Crashing Company Vehicle.

The Jammy dodger

If you're insured on a company vehicle like if you're a bus driver and you have a slight knock into something be it a wall or scrape it that causes some dent and little bit of body damage, and you're fully insured to drive the vehicle, can the company charge their employee for the damage? Or is it fully covered?

XsApollo

that’s what insurance is for, I don’t know the rules regarding that, but I wouldn’t be paying for it.

Vittu

Did the damage occur during work hours or outside work hours? This couldd be a factor.

The Jammy dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122590342#Comment_122590342

I don't know but wouldn't you be insured at all times when driving it?.

Lenar3556

Depends on the contractual position between the two parties (employer and employee if that is the case). Usually the cost of repairs in that situation will be borne by the employer and/or their insurers.

Nigzcurran

My ex employer tried to get us to sign a new contract which stated employees would be liable for any damage caused to company vehicles during work hours. Absolute chancers taking all of the profit but wanting none of the risks. Contract was thrown in the bin

SVI40

The only deductions an employer can make from your pay without consent are taxes. Unless you agreed to it, they cannot make you pay for it.

blackbox

Fully insured does not imply comprehensive insurance. It means that legal obligations are fully covered.

Responsibility for damage to the vehicle should be clear in your contract.

carfinder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591173#Comment_122591173

Nonsense. Liability rests with the employer. The WRC will quickly provide clarity on the issue if a charlatan employer tried to claim otherwise

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591188#Comment_122591188

Even if the vehicle is being used for non-work purposes? E.g you put a scrape on it while helping your friend to move furniture at the weekend?

sundodger5

It may have been a section that is pretty common for company cars.

Designed to have some comeback for drivers with the it isn't mine so i don't care style of driving.

I have seen some absolutely wrecked machines due to abuse over the years and some times you need to have a way of dealing with that.

Wording of these is usually around the word may. The company may in the event of etc.

Situations usually handled with some common sense regarding damage. Easy to tell the difference between shopping trolley scrapes vs some lad who cannot judge the corner of his vehicle and wants to hand back a car that looks like it has been banged of every pillar in the car park.

Allinall

Check your employment contract.

We have a €150 charge for drivers if it’s their fault.

Our insurance has a €2,500 excess for every claim.

There’s about 30 drivers and it’s clear in their employment contract.

They also pay any speeding or parking fines.

Buddy Bubs

Speeding fines and parking fines paid by employees in my company.

Crashes go through insurance

Negligent use of vehicles borne by employees, one guy tried to install a new sound system in a van himself and fried electrics we deducted that from him, he didn't argue.

magicbastarder

Why would you invest your own money in a vehicle not owned by you?

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591340#Comment_122591340

That's what we asked him too. He had no permission to do it.

It's his main vehicle and I guess he likes music.

Nigzcurran

I find it hard to justify the price of a magic tree for the van!

cbreeze

I worked for a large company with a fleet of trucks and cars. There was always small bits of damage - the driver would fill out the damage report and we would send it to the insurers.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591188#Comment_122591188

We're not talking about liablity here.

If I drive my car negligently and I crash into yours, I am liable to you for the damage to your car and for any injury you suffer. That's a liablity and I am required to have insurance for that liablity.

However the damage to my car resulting from my negligent driving is not a liability; it's just a loss to me. I am nor required to have insurance for that loss, but I may choose to get insurance.

Right. If we're talking about company cars, the company is required to have insurance for liablity to third parties, but it is not required to insure its own interest in its own cars (though it would obviously be wise to). But the insurance will usually have an excess, which the company must just swallow unless it can recover all or party of it from the driver whose carelessness actually caused the accident.

baxterooneydoody

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591340#Comment_122591340

I know of more than a few lorry drivers who buy curtains, chrome bars, light bars, stainless steel walkways for company lorries, I can't fathom it, one young lad has invested over 4 grand on shiny stuff for his bosses lorry, I told him he'd be better off putting it towards a deposit for a house

bmc58

You should know the full facts of a question you are asking.Otherwise the answers you recieve can only be a guess.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591468#Comment_122591468

I begrudgingly put a one shot windscreen yokey from mace into the company crock as the windscreen was manky, still annoys me thinking about it😆😆, they are good in fairness...

beachhead

I put a new cd player into a company car(better than factory fitted)for my music.It was accepted by insurers as correctly installed at the next service.A large international company No penalty from the company.Car has usb slots as well.I use both

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122592115#Comment_122592115

You didn't damage the electrics though, the guy in my place did!

beachhead

As you said

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122592076#Comment_122592076

Or else you're asking precisely because you don't know the full facts?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367954/crashing-company-vehicle

It's nothing to do with insurance. Insurance is a matter for your employer. Whether they have the vehicle insured or not, and what level of insurance or excess is their business and their problem.

It would be very unusual to be responsible for consequential losses like this during employment. Unless there is something very clear in the employment contract, the company is on very dodgy ground.

bmc58

Exactly.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594357#Comment_122594357

Spot on.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591123#Comment_122591123

The protection is against making a deduction from your pay. If a crash was caused by negligence of the employee or done deliberately, the employer could sue the employee and recover that way.

The Jammy dodger

It's a private school bus company and there is no contract signed. Just began work without any signing of anything. I don't understand though if you're driving a vehicle to the work place and are only paid for 2 of the three hours you are driving there and home how can you not be insured when off the clock at anytime in the bus? None of that makes sense to me.

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122595331#Comment_122595331

You don’t hold a policy of insurance that covers damage to this vehicle. You believe that the owner of the bus may hold some such policy, but to be frank that is of very little business of yours in so far as this matter is concerned.

The owner of the bus, has or will suffer a loss arising from this incident in which damage has occurred to this bus. It may be the full cost of the repair, it may be loss of use during repair, it may be demished value, or perhaps the loss of a no claims bonus on an insurance policy. It doesn’t really matter - the relevant question is whether you are responsible to repay him for this loss, or if he needs to suck it up as arising in the course of his business.

In the circumstances you describe, I think it unlikely that an employer would be successful in seeking that costs be paid by you, and these costs will need to be met by him/his insurers.

hullaballoo

The employers are vicariously liable for the wrongdoing causing the damage and pay the loss themselves.

Chancers.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122598127#Comment_122598127

The principle of vicarious liablity means that the employer is responsible to third parties for loss or damage caused to third parties by the negligence or breach of duty of the employee in the performance of the employment.

It does not mean that the employee is not liable to the employer for loss or damage caused to the employer by the negligence or breach of duty of the employee in the performance of the employment. If I negligenctly, maliciously, etc damange my employer's property, plant, equipment, I can't rely on any rule of vicarious liablity to argue that I have no liablity for doing so.