Road Trip with multiple drivers using one car | GTAMotorcycle.com

Road Trip with multiple drivers using one car

Boots

Boots

Well-known member
I plan on going on a road trip with my friends for ten days. We are using a buddy's car and will be splitting up the driving evenly between 4 people total. Assuming we're all licensed (and the buddy's car is insured) can we all legally drive the car?

I'm aware of the repercussions if one of the three drivers who isn't the owner of the car gets involved in an accident. But my question isn't about insurance premiums it's about legally being able to drive our friends car across the country.

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Providing you live at different addresses vs the owner (an important part of the equation) you will be insured (even if he's not actually even in the car, so long as you're driving it with his permission), but the owner of the vehicle is legally on the hook for any accidents (and legal issues as a result) that might happen while someone else is driving.

If you live at the same address, then the situation gets foggy as technically you should be listed on the policy.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Providing you live at different addresses vs the owner (an important part of the equation) you will be insured (even if he's not actually even in the car, so long as you're driving it with his permission), but the owner of the vehicle is legally on the hook for any accidents (and legal issues as a result) that might happen while someone else is driving.

If you live at the same address, then the situation gets foggy as technically you should be listed on the policy.
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This is the key thing. The thing to realize is that if anything happens, the person driving the vehicle gets the tickets, but its the owners insurance that covers all liabilities etc. So even if the owner is not driving his insurance is still affected and the incident will be on his insurance record. (providing your at fault of course) For a discount, some policies don't permit drivers under the age of 25 though and you would need to check on this if anyone driving is under that age. I am also assuming this is an Ontario plated and insured car. Only reason why I state this is because I was told by my Quebec friend that in that province its really the driver thats insured and not the car like here.
 
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Moving violations are issued to the DRIVER of the vehicle, that driver's licence number is recorded. NO where does the officer record the insurance details of the "vehicle". Only the make, model, and vehicle plate is recorded. Your insurance policy is written for the DRIVER, NOT the vehicle. They simply used the vehicle info to determine the premiums, based on make, model etc.

Therefore, if someone else gets issued a moving violation while driving your vehicle your premiums do NOT increase. They will increase as previously correctly stated, if there is a claim, made against the policy involving that vehicle, IE a collision/damage/fire claim.

So the correct answer OP is yes as long as the vehicle is properly insured and plated, EACH driver, complies with the specifics of the owner's policy, (IE age restrictions), and EACH driver is properly licenced for the jurisdiction your driving in, then yes you are permitted to legally operate the vehicle.

JamJam said:
This is the key thing. The thing to realize is that if anything happens, the person driving the vehicle gets the tickets, but its the owners insurance that covers all liabilities etc. So even if the owner is not driving his insurance is still affected and the incident will be on his insurance record. (providing your at fault of course) For a discount, some policies don't permit drivers under the age of 25 though and you would need to check on this if anyone driving is under that age. I am also assuming this is an Ontario plated and insured car. Only reason why I state this is because I was told by my Quebec friend that in that province its really the driver thats insured and not the car like here.
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hedo2002 said:
Moving violations are issued to the DRIVER of the vehicle, that driver's licence number is recorded. NO where does the officer record the insurance details of the "vehicle". Only the make, model, and vehicle plate is recorded. Your insurance policy is written for the DRIVER, NOT the vehicle. They simply used the vehicle info to determine the premiums, based on make, model etc.

Therefore, if someone else gets issued a moving violation while driving your vehicle your premiums do NOT increase. They will increase as previously correctly stated, if there is a claim, made against the policy involving that vehicle, IE a collision/damage/fire claim.

So the correct answer OP is yes as long as the vehicle is properly insured and plated, EACH driver, complies with the specifics of the owner's policy, (IE age restrictions), and EACH driver is properly licenced for the jurisdiction your driving in, then yes you are permitted to legally operate the vehicle.
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Which I believe is what I said no? Person driving the vehicle gets the tickets (that would be moving violations) Owners insurance would cover liabilities (in the case of an accident).
 
In the wonderful world of vehicle insurance there is only one rule.
ASSUME NOTHING.
If you aren't sure if you're covered, phone your agent and ask.
Many times you can add the other drivers to your policy for the length of time the trip will take.
 
Personally I don't see an insurance problem subject to some basics covered above. However the vehicle situation may be different.

Does running a vehicle 24/7 violate any warranties?

Is the vehicle up to the task?

Who pays for the damage if something breaks? Hank wuz driving and he done broke the framus accumulator. He shudda knowed better.

The thing I find amusing is that the non owner often feels that paying his/her share of the gas is fair. The government pegs the operating cost of a vehicle at around $0.50 per Km. Gas is likely less than a quarter of that. Try getting a decent price for a high mileage car. Add for maintenance and repairs.

Worse still a couple joins the party and considers them as one entity, not two people.
 
nobbie48 said:
Worse still a couple joins the party and considers them as one entity, not two people.
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I ran into a couple like that once. We shared a week in a condo in Florida.
They cheaped their way out of everything on the grounds that they were a couple and only paid one share for everything.
They were very upset when I grabbed the master bedroom in the condo and gave them the smaller one.
After all, I was paying more for it so screw you.
 
Call your agent. The only safe thing to assume is that someone has to pay if something happens. If your friend crashes into someone else in your car, and your friend does not have insurance, either he has to pay out of pocket or your insurance is covering it (and likely going to increase your premiums).
 
some good info above, but in the event of a serious accident, regardless who's driving,
the driver and car owner will both be sued for damages, so if the driver has no liability
insurance he could be in a tough spot
 
JavaFan said:
some good info above, but in the event of a serious accident, regardless who's driving,
the driver and car owner will both be sued for damages, so if the driver has no liability
insurance he could be in a tough spot
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Are you saying the policy's liability insurance would only cover the owner, not the driver? That sounds very incorrect to me.
 
The registered owner must have insurance on the vehicle. All drivers must have a valid licence and permission to drive the vehicle.

It's the owner of the car that has the responsibility to make sure it's properly insured and who can legally drive the car.

If the other drivers have insurance elsewhere, it may come into play but that is worked out between the insurance companies. The driver and the passengers don't have to worry about that.

In the event of an accident, the registered owners claims adjuster will guide each person.


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unL33T said:
Are you saying the policy's liability insurance would only cover the owner, not the driver? That sounds very incorrect to me.
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No. I'm saying in the event of an accident where there is a serious injury or fatality, and someone other then the owner is driving and at fault, would be good if he had his own insurance as well, as he will be sued along with the car owner. Say the owner only carries 200k liability. And there's a fatality. Driver is in a very tough spot.

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JavaFan said:
No. I'm saying in the event of an accident where there is a serious injury or fatality, and someone other then the owner is driving and at fault, would be good if he had his own insurance as well, as he will be sued along with the car owner. Say the owner only carries 200k liability. And there's a fatality. Driver is in a very tough spot.

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You can't insure yourself (or be insured) via a separate policy on someone elses vehicle. Coverage applies to the vehicle insured and the person operating it, that's it, so someone elses car insurance who may or may not be driving (but isn't the registered owner of the vehicle being driven) is irrelevant. In the case of an accident the registered owner (and his/her insurance) is what's important - other persons policies are irrelevant so far as liability is concerned as their insurance companies will quickly throw up the "hey, the policy was not written to cover that situation, this isn't the vehicle we underwrote" fence.

The only way the additional drivers could be actually named under the vehicle policy would be to add them as an occasional driver, but that's unnecessary in the case of the OP's question as the other drivers will be covered anyways - the definition of occasional driver is someone who is driving the vehicle "regularly" - this is not that situation, this is a one off, so as long as the people driving are properly licensed, they are covered without needing such.
 
PrivatePilot said:
You can't insure yourself (or be insured) via a separate policy on someone elses vehicle. Coverage applies to the vehicle insured and the person operating it, that's it, so someone elses car insurance who may or may not be driving (but isn't the registered owner of the vehicle being driven) is irrelevant. In the case of an accident the registered owner (and his/her insurance) is what's important - other persons policies are irrelevant so far as liability is concerned as their insurance companies will quickly throw up the "hey, the policy was not written to cover that situation, this isn't the vehicle we underwrote" fence.

The only way the additional drivers could be actually named under the vehicle policy would be to add them as an occasional driver, but that's unnecessary in the case of the OP's question as the other drivers will be covered anyways - the definition of occasional driver is someone who is driving the vehicle "regularly" - this is not that situation, this is a one off, so as long as the people driving are properly licensed, they are covered without needing such.
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if you're driving a car and kill someone you are going to be sued, so go through life with your simplistic vision of what liability means, hopefully you don't need to find out otherwise

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An insurance company isn't going to cover something they didn't specifically wrote a policy for. In the case of your own specific insurance policy for your own vehicle, it doesn't apply when driving someone else's.

In in the case of an accident they're going to sue the vehicle owner, and subsequently, their insurance comes into play. Not yours on a completely unrelated vehicle.

If there's any question at all here it should be how much liability coverage the owner of the vehicle carries in the end. If it turns out that they carry minimal liability and there's any concern about multiple people getting sued in the case of an accident (when someone other than the owner is driving), you may wish to reconsider agreeing to drive their vehicle.
 
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