Tag: car insurance

Accidents drive up insurance costs for everyone

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 31 Mar 2013:

There’s a good reason your van insurance premiums keep going up: the number of accident claims have been soaring, which drive costs up for absolutely everyone.

Whether you’re a White Van Man or you just drive your Vauxhall Astra to work and back home every day, you’re sure to feel plenty of pain whenever it comes time to renew your van or car insurance. The driving force behind these massive premium hikes has been revealed to be largely tied to the number of accident claims being brought against the insurance industry.

The worst part is that there’s really no reason for these heightened number of claims, as roads in the UK are actually safer than they ever have been before according to the Office for National Statistics. Recently released figures from the ONS show how the number of accidents occurring on UK roadways has plummeted over even just the past few years, yet the number of claims arising from these accidents seem to be going up; some of this could be related to fraud, and the nation’s scammers are indeed out in force whilst looking to make a few extra quid at someone else’s expense, but if you ask me the big reason here is the economy: in tough economic times, people involved in accidents are much worse off than they are in times of plenty, which means they are in more dire need of compensation.

it’s certainly a mess, and the only real way to drop accident claim figures is to make the roads just that much safer. One way to do this is to keep a lookout for cyclists, according to driving charity Brake, which recently discovered in a survey that more than 8 out of every 10 cyclists have either been struck by another vehicle or suffered a near-miss.

Cyclists seem to be a favourite target for commercial vehicles in particular, as more than one out of every ten bicycle accidents were at the hands of a van or other commercial vehicle. Based on these results, Brake has urged fleet managers to get their drivers some proper training on manoeuvring their vehicles and keeping an eye out for blind spots, as cyclists are often so small as to slip by nearly unnoticed in a blind spot, only to end up eating pavement thanks to a sudden movement on the part of the van.

Of course, I’m not about to let cyclists off the hook here completely themselves: plenty of time it’s not the fault of the van driver. Cyclists like to squeeze through tight fits if they’re feeling especially cheeky, even though taking these risks certainly exposes them to heightened risk of being involved in an accident, so as much as Brake may say that van drivers need to watch out I think it’s not out of line to tell cyclists to quit mucking about quite so much as well!

Bad news spread around for insurers and manufacturers

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 24 MAR 2013:

Not only has it been revealed that insurers have been strung up by a recent massive ‘crash for cash’ car insurance scheme, vehicle production in he UK is down.

The scheme, run by a gang of at least 60 criminals in County Durham, was so widespread and responsible for so much in ridiculously overblown insurance claims that area motorists saw their car and van insurance costs soar by around £100 a year, experts say. On top of that, it was revealed by Durham Police that the masterminds of the criminal ring was actually a family affair, with many of the key members of the gang were members of the Burnhope-based Wright family.

All of this went down last March, but it’s only until now that a reporting ban has been lifted, and now everyone is absolutely agog at how widespread the fraud activity was. The scam was incredibly complex, involving accidents staged by motorists braking suddenly at junctions, which would cause the car behind to shunt into them, and sometimes both drivers were in on the whole thing in order to maximise the amount of cash they could get from insurers in the form of spurious whiplash claims.

This is absolutely the best part though: these enterprising bastards also had their own auto recovery firm, Craghead-based PJ Autos, which would not just remove vehicles from crash sites and then bill insurers for the service but also hire cars and vans out to anyone involved in the accident – again charging both commercial van insurance and personal car insurance providers alike. However, things began to unravel once the police discovered that somehow the car hire firm hired out the same car to not just one person at a time but four different people, and this was but one bit of evidence that eventually resulted in a massive number of arrests and convictions.

Luckily the police caught these criminals, but the damage has already been done. Hopefully things will begin to recover, but there’s more bad news for the auto industry: The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders discovered that February’s vehicle production figures in the UK were down overall, indicating that sales may be on the decline as well.

The SMMT did the maths and found that there were 0.7 per cent fewer vehicles built last month than in February of 2012. That may not seem like much, but that’s more than 137,000 vehicles all told.

Insurance policy holders and UK motorists are still purchasing cars, according to SMMT chief executive Mike Baunton, as he blamed the drop-off on the export market declining by around 10 per cent. The eurozone’s economic instability is the culprit, added Mr Baunton, but he spun the news by remarking that last year’s figures were so high that a 0.7 per cent overall drop is something the industry should be able to absorb without much worry; I hope he’s right!

Do anything it takes to get cheaper rates

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Market review for the week of 17 Mar 2013:

It’s not just me that’s been saying ‘take drastic measures,’ either, as this week the Association of British Insurers have urged the Government to take steps to help lower car insurance and van insurance rates by as much as 20 per cent simply by setting new driver safety standards. The ABI says that younger motorists in particular could see as much as £370 shaved off their yearly insurance premiums, and that’s no laughing matter, now is it?

The problem with the current standard right now, the ABI said, is that younger drivers are taught to drive in a way that’s simply ‘not fit for purpose,’ and this applies to whether you’re driving a Vauxhall Astra or a Ford Transit – if you’re not learning how to be safe behind the wheel you’re more likely to get involved in an accident, and that means insurance costs are going to remain astronomically high. Meanwhile, you could reverse this upward creep on premium prices simply by instituting better teaching methods that instill safer driving in the nation’s up and coming motorists, which will result in less expensive cover for everyone.

Meanwhile, MPs are looking for ways to control insurance costs as well, though their approach is to look into how much whiplash injury claims are diving up personal vehicle and commercial van insurance alike. In particular, the Commons Transport Committee wants to delve into why the UK has somehow become the place where you go if you’ve got a weak neck, as we’re currently the ‘whiplash capital of the world; with the number of payouts for whiplash going through the roof.

The committee is keenly examining how much that fraud could be driving up costs for everyone. There’s no doubt that fraud is indeed a problem, especially as the number of claims keep going up every year even as the number of reported accidents actually go down,  but it remains to be seen how much of an impact fabricated or exaggerated injuries actually do drive up premium prices – and what action – if any – can be taken to stamp fraudulent claims out.

For what it’s worth, it’s hard to put your finger on what whiplash injury is just a load of bollocks and which one is legitimate, thanks to the fact that there’s no real definitive test that a doctor can run to prove a patient is suffering from whiplash. It’s a soft tissue injury, and it won’t show up on an x-ray or an MRI, so all you have to go on is what the patient tells you: a good liar can mimic the symptoms of whiplash all too easily I’m afraid!

This is why your premiums keep going up every year

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CAR INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: WEEK ENDED 10 mar 2013:

If you’ve ever wondered why your commercial van insurance premium keeps going up every year, it turns out that we’re all being victimised by criminals.

Whether it’s the van insurance or car insurance industry, the prevalence of insurance fraud has reached epidemic proportions in the UK. In fact, a new report issued by the Association of British Insurers recently revealed that when it comes to claims costs, the money paid out on personal injury claims is by and large the biggest cost to insurance companies – and they turn around and charge you and me in order to make up the ever rising shortfall.

An absolutely huge proportion of these costs could be, in fact, originating from completely spurious claims, and nowhere is this more a possibility than when it comes to whiplash injury claims, as the injuries are notoriously hard to disprove. The ABI estimates that at least £90 of every driver’s insurance cover goes directly towards the costs of paying out all these fraudulent claims, and with some 1,500 claims rolling in to the nation’s insurance companies each and every day, any number of these could be completely fabricated by ‘crash for cash’ scammers looking to pull the wool over our eyes and get away with vast sums of cash.

And if you think it’s a victimless crime, think again: on top of the kinds of woe we all have to put up with in scraping together the cash to keep our van or car on the road every year, scammers that cause road traffic accidents can often cause massive real injuries to innocents. In fact, one poor woman lost her life thanks to one instance of fraud gone terribly wrong.

The incident occurred in Buckinghamshire on the A40 recently, where three men in a Ford Transit van purposefully got themselves into an accident by slamming on the brakes, sending the car behind them, 34 year old Balinder Kaur Gill’s Ford Fiesta, to shunt them from behind. The plan was to then make a claim to Ms Gill’s insurer for the vehicle damage and the ‘whiplash’ the three men suffered, but in a flash that all changed when Ms Gill’s vehicle was struck from behind in turn, this time by a Renault van that was traveling at speed, slamming into the Fiesta with such force that the woman was slain instantly – all because the three in the Ford Transit wanted to make some quick cash.

I simply can’t believe how reckless and selfish some people can be. Leave off with the cost in insurance that people like the men in the Ford Transit cause – the loss of life is absolutely reprehensible and I can only hope and pray that the Government does something about this serious whiplash fraud problem in order to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Costs are high all around – so cut your insurance bill

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 3 mar 2013:

Everyone’s hurting in the current economy, but there are ways to save on your car insurance or van insurance even in this day and age, believe it or not!

March is upon us, and you and I both know what that means: nearly everyone will be looking for a new annual insurance quote, whether it be for their family car or their van or commercial vehicle. Costs have been going up like mad over the past few years, but apparently up to one out of three don’t bother to take steps to reduce our bill, according to a research article I read recently.

A car insurance comparison site found that as many as 8.7 million motorists in the UK aren’t taking their annual policy seriously and are just automatically renewing their cover for another year. Taken together, these drivers could be losing out on an eye watering £2.5 billion by not shopping around for a better deal – and that works out to almost £300 a driver on average!

Believe it or not, the research also said that three million Brits have been labouring under the same insurance provider for a decade or more. I haven’t even had the same pair of trousers for more than ten years, let alone the same insurance provider, so it just blows my mind that someone could stick with an insurer for such a long, long time.

The truth is, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t switching to the best deal you can find every year, as insurers have absolutely no requirement to provide you with any sort of loyalty advantage for sticking it out. In fact, many insurers will raise rates year-on-year to their existing customers in order to provide better, more enticing offers to those willing to switch, so you’re definitely leaving yourself in a poor position.

Of course, you may end up getting a bum deal where there truly are no better options out there when it comes to your insurance premiums. In a situation like this, you may want to consider breaking the mold as it were and look into a telematics-based insurance cover instead, as these satnav-based insurance policies are gaining quite a bit of ground in popularity.

Telematics has been in the news lately as well thanks to its quick growth, and where it used to be that you needed to have a specific ‘black box’ device fitted to your car, there are some insurers that are coming out with smartphone apps that work the exact same way as the traditional telematics device. This makes it much less expensive to start a telematics-based policy as you don’t need to shell out upwards of a few hundred pounds for a device and instead just download a free app for your mobile phone, and with it being so much more easy to access telematics cover, it could grow even more popular in the near future.

Van seized in police check on the A24

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 17 Feb 2013:

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen: this week saw the A24 slow to a crawl thanks to a random police check that saw cars pulled over and one van seized!

The fun and games began this past Thursday in Ashtead, where police flagged down a total of 40 drivers for so-called ‘suspicious’ vehicles. I don’t know what police say when they say suspicious, but it seemed to have worked as nearly half of those pulled over left with traffic offences, while two vehicles were in such bad repair that their drivers were told to not put them back on the road until their faults were taken care of.

The star of the show was the white Ford transit van that was told to pulled over after authorities spied that the passenger wasn’t wearing their seat belt, besides the fact that they were an adult and should know better. Things got even more hilarious once it was discovered that the vehicle’s van insurance didn’t cover the driver.

The driver, a Lithuanian national whose name wasn’t released to the press – perhaps because most Brits can’t quite master the spelling and pronouncing a foreign name – now has a record for driving without proper insurance cover. He most likely got off rather easily, considering the owner of the van now has to cope with his vehicle being seized until the whole situation is sorted, so let that be a warning to anyone who thinks you can get one over on the police: they’re watching, and you’re going to end up walking if you’re not going to get yourself at least a cheap van insurance policy for your vehicle.

In related news – and the whole reason the cops are out in force and able to catch those that are a bit thick and think that ‘compulsory’ car insurance doesn’t apply to them – is that Continuous Enforcement rules have been in effect for quite some time. Not only that, but there are new technological advances that have been brought forward specifically to help local police forces catch those who are flouting the new law.

In fact, new automated licence plate readers can scan thousands of cars in very little time, even while they’re in motion, and then query a new centralised insurance database to cross-check for vehicles that are registered but aren’t legally permitted to be on the nation’s roads. It’s just one more reason to follow the law, as you can’t hide any longer even if you tried to!

White Van Man, like common sense, an endangered species

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 4 nov  2012:

Just when you thought it was safe to get behind the wheel: this week, the news cycle has been filled with some rather silly points made about van drivers.

One initial report, published just a few days ago, has sounded the alarm that we’ve a new endangered species here in the UK: The White Van Man. A new survey found that out of those under the age of 30 that are entering a trade, only four per cent of them are in need of a van.

The commercial van insurance provider that conducted the poll discovered that this simply wasn’t true across all age ranges. In fact, anyone over the age of 40 that was planning on changing careers has an 80 per cent chance to be going into a position that requires a van, the insurer found.

What’s behind the demise of young Brits getting behind the wheel of big white vans?  Well, nearly one out of every three said that if it wasn’t increases to the price of a litre of petrol, it was rampant insurance and road tax hikes as well driving them into the arms of jobs that didn’t require them sitting in traffic for hours and breathing exhaust fumes; meanwhile 25 per cent of younger drivers said they had no desire to be lumped in with the rest of the White Van Men due to their horrid reputations.

Believe it or not, there may be a bit of truth to the whole ‘horrid driver’ stereotype when it comes to those who drive a van for a living. The research conducted by the car insurance provider found that around 15 per cent of van drivers surveyed had driving offences.

While that’s not a terribly high figure, the next one will definitely blow your mind: around one out of every five van drivers reported actually having sex in their vehicle! Hopefully this wasn’t on the clock – and even more hopefully this wasn’t while the van was in motion, though it would explain some of the poor driving people always complain about, wouldn’t it?

 

Ugliest van ever wins BISVA’s Green Van category

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 28 Oct  2012:

What is easily the ugliest single vehicle to ever roll was recently the winner of the British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards’ Green Van category.

The dimunitive little van, a Frankenstein’s monster of a Ford Fiesta with its back seats ripped out and its rear side windows blanked out as well called the Fiesta ECOnetic van, has been a three time winner at BISVA in its category, thanks to its almost nonexistent greenhouse gas emissions. While the car insurance award is undoubtedly prestigious, it certainly doesn’t take aesthetics into account in any way, shape, or form, as the small van is remarkably queer-looking.

However, under that bizarre exterior resides an amazingly efficient diesel engine, as the Fiesta ECOnetic not only gets more than 85mpg but also only emits 87g/km in carbon dioxide emissions. Ford Britain was quite pleased after their ugly yet fuel-efficient little van was praised again, with Anthony Ireson, marketing director for the car manufacturer, commenting that the firm had been overjoyed to learn that their Fiesta Van had once more risen to the top of its class for small vans in regards to green technology.

Mr Ireson added that Ford Britain plans to continue offering technological innovations and new safety features with further iterations of the Fiesta Van in order to continue its past record of excellence. However, no word yet as to whether the manufacturer’s designers will actually design the outside of the vehicle with their eyes open this time.

Some of the ECOnetic’s features that earned it the high praise are Smart Regenerative Charging, auto start-stop, and the advanced diesel powertrain, Produced and developed at Ford’s Diesel Centre in Dagenham, the van also has a lower suspension and low rolling resistance tyres that combine with its diesel engine, a recalibrated 1.6-litre motor, all of which contribute to its high mileage.

So if you have around £10,800 and you’re in need of a fuel efficient van, this may be the vehicle for you, though you might not want to let your mates see you motoring about town in one.

‘White Van Man’ not as accurate a title as it used to be

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 21 oct 2012:

Move over, lads – new research results this week revealed that there’s more women behind the wheels of vans than you might have thought at first.

According to one car insurance provider’s recent survey, as many as one out of every three van drivers using their vehicles in the course of a business were female. Not only that, but AXA Business Insurance, which provides commercial van insurance to its customers, found that around 14 per cent of these women found it insulting to be referred to as ‘the White Van Man.’

Nearly three out of every four of these women said that the stereotypes associated with the White Van Man appellation were more or less accurate, while almost one out of every three actually found it amusing. Female van drivers seem to have a better sense of humour than their male counterparts, as only 29 per cent of men who drive vans for a living were amused by the nickname.

Most van drivers, whether they be men or women, were found to be overall quite responsible drivers. Almost 70 per cent reported not being convicted of a traffic offence with in the last decade, even though more than half of them spent 10 hours out of every week behind the wheel and 15 per cent spending in excess of 30 hours a week driving.

Women were actually found to be slightly more cautious than men when it came to avoiding traffic citations throughout the past ten years. In fact, men reported being offence-free 67 per cent of the time, while women said that they had not been cited for an offence 73 per cent of the time, a difference of 6 percentage points.

AXA Bisuness Insurance’s managing director,Darrell Sansom, commented on the findings, indicating that the last ten years have left van drivers with a pretty sour reputation. However, Mr Sansom pointed out how far off the mark these stereotypes have become over these intervening years, pointing out that not only has professionalism undergone a steep rise amongst the courier vehicle and delivery van community but that an increasing number of women are driving vans for a living as well.

Police out in force, just waiting for van drivers to slip up

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Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 2nd September 2012:

So you might think that you’re safe and happy with all the mucking about you’re doing with your van, but you couldn’t be more wrong: the police are on the lookout for van drivers.

In fact, there are nearly 50 van drivers that re decidedly less jolly than they were last week, what with the recent undercover sting operation set up on the A27 and A3 near Havant. Police officers pulled over a total of 88 vehicles, and 47 of them won the dubious honour of leaving with 47 tickets – great for the police, but bad for any lead-footed van drivers.

Not only will these blokes need to pay out on any fixed penalties for things like speeding, MOT violations, and not driving with valid van insurance, but they’ll have to answer to their insurance companies as well; providers take a dim view of their customers flouting the law, after all. Hope those 47 van drivers are looking forward to rate hikes at renewal time!

Of course, you could end up being slapped with more than just a fine if you get caught out with no car insurance nowadays, thanks to the new continuous enforcement regulations that require you to have a vehicle insured no matter if you’re driving it or not. You could end up getting your van seized outright by the authorities now – a fate that befell one woman this week as well after the police began poking into her suspiciously-parked van.

The woman, who was parked in the car park of Coxheath Village Hall of all places, drew the attention of a local Police Community Support Officer. The PCSO investigated – as is their wont to do – and found out there wasn’t a lick of valid insurance on the vehicle.

So what happened? Well the van’s owner left with the parting gifts of six points on her licence, a £200 fixed penalty, and lost her van, so let that be a lesson to you if you think the police aren’t taking insurance matters seriously. We suppose the other lesson you might want to take away from all this is to not park your car in the village hall car park if you’re trying to avoid notice, but some people just aren’t that bright, apparently – or just enjoy taking public transport.

 

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