Uninsured drivers

[pipme]

Blimey, wonder if the Govn has priced this jobby ...
It is said 1Mil uninsured drivers, if they cover say 8K miles per annum and fuel tax is 75% then I reckon that amounts to about £750Mil at 8k miles p/a and 30mpg.
If they buy tyres say 20k front 30k rear for about £35 ea, then the VAT will be £9.3mil an approx total of £0.76 Billion .. now if all that is only half right that is £0.38 Billion .. so let us take the mean £0.57 Billion a fair bit of exchequer dosh.
Cost to us ? Apparently the other 19Mil drivers pay an average of £30 per annum (inc 5% insurance premium tax = £28.5 Mil )
So Govn gets near £600 million from these 'uninsured drivers' and circumstances surrounding them ... we carry the cost both monetry and otherwise.
No guarantee of any income from this rabble if caught ....
So, I wonder why the big whip isn't cracked ? income must play a part !!

Oh, here's a nice one - it is possible that recent car on level crossing was uninsured ... If so we'll be paying for that lot then, I bet the cost is astronomical if we have to pay via the Insurance fund... More than recent train crash companies were levied I'll bet !!
P

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

Good points Pip, but I have question.

Why is it that any injury/death/damage resulting from an accident of an uninsured driver is paid out of the 'general fund' of motor insurance thus resulting in higher premiums for the rest of us? By contrast a similar event committed by a terrorist results in compensation being met by the Criminal Injuries Board. Why this anomaly?

 

[nstreet]

The annoying thing is it would be relativley easy to reduce the number of uninsured drivers. At the moment, when you tax your car you produce the MOT and insurance certificate. These only have to be valid for weeks after the day you tax your car. Therefore if your crafty you can drive around for 11 moths with no MOT or Insurance.

If when you tax your car the insurance details were passed onto the DVLA, they would know when you are driving around uninsured and could then have one of the nice reps call on you, much as they know when your tax is out of date.

If the insurance was on some form of smart card like your bank card then there is even less room forgery etc. OK, it will cost some money to implement but far less that it costs us for uninsured drivers.

Apparently almost one in three drivers are uninsured, thats really scary, especially as the standards of driving seem to have hit rock bottom over the last few years. So there's a good chance you could bump into one

 

[david and julie]

I don't understand why we don't have disc's (like a tax disc) that are put on the windscreen. These could show owner of car /insurance/mot and tax etc. Because of privacy and security any personal details could be bar codes or similar newer methods, which could only be read by the police.

There is no excuse whatsoever for the present idiocy. The programme on the telly last night, showed young lads who had been stopped countless times sticking 2 fingers up at the police.

I did read somewhere about some countries having basic third party insurance on the petrol, which seems sensible.

 

[pipme]

........., showed young lads who had been stopped countless times sticking 2 fingers up at the police........

Hence the alienation of normally law abiding citizens when 'caught' speeding but far from excessively ....

P

 

[securespark]

See this week's Auto Express for an interesting article on Police Forces and their attitude to uninsured drivers - some care not one bit.

 

[david and julie]

A cynic may suggest they were going for the most profitable area's of policing.

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/134/134153_police_plea_for_cash.html

I just can't see how things are going to improve in the coming years.

 

[AdamW]

I was shocked when I read "almost one in three drivers is uninsured", but then I thought about it...

In the last few years I know 4 people who have been in fender-benders. One of them was by my mum, when her foot slipped off the clutch in a traffic queue and she shunted the car in front. A few scratches to the car in front and a few dents on hers, her insurance covered repairs to both.

However, the other 3:

1) Someone in a 4x4 graunched along the whole side of my sister's car in a queue for the M25. She got out, asked him to pull in at the siding, they both did but as soon as she was out of the car he burned off. She didn't catch the numberplate but it is likely he was uninsured.

2) An old school friend, was T-boned by someone who pulled away on a red light at a junction, drove off, traffic light cameras got the number but they never caught him. They did ascertain that he was uninsured though.

3) A colleague was hit by a car that ran a red light a few months back. They drove off, the numberplates were reported and it turns out they were uninsured.

So, 50% of the car-car accidents I know of were caused by an uninsured driver, and an additional 25% were possibly uninsured drivers. All of them fled the scene and were never caught. Frightening. They get away from it because the victims are busy checking their passengers are OK and thinking "Did that really just happen?!"

Only a small statistical sample admittedly, but certainly from this it shows that the type of people who drive uninsured are a bunch of selfish b**tards who don't care about anyone else. My sister is a student and couldn't afford to repair the car (seeing as she was paying so much in insurance premiums), so her pride and joy ended up with a big rusty gouge along a whole side. The friend of mine who got T-boned, the guy drive off without even checking if my mate was conscious.

 

[nstreet]

I like the idea of diplaying some sort of disc to prove that you are insured, the police make a big thing about stopping untaxed drivers, but then the money goes back to the government and the onto the police forces so they have a vested interest in doing so, it wouldn't be the same with insurance. You could have a percentage of the fines etc going to the police, it may then amend some of the shortfalls that D&J spoke about.

I think this is the reason the poice dont care about uninsured drivers, there's nothing in it for them.

Q. taxes go up every year, every year the police and local councils claim that they don't have enough funding, so where is it all going Mr Bliar, oops I mean Blair

 

[masona]

I like the idea of diplaying some sort of disc to prove that you are insured,

Just has a thought, why don't the insurance company give you a credit card type with your number plate details into a bar code then you need this to operate the petrol pump then the petrol attendant can check it out at the same time when you pay. The uninsured won't be able to buy petrol, the next thing would be petrol theft, should make it harder for them though.

 

[kendor]

One scenario i've thought about for a long time is that all vehicle insurance should be covered by a governmental fund which all drivers pay into, you would have your own insurance account with say a minimum amount of £1000 before you are allowed to drive, after that as long as you don't claim you make no more payments, those that make a claim go into a different scheme where they pay as you go ie the more accidents/claims you have the more you pay into the fund and you would have to stay claim free for say 5 years before you qualified to go back to the original fund and it's benefits. This way, careful drivers wouldn't be penalised by others bad driving and you wouldn't have to keep finding the money to insure your vehicle each year.
The other benefit is that the government will have a great deal of interest paid on the money in the fund some of which will go towards the cost of running the road scheme etc. and because of the vast amount of money paid in and the interest acrued maybe good drivers could get incentives like bonuses paid into their accounts every so often.

Just an idea.

 

[AdamW]

I think that's a very good idea, and would remove the penalties for heinous crimes such as "driving under the age of 25", or "driving whilst in possession of testes".

Would make the system a lot more fair. I do not doubt that most 50 year old chartered surveyors are more sensible and careful drivers than most 17 year old schoolboys, but there are always exceptions to the rule.

The premiums for those who love crashing would go absolutely through the roof mind, but perhaps accident rates would be cut if people faced the prospect of £3K a year payments into the insurance scheme for 5 years. You would effectively have a situation where the cost of accidents was spread out across all those who have an accident instead of all those who drive. Inspired!

I never could figure out why at 21 I was paying £900 a year insurance when I had never had an accident, yet my gf of the day was paying £250 a year and had 3 minor but claimable accidents in the last few years.

Of course, this doesn't entirely conquer the driving without insurance problem in that some people would still evade the original £1000, and people would still hit and run.

 

[masona]

I never could figure out why at 21 I was paying £900 a year insurance when I had never had an accident, yet my gf of the day was paying £250 a year and had 3 minor but claimable accidents in the last few years.

It maybe because of all the joy riders being chased by the police are all male drivers so we get punish because of them maybe ??? Boys tend to do more wheel spin than girls

 

[AdamW]

Boys tend to do more wheel spin than girls

Well we do have bigger feet... when I drove my mum's Peugeot 206 in flipflops I got my big toe caught behind the steering shaft!

I do realise why they penalise young males, I learned about that as a schoolboy. A guy in my year wrote off 2 or 3 cars in one year, and I was being quoted £2000 a year on an Austin Metro: wasn't possible to run a car AND a girlfriend, which is a bit of a Catch 22 situation when you are 17! I would have really cherished and looked after an old banger. Oh well!

 

[IanDB]

I would have really cherished and looked after an old banger.

And the car too?