There are plenty of volunteering opportunities that require you to use a car, but it's important you know the rules about insurance and expenses to ensure you stay the right side of the law.

You can find yourself using your car while volunteering for all sorts of reasons, such as buying food for a residential event, transporting equipment or merchandise to a town centre stall, or collecting fellow volunteers attending a project. Some volunteering opportunities are primarily about using your car: providing a transport service or helping with shopping for people who otherwise would have difficulty getting about.

Insurance

Volunteers often aren't aware that using their personal vehicles for volunteering isn't automatically covered by their car insurance.  Whilst some insurance companies will count volunteering within the "domestic, social and pleasure" category, others require it to be classified under business miles.

"Anyone considering using their vehicle in connection with volunteer work should check the position with their motor insurer," says Malcolm Tarling from the Association of British Insurers.  "Whether or not the insurer will charge an extra premium, impose any additional terms and conditions, such as a higher policy excess, or require cover to be extended to business use will depend on the exact nature of the activities being undertaken.

"Some insurers may be willing to continue cover without any change, providing that it's not being done in connection with a business, and that the policyholder does not make any profit, although receiving money for petrol used is OK."

To make it easier, Volunteering England has created a form that volunteer drivers can send to their insurance company to make sure they are properly covered.

Driving directly between home and a volunteer project wouldn't normally be affected by the rules on insurance. However, as Malcolm says:  "The golden rule is to provide your motor insurer with full details for them to assess."

Mileage allowance

Volunteers are allowed to claim back expenses on their car use.  Usually this is done via the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Fixed Profit Car Scheme, which allows volunteers to claim a maximum of 40p per mile (up to 10,000 miles) to cover petrol, insurance and wear and tear.

Receiving more than this rate means that the HMRC treats it as making a profit from the car and therefore tax would have to be paid on the additional income.  An insurer would also treat this as driving for profit, which could invalidate insurance.  Furthermore, if you are providing transport for other people, you and the organisation could be prosecuted for running an unlicensed taxi service.

Volunteers who drive over 10,000 miles per year (across all organisations they volunteer for) can only claim 25p per mile on those additional miles. Alternatively, you may find it easier to claim actual costs, which means collecting receipts for petrol.  You'll also have to work out fixed costs such as car tax by calculating what percentage of your use of your car is for volunteering.

Any profit made does not count towards National Insurance contributions.

Further information is available from the HMRC in a leaflet for Volunteer Drivers.

Help purchasing a car

Volunteers can claim back a percentage of the interest on their loan if they are purchasing a car on credit or hire-purchase and being taxed on the mileage allowance.  The amount you can claim back is dependent on how much you use your car for volunteering as a percentage of the total use of the car.  So someone who drives 12,000 miles a year and uses their car for volunteering for 9,000 miles could claim back 75% of the interest on their loan for that year.

Driving safety

As long as you aren't being paid for it, or making a profit from your expenses, driving for a voluntary organisation doesn't qualify you as operating a Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) and therefore you aren't subject to the same regulations as taxi drivers.

That said, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)  says that driving is about the most dangerous activity that most people do and has produced a booklet specifically for Volunteer Drivers, along with other resources for people who drive for work.

The Health and Safety Executive stresses that the same rules apply for risks associated with driving as any other part of the working environment, and that volunteers should be subject to the same standards as paid employees.

You should check to see what your organisation's policy on driving is, as they could be liable if you crash as a result of an unacceptable risk (such as driving for excessive hours).

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