Mark Hunter MP
Mark Hunter is the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle. Mark is also the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Liberal Democrat Leader, and is the Liberal Democrat deputy spokesman on Transport issues.
The effects of the credit crunch haven’t stopped at the banks, our wallets or the high street. The repercussions of people feeling the pinch are widespread – we’re all trying to save money in small ways hoping to make a big difference. The problem is that some people will choose illegal ‘shortcuts’ to save them money – like avoiding paying their car insurance.
It’s clear that the numbers of uninsured drivers are rising. Although calculating exact numbers is impossible, we do know that while fatalities from road accidents are in decline those involving uninsured drivers have increased dramatically. In fact estimates place the number of uninsured drivers at around 6.5% of all drivers or about 2 million motorists.
Uninsured drivers cost law abiding drivers money. The Motor Insurance Bureau calculates that uninsured drivers add £30 to the cost of every driver’s insurance policy, amounting to more than £500m a year in additional premiums – a cost that many of us can ill afford in the current economic climate.
What is even more worrying is that uninsured drivers are more likely to be dangerous drivers. According to the RAC Foundation, uninsured drivers are six times more likely to drive a non road-worthy vehicle, up to nine times more likely to be involved in an accident and ten times more likely to have been convicted of drink driving. In fact the most recent estimates by the DfT show that uninsured drivers kill 160 people and injure 23,000 each year.
It’s clear that the Government is failing to tackle the growing menace of uninsured drivers. In fact, the average fine for driving without insurance has fallen by 13.4% between 1997 (£224) and 2007 (£194). Meanwhile, the average premium for comprehensive insurance is over £700 (2009) – much more than the average fine. By allowing insurance costs to increase far above the fine, the Government are not sending a clear message that driving without insurance does not pay. Unless the Government works with insurance companies to make premiums more affordable and ensures that fines reflect the seriousness of the crime, there will continue to be little incentive for people to pay for their insurance. Instead these drivers will continue to prefer to chance that they will not get caught.
Lack of enforcement is the other problem. Technological advances such as roadside insurance checks and automatic number plate recognition are effective, but only if there are enough officers to use them. We need the Government to make enforcement of this problem a higher priority and try some new ideas to improve compliance. One such proposal is based on the system in France whereby all drivers have to display proof of their insurance and MOT certification in their windscreen, thereby ensuring that officials can quickly and easily see which cars are not insured.
With uninsured drivers taking three lives per week on our roads, this problem is not a small one; the Government needs to recognise this and take action now to prevent this problem growing.
In reply to Mark Hunters Blog on Uninsured Drivers,
Uninsured Drivers come in with a plethora of other problems that the Police have to deal with. Many years ago I became one of the early Minicab Drivers. Because I have a conscience have always made sure my MOT Tax and Insurance Tyres etc are in order. The Drivers that cheat the Law learn after a few early problems that the Police are just too busy and travel on the roads when they are least likely to get caught.
If you are unlucky like myself in the 1970’s to be hit by an Uninsured Driver and are then lucky that you did not have terrible injury etc you take the loss and get on with it.
Even back then the Police could not deal with my problem. My passenger was a Fireman and we were hit head on by another Minicab Driver coming at me head on. He was on my side of the road as it was a one way and a road junction which he had read wrongly. Because of the nature of the accident and the manner of the other Driver and being Legal myself I decided to call the Police. This Driver showed the Police all forged documents which were ok in the eyes of the Officers that attended but never to be seen again.
Comment by Ken Perham — September 1, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Dear Mr Hunter
Insurers are pleased to have your support in this serious matter.
The problem is being tackled - over 200,000 uninsured vehicles were seized last year, and large numbers were crushed. But the next big step, where the Government has been slow in implementation, is in Introducing Continuous Insurance Enforcement. This will enable the Motor Insurance Database to be matched with the Government’s own register of vehicles, and action to be taken where the insurance has not been renewed or cancelled.
This will be far more effective than windscreen stickers, which have the problem that insurance may be legitimately bought, the sticker applied, and then the insurance cancelled.
Comment by Nick Starling, Director of General Insurance and Health, Association of British Insurers — September 1, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
Dear Mr Hunter
I agree with Mr Starling’s response. However, having been a Fleet Driver Trainer for 8 years, I could tell you some stories of companies, who are not aware of the limitations to insurance policies. I have worked with the Police in the past, and have been in the circles of situations where a driver may think that they have the correct insurance, i.e they have a ’social, domestic and pleasure’ insurance, and use their vehicle for work! We call this ‘Grey Fleet’.
The insurance industry does a lot towards selling the appropriate insurance, but we have a culture where the first point of call is always the ‘comparison’ websites, which, by their nature, are unable to deal with all types of insurance needed for all aspects of motoring.
I would propose that a stronger regime of training should take place in this field in the school curriculum, and in fact, my colleagues at Diamond Advanced Motorists are instigating a pilot in the London Borough of Croydon in the Secondary Schools.
I know that the schools have a lot on their plate, but we are talking of a situation with 42 million licence holders owning or driving 38 million vehicles. The figures of uninsured or illegal drivers on the road could amount to as much as 1 in every 7 vehicles coming the other way! This has to be addressed somehow, because the DSA driving test is doing all that it can do in keeping drivers in the correct part of the road at the correct speed. The training for the theory test is already quite demanding.
Comment by Howard Redwood — September 9, 2009 @ 7:27 am