'One in five' young drivers uninsured

DCFC79

Whats your views, linky, if you cant afford insuranc ethen you dont buy a car full stop, its not exactley rocket science is it,

movingforward2010

it is horrendously expensive when your a young driver, my first car -fiesta 1.1 cost me £1200 3rd party:eek:, but after the 1st year it dropped to £700! There in no excuse tho to drive without insurance, it not fair on the rest of us.:)

raskazz

The are really only two ways to make premiums more affordable for younger drivers. One would be relatively simple to implement and the other would be a bit more complicated.

1) The easy part would be for the Government to change the system of insurance premium tax. They could abolish it or cap it on motor policies for policyholders under, say, 20 years of age. For the average 17 year old male who could easily face a premium around £2000, just over £95 of that will go to the Government in tax.

2) Premiums for young drivers are high because they are involved in more accidents than other age groups and when they are involved in an accident the costs of that accident are higher then other ages groups (apart from the extreme end of the elderly). Premiums will only really fall when the risk falls, i.e. when young drivers stop crashing their cars. There are many things that the government could do in relation to this. At the moment the system of testing is too orientated around learning to pass a test rather than learning how to be a competent driver. IMO there should be a requirement of a certain number of hours professional tuition before the test can be taken, and maybe also a 'refresher' test around 6 months or a year after the original test.

Quote

...or only let people take a driving test at 25 years of age or older.

mattymoo

The NU pay as you drive system seemed like a good idea. You paid more for driving in rush hour and during the hours of darkness - the riskiest periods for anyone, but younger drivers in particular.

Scheme has been dropped now unfortunately.

Rolandtheroadie

If you pass your motorbike test on a 125cc, you can only drive a 33 bhp bike for 2 years.(could be 1000cc but would be restricted to 33 bhp)
Are we perhaps needing to do something similar with young drivers? If a young person is willing to have their car's performance restricted, give them cheaper insurance. If not, keep it as it is now.
Theres always the "70 in a 30 zone areas irresponsible" but hopefully someone willing to restrict their car will be sensible too.

debtfreein4years

raskazz wrote: »

2) Premiums for young drivers are high because they are involved in more accidents than other age groups and when they are involved in an accident the costs of that accident are higher then other ages groups (apart from the extreme end of the elderly). Premiums will only really fall when the risk falls, i.e. when young drivers stop crashing their cars. There are many things that the government could do in relation to this. At the moment the system of testing is too orientated around learning to pass a test rather than learning how to be a competent driver. IMO there should be a requirement of a certain number of hours professional tuition before the test can be taken, and maybe also a 'refresher' test around 6 months or a year after the original test.

in australia new drivers drive on a couple of different classes of license before being granted a full licence. i think it takes a couple of years to obtain a full licence and the engine limit thing is restricted whilst driving on the provisional licenses. i think that is the best type of system as it does give new/younger drivers the chance to gain experience without being able to drive a car that is far to powerful for them.

asbokid

DCFC79 wrote: »

Whats your views, linky, if you cant afford insuranc ethen you dont buy a car full stop, its not exactley rocket science is it,

My view is that the statistic of "one in five" has been fabricated. It's a ridiculously high figure.. probably an exaggeration of an order of magnitude.

Why? As justification for hiking premiums.. One in five isn't insured, so they claim.. And the MIB, the industry-funded organisation, claims it will be forking out more to victims of uninsured drivers.. And so the rest of us must pay higher premiums, across the board, to fund the payouts..

It's a simple swindle.. Welcome to the crooked world of insurance..

raskazz

asbokid wrote: »

My view is that the statistic of "one in five" has been fabricated. It's a ridiculously high figure.. probably an exaggeration of an order of magnitude.

Do you have any evidence to back up your view on this?

asbokid wrote: »

Why? As justification for hiking premiums.. One in five isn't insured, so they claim.. And the MIB, the industry-funded organisation, claims it will be forking out more to victims of uninsured drivers.. And so the rest of us must pay higher premiums, across the board, to fund the payouts..

It's a simple swindle.. Welcome to the crooked world of insurance..

Don't quite understand why you're trying to say here. You can see the MIB's accounts on their website (2008 - http://www.mib.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E76FB373-C0DF-44FE-9F02-336CFF6E3DFF/0/ReportAccounts2008medresolutionfile090609.pdf) and they are a not-for-profit organisation. Or are you toying with the ridiculous assertion that insurers are operating as a cartel to inflate prices?

roddydogs

No surprise........only £200 "Fixed Penalty" Fine when the insurance could cost £2000?
They could easily stop a lot of this by making the penalty realistic.

BenL

The figure of 1 in 5 was extrapolated from data held by the reports authors MIB for accidents/claims in the last 6 years (i think he said 6)

I heard the spokesman on Radio 5 yesterday.

This is nothing new, 10 years ago I was 18 with my 1st car and it cost £1200 a year to insure.

A 3 year old Ford KA 1.3.

No special treatment required for these passing drivers, new drivers from at least the last 10 years have had big premiums when you start out.

There was a soundbite from a new driver who said along the lines of "£1200 to insure my £500 Fiesta - I'm not going to bother"

The MIB guy reminded listeners that the insurance is primarily for other peoples cars and injuries he will likely cause.

Premiums are high for a reason, any 18 year old will know quite a few people from school who have written off their own and/or parents cars quickly after passing their test.