Uninsured Drivers

Sounds eminently sensible to me.

I wondered how long it would take for this place to start talking about car insurance.

Don't forget, re an earlier comment, If you are in a high theft of m/v area, the chances are you also get penalised.

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:
If you are in a high theft of m/v area, the chances are you also get penalised.

Unless the proportion of uninsured drivers in the area was so high that insurance claims for theft actually have go down.

quote:

Originally posted by jon honeyball:
the problem of uninsured drivers will not go away until there is a complete review of the insurance market

the only workable solution is to have the car insured, not the driver. then you can have an insurance ticket in the windscreen just like a tax disc.

the current situation is laughable, with (is it 10%?) insurance loading now for that fund that pays out of uninsured drivers?

unfortunately there are far too many people making far too much money out of an infinite number of irrelevant insurance policies. Scrap the lot, insure the car (by car value and by registered postcode) and lets just walk
away from this problem.

some will argue that they enjoy a low policy quote because of their experience, risk factor etc. If there was any credibility in the risk factor analysis, then it wouldnt be the case that I can get a five-fold difference in insurance quotes for me for my cars (early 40s, countryside, 20 years clean license). Thats not a risk analysis, thats a random number generator.

The insurance disk on windscreen is in operation in Ireland and it does not work. Ireland has a similar uninsured driver problem to the UK. All the disk does is increase the cost of providing an insurance policy due to admin which is paid for (indirectly) by the policyholder. It also is a barrier to entry for prospective new insurers which is also bad for competition and hence prices to you and me. The disk system is a old technology solution to an onging problem and it is not succeeding. Better information systems are the answer. It is only a matter of how these are implemented at a low cost and and without compromising civil liberties. (Personally I believe that driving a motorised vehicle is a privelege and not a right and therefore, tohose who choose to do it can be expected to sacrifice some perceived rights)

On the point about differeing quotes. You get these differences because some companies don't want your business. Hard to believe but it is true. The best mathematical brains around are employed to derive sophisticated models that predict the expected cost of the claims you are expected to make based on a number of rating factors that you present to them on quotation/renewal. Different insurers target different areas of the market where they expect to be able to get customers at prices that are in excess of the expected claims cost. Where they cannot get this they quote so as not to get the business. The UK benefits from what is probably the most competitive car insurance market in the world, so much so that many insurers are struggling to keep in business.

Premium rating by value and postcode alone would not work. In fact car value has precious little affect on any car insurance premium quotation. Unless a car is completely writen off, most "own damage" claims are in the £2k to £5k range regardless if it is a 10 year old sierra or a £80k Mercedes. There are many studies that indicate that the person driving the expensive mercedes is likely to be a much more careful driver than the driver of a 10 year old sierra, hence prospectively a lower expected claim cost. If they both run over a pedestrian, the main component of the claim will depend on the circumstances of the pedestrian and not the cost of the car that injured them.

Postcodes are more an indication of the likely theft potential and vandalism claims. Again there are often smaller claims that are not significant when compared to a personal injury claim.

(From the above, you can probably guess that I work in the insurance pricing business!!)

Regards P

On a bit of a tangent - interested to see that New Zealand doesn't have compulsory TP insurance - probably because they have a State run compulsory compensation scheme covering personal injury.

If you go on holiday in New Zealand it would be most unfortunate to suffer a serious accident, as loss of earnings outside New Zealand is not compensated - not covered by State scheme and you cannot sue for damages

The more difficult they make it to pass the driving test, the more they charges for road tax, the more they charge for insurance, and the introduction of road pricing will mean more and more people will simply drive unlicenced and uninsured.

quote:

Originally posted by living in lancs yearning for yorks:
On a bit of a tangent - interested to see that New Zealand doesn't have compulsory TP insurance - probably because they have a State run compulsory compensation scheme covering personal injury.

If you go on holiday in New Zealand it would be most unfortunate to suffer a serious accident, as loss of earnings outside New Zealand is not compensated - not covered by State scheme and you cannot sue for damages

True, but on the other side of the coin is the fact that insurance is actually reasonably priced in comparison to the UK.

Now if we could stop "boy racers" /"car morons" from buying a car for $1 deposit out roads would also be safer...

In December of last year I was driving a car with permission (i.e. not my own car) therefore with 3rd party cover on my policy. I had just got in the car and was stationary when another driver reversed into me. I got out to exchange insurance details and found the other driver to be Polish with no English. I took photos of my car and his car with my phone's camera. After several unsuccessful attempts to establish a name and address for this guy I muttered to myself that I'd have to call the police. At this point "no English" miraculously became a "little English" and he produced an insurance document from the glove box. I copied the details down and contacted my insurers who in turn instructed a solicitor to act on my behalf.
To cut a long story short, this guy has not answered any correspondence sent to him by his own insurers and I have doubts he's still in the country.
It seems sometimes it's only the honest people who have to pay.
Regards,
Steve O.