The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) has joined forces with the National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum to launch a week of enforcement activity focusing on uninsured drivers.
Under ‘Operation Drive Insured’ (17-23 Oct) police forces across the UK will put the spotlight on the issue of uninsured driving and its impact. The initiative will demonstrate how police are working with partners to tackle the issue and significantly increase the number of uninsured vehicles that are seized.
To mark the start of the campaign, the MIB has published data showing the top 20 postal districts for uninsured driving, with the top five all located in the West Midlands. In total, the West Midlands has 11 out of the 20 top hotspots.
Despite not having any postal districts in the top 20, the statistics show that London has the highest number of uninsured vehicles. Of the 3.1m vehicles in the capital, an estimated 191,000 (6.1%) are believed to be uninsured.
Across the UK, MIB estimates that one in every 38 vehicles is being driven uninsured.
Neil Drane, head of enforcement services at MIB, said: “Nationally, we have managed to reduce the estimated total number of uninsured drivers from two million in 2005 to one million now. However, this figure is still too high and is a burden on all honest motorists.”
Detective Superintendent Paul Keasey, the National Police Chiefs Council’s head of National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum, said: “This awareness week will see police operations mounted across many areas of the UK targeting potential uninsured drivers, including daily operations in the West Midlands and London where we know the problem is acute in some areas.
“With ever-improving technology including the police’s widespread use of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) the message from all our police forces is: you will be caught.”
Last month, MIB released a new video, the second phase of its ‘Gone in Seconds’ campaign, to remind drivers that car insurance is a legal requirement.
The new video was launched alongside MIB figures which show that on average every three days someone is involved in a collision with an uninsured or ‘hit and run’ driver, which will ultimately lead to a fatality.
Lynn: To clarify.. when I said “..why should they care?” it was a reference to them not caring about how well or safely they drove and not about losing their vehicle, which I’m sure they would care about.
I agree that having one’s vehicle seized is probably more of deterrent than fines and points – anti-social driving can result in one’s vehicle being seized so perhaps it should be extended to other offences as well.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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I understand that the registered keepers or drivers of a surprisingly high percentage of cars flagged up by ANPR for no tax/insurance are also of interest to the police for other alleged offences, both motoring and non-motoring types. Stopping these drivers often provides ‘two for the price of one’.
Pat, Wales
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Hugh, if a driver doesn’t care about how they drive, takes part in criminal activities and drives without tax, MOT or insurance a fine or points probably won’t deter them from using the road. Crushing their car might, eventually.
Lynn
+1
Possibly this sort of enforcement has more of an effect on criminal activities i.e. denying the crimnal the use of the road, rather than just road safety. No doubt such individuals avoid being ‘on the system’ as much as possible, so they can travel around anonymously, as it were. No doubt their driving habits leave a lot to be desired as well – after all, why should they care?
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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I would welcome a change along the lines described by the first two commentators. I have seen my adult children go through pain by having to pay stupidly high insurance premiums as young drivers. However until those changes happen (and that can’t happen too soon for me) I want uninsured drivers ‘sorted’by the law. After all, it may be my car that they bump into next.
Pat, Wales
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Or, perhaps insurance should not be an awkward hybrid between driver and vehicle identification which it is today, but either:
– that the vehicle itself is insured, irrespective who owns it
– that the driver is insured, on ALL vehicles that he has the endorsements on his licence to drive, as long as the power of any third party vehicle is perhaps 110% of the power (or insurance rating??) of the highest personally owned/leased/assigned vehicle
Oh, and as I’ve mentioned before, the insurance industry is silly for overcharging for things. If you want prices to reduce, stop charging silly prices for hire cars for instance.
Back to insurance policies, I don’t like the fact that I have to pay:
– £950 insurance for BMW F31 320d
– £200 insurance for a kit car
I should be able to say that I’m not driving the 320d whenever I’m driving the kit car, therefore since the 320d is the more expensive vehicle, I would only need to pay the £950, plus a stamp to cover the extra vehicle.
But of course, what’s common sense?
David Weston, Corby
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Just a suggestion, but why doesn’t the UK insurance industry follow the rest of Europe and indeed most civilised countries and separate out compulsory third party insurance and insure the vehicle only?
Answer: because they are making so much money from the UK motoring public that they would never do that. The oligopolistic practices of the UK motor insurance industry is nothing short of scandalous, yet the police are willing to hold hands and work with them to prosecute people that can’t afford the premiums.
As an example, in countries such as Australia they have a Compulsory Third Party insurance scheme which covers what it was meant for – personal injuries. In this scheme there are only two elements that are considered – location of residence and engine size of the vehicle. Thus it doesn’t matter how old you are, what sex you are, what your job is, what star sign you are.
Just to give you an understanding – the link here is to the South Australian CTP fees (see page 2) https://www.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/18152/MR85-Compulsory-Third-Party-Insurance-Premium-Schedule.pdf
Exchange = $1.6 so the worst you would pay for insuring a car for CTP – doesn’t matter how old the driver is – £243. Compare that to some young man trying to get to work in the family car in the UK…. and you wonder why the level of uninsured driver is so high?
Elaine, France
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