorised” mean something.

The patterns it fits

• trades and service businesses where vans are shared across shifts or rotas
• firms with seasonal staff, apprentices or regular new starters
• pool car arrangements where several employees book the same vehicles
• businesses where a supervisor or manager needs to move any vehicle at short notice
• mixed fleets of cars and vans where the same people drive both

Both car fleet insurance and van fleet insurance policies can be written on an any-driver basis, so the clause is a choice rather than a vehicle type.

Where the fleet threshold sits

There is no legal minimum fleet size, and thresholds vary by insurer. As general market practice, many fleet products start from 2 or 3 vehicles, and mini-fleet products often run up to roughly 12 to 20.

If you run only a handful of vehicles, see our page on mini fleet insurance.

The conditions to check on the certificate

• Licence type. A full UK licence is usually required. Provisional licences are normally excluded, and insurers treat EU and international licences differently.
• Time held. Some policies require a full licence held for a minimum period, which can catch older drivers who passed their test recently.
• Convictions and points. Many wordings exclude drivers with certain motoring convictions or above a points threshold, unless the insurer has agreed to them individually.
• Medical conditions. A driver must meet DVLA’s fitness-to-drive rules, and an insurer may ask about notifiable conditions.
• Vehicle restrictions. High-value or high-performance cars and heavier vehicles may be limited to named or more experienced drivers.

Watch out: If a driver does not meet the conditions on the certificate, they are not insured for that journey, whatever the policy is called. Check a new starter against the conditions before handing over keys, not after their first incident.

Class of use is a separate question

The driving clause says who may drive. It says nothing about what the vehicle may be used for, which is set by the class of use on the schedule.

Every vehicle still needs the right class, such as business use, carriage of own goods or hire and reward. Our guide to vehicle class of use sets out the differences.

Cover level and vehicle use

Every vehicle on the schedule needs a cover level and a class of use, whichever driving clause you hold. The broker will ask which class each vehicle needs rather than applying one to the whole fleet.

Add-ons worth raising with an any-driver clause

• Legal expenses cover, to help recover uninsured losses after a non-fault accident
• Courtesy vehicle or hire vehicle provision, and whether any-driver terms extend to it
• Windscreen cover, and whether glass claims affect the excess
• Personal accident benefits for drivers
• Tools or goods in transit, which normally sit outside the motor cover
• Driving other vehicles, which some fleet policies restrict or leave out entirely

The courtesy vehicle point catches people out. A replacement car supplied after a claim is not always covered for the same group of drivers as the vehicle it replaced.

Permitting use

Under section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is an offence to use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place in Great Britain without at least third-party insurance for that use. It is also an offence to cause or permit someone else to do so.

An employee driving a work vehicle in the course of employment has a limited defence if they did not know it was uninsured, so the exposure sits with the business that permitted the use. Police can issue a £300 fixed penalty and 6 penalty points for driving without insurance, and a court can impose an unlimited fine and disqualification, as GOV.UK sets out in its guidance on vehicle insurance.

Licence checks

A driver can create a check code through the GOV.UK View or share your driving licence information service, using their licence number, National Insurance number and postcode. The code is valid for 21 days and can be used only once, and you also need the last 8 characters of their licence number to view the record.

Getting someone’s driving information without their permission is a criminal offence. Organisations checking many drivers can use DVLA’s Access to Driver Data service, often through a licence-checking company, with each driver’s consent.

See our guide to driving licence checks for a process you can run at recruitment and at intervals afterwards.

Licence categories

The insurance clause never widens a driver’s entitlement. In Great Britain a category B licence covers vehicles up to 3,500kg maximum authorised mass with no more than 8 passenger seats, or up to 4,250kg for zero-emission vehicles, under the GOV.UK driving licence categories.

Vehicles between 3,500kg and 7,500kg need C1 entitlement, which many drivers who passed their car test before 1 January 1997 hold under the old licence categories. Check the licence record rather than the test date, because entitlement can be lost.

Health and safety and record-keeping

The HSE expects employers to manage the risks of driving for work under general health and safety law, including checking that licences, insurance and MOTs are valid. Keeping a log of who drove which vehicle also answers a police request to identify a driver under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which usually has to be answered within 28 days.

When you apply for cover, business policyholders must make a fair presentation of the risk under the Insurance Act 2015. On an any-driver policy that includes describing the realistic driver pool, not only your regular drivers.

Employer checklist for any-driver fleets

• Written rule on who may drive and how vehicles are authorised
• Licence check at recruitment, then at set intervals
• Driver ages and licence dates checked against the policy conditions
• Vehicle booking or allocation log kept up to date
• Younger or newly qualified drivers named where the band does not cover them
• Driving for work policy shared and signed

Small, stable teams

A named policy lets the insurer rate each person, which works in your favour when those people have clean records and long licences. A stable team gains little from a clause designed for churn.

Where most drivers are under 25, naming them individually can be easier to place than asking every vehicle to accept the lowest band.

Arrangements the clause does not solve

• Employees’ own cars used for work are grey fleet. They need business use on the employee’s own policy, not your fleet clause, and our grey fleet guide explains the gap.
• Vehicles hired out to customers need self-drive hire fleet insurance, which is a different product altogether.
• Heavier vehicles may be restricted to named, suitably licensed drivers on some policies.
• Only one or two vehicles may be more simply insured on individual or multi-vehicle policies.