FOUR in 10 opt-out drivers using their own cars on employers' business are not insured for work.

That is the 'frightening discovery' at business driver assessment and training specialist, Universal Driver Training (UDT). Of 1,500 opt-out drivers it checked for their employers last year, more than 600 had no car insurance for business.

These drivers are heaping grave, costly, corporate liability risks on their employers and putting their own licenses and jobs at stake. Alarm bells are ringing in many companies, some of them household names, because they lack a fail-safe method of checking employee drivers' documents.

UDT chief Peter Jones says: 'Young salesmen are big culprits. Receiving opt-out cash to buy their own cars they chose sporty models with costly insurance and fail to get business cover, to save possibly £300 a year.

'We are finding that situation in 40% of opt out employees sent for driving assessment. Typically they go to extreme lengths to avoid producing their car insurance, even when we offer to run them home to get it.

'Widespread employer concern is running high because UDT is committed to reporting back to employers when driving assessments do not take place.

'We make it clear to opt-drivers turning-up in their own cars that they are to be assessed in their employers' time, therefore they are on business and must produce valid insurance. Without it they cannot be assessed.'

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