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Guest blogger, Dominic Laurie, writes...

On Monday 6 April, I did a piece about a new approach to sending parcels. It's offered by a company called .

The principle: if you want to send a parcel, you log on to their website, describe the journey you want the parcel to make, and someone else in the community - either a professional courier themselves, or a private car user - can arrange to pick up your parcel for you, if they happen to be travelling along a similar route.

The idea is to help courier firms (who may for example be travelling back empty from a drop) or contribute towards the running costs of a private car. But the firm says it also benefits senders too as it's cheaper than hiring a van.

A few of you have written to us asking whether a private car driver is invalidating their car insurance by receiving money for taking parcels this way. Christabel Hallas, Tony Clegg, Joyce Diment, Roger Powell, Ian Little -- thank you for getting in touch. Doesn't a car insurance policy that covers Social, Domestic and Pleasure forbid using your vehicle for "hire and reward"?

Well, I asked stuff2send, and this was their reply: "Private individuals use the site as deliverers in a not-for-profit capacity. Senders contribute towards the individual's running costs for the agreed journey, and vehicles must seat eight passengers or less".

They say this is consistent with the advice that the insurance industry gives to those "offering lift share services where passengers may contribute to running costs for a journey." However, stuff2send does say that "anyone unsure of cover, should check with their insurer before proceeding."

It basically means that as "private" couriers receive less money that the actual cost of the journey, they are not doing it for profit or reward. So the Social, Domestic and Pleasure insurance policies that most of us have would not be invalidated. If they were taking several at a time, though, this would obviously change.

I also checked with the Association of British Insurers (ABI). They are the body that represents the industry and it was them that stuff2send says it went to for advice.

Malcolm Tarling from the ABI told me that the first thing to do is always to check with your insurer before you undertake to join any type of scheme such as this.

Your insurer, he says, will want to know whether the activity places you or your car at increased risk. Are you carrying expensive goods that will make your car more liable to be broken into? Does it make you at greater risk of having an accident?

On the other hand, they will also bear in mind that you are a private motorist who would have been making the journey anyway. So, before you do anything, give your insurer a call.

Dominic Laurie