Your IE editor has long believed that the dropdown menu box system online is broken and in fact, half the occupations listed belong in the Insurance Museum. For example my own main occupation with LV is the c.1995 one of Desktop Publisher. Other options include super niche jobs like Gaming Board Inspector. I mean, how many gaming board inspectors are there in the UK, more than 10…20 maybe? It is ridiculous.
A court case reported by the Manchester Evening News recently highlights how this archaic tickbox system on job definitions causes misunderstandings, annoyed customers and potential loss of licence. An 18-year old was stopped by the Police in 2020 whilst delivering takeaway food. His mum had paid £1900 for a Business Use policy but guess what? The policy did not cover takeaway food delivery, despite the lad ticking the Delivery Driver box as his occupation when doing the quote.
Off to Magistrates Court, where of course, any evidence such as the Admiral policy documents fell on deaf ears. Six points were issued which meant that he lost his licence, due to being a new driver. However his mum – a driving instructor – took it to Crown Court, where it was overturned and they reinstated his licence, and deleted the 6 points from his licence.
What can the insurance industry learn from this sad episode?
First let’s start with the obvious. We need job classifications that reflect the real world in 2021, not 1991. So Food Delivery Driver, Online Parcel Delivery and Pharmacy Delivery need to be the top three categories, replacing the generic Delivery Driver, because one size does not fit all, agreed?
Here’s another one for you. There is a Mobile Hairdresser category on most insurer/broker dropdown menus, but no Mobile Beauty/Therapy category, which is the actual occupation of hundreds of thousands of people in these Woke Isles. That is important because some therapy aids can include a fold-out bed, expensive lotions n potions, plus other gadgets – all of which need cover, right?
Jobs like Petrol Station Attendant don’t really exist do they? So let’s update that with Fuel Station Manager which again, actually defines the job for the 21st century.Did you know that Charge Hand still exists as a choice, but there is no option for EV Charging Point Installer?
I could go on, but really, come on man as Sleepy Joe says, we need to modernise this lamentable aspect of online insurance and drag it into the present era. Let’s all agree standardised job descriptions across the industry too, so we don’t have one broker deciding a fast food delivery driver is different from a hot food delivery driver, or is the same thing but just with different wordings at the weekends. Then the software that underpins the systems can actually deliver the right policy to the consumer.
As an industry we have to raise our game when it comes to defining EXACTLY what type of work is covered by a Business Use policy, because if it really only covers a business meeting, or sitting at your local Hub using your laptop, but not the carriage of anything, from food to cameras, guitars to eBay packages, then it should be renamed as Office Meeting Insurance. That’s what it is; it simply allows you to drive to an office somewhere and do some admin.
Delivery Insurance should be sold as such, and then sub-divided into the late-night, high risk activities and the less frenetic daytime delivery jobs that are akin to a Postperson, but basically freelancing in your own vehicle for DPD or your local pharmacy. Otherwise more irate mums will have to fight expensive court cases.
Be the first to comment