Unusual company vehicle insurance situation

Post date: 2019-07-17 02:14:18

My brother runs a sweet shop and sweet wholesaler in the UK. He has a van and an employee who normally works in the shop, but occasionally goes to drop off orders with his retail customers. The employee in question is very suited to the delivery work, and who thrives doing it. He's not so good with the shop work.

My brother is aware the van which occasionally does deliveries to other shops, is mostly sat idle. It's only needed for shop work one day a week. However, it's definitely not cost effective to rent or lease a van. That's all been looked into. The sweets include fizzy drinks which are bulky so a large, Transit type van is needed.

BUT, one idea that my brother and I keep discussing is: couldn't this employee who actually PREFERS being out in the van be re-purposed as a sort of 'man with van' and replaced in the shop by someone who likes and is good at shop work: serving and interacting with customers?

It seems like a win win for everyone.

However, the insurance company cannot wrap their heads around any such "mixed use" scenario for how the van would need to be insured. Carriage of own goods vs haulage vs goods in transit etc etc They've seemingly never encountered such a thing before and can't insure it.

It got me thinking: SURELY this cannot be a unique situation, how does he go about describing it to potential vehicle insurers and/or restructuring the business so that this could somehow work for all concerned?

For example, does a separate legal entity need creating for the new venture which then invoices the sweet shop for the once a week work for THAT business? If it's legal and not tax evasion, it would be good if the invoice could be for a nominal amount - but I have no idea if what I'm proposing for him is actually kosher - or doable?!

Thank you!

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