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Welcome to Expert Car Insurance News. Here you will find all the latest information concerning the motor insurance industry.Posted November 2006 Car insurance claims through Whiplash injuries One major car insurer reports that whiplash injuries amount to a staggering 80% of their claims for bodily injury. Norwich Union alone are currently dealing with around 50,000 claims a year for this distressing injury. Driven by the need to improve the treatment for this accident outcome and by so doing, reduce the cost of claims, Norwich Union has recently published its findings from a review of whiplash treatments and outcomes which, they believe, has produced a best practice model that will improve the circumstance for the car insurer and injured alike. NU have moved forwards from its pilot in Maidenhead and are currently working with three clinical partners, IPRS, Rehabworks and Rehabilitation UK to provide the new service nationwide. The process uses Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) that involves the injured being contacted by telephone based practitioners who advise an individually tailored program of activity that will enable them to make a thorough and swift recovery. If physiotherapy is required, an arrangement exists with Physiotherapy Works to provide it to a consistently high standard. This continues the move from settlement of claimant’s bills to provision of a service towards rehabilitation, which is far more cost effective for the car insurance company, and NU state that 4 out of 10 people now recover without the need for ‘hands-on’ treatment and even where treatment is required, the average number of treatments undertaken at the physiotherapist is now four as opposed to the eight that it used to take. Significantly, a bonus is the reduction in the amount of costs being paid to lawyers acting for the claimant due to the ease and swiftness of providing an acceptable solution to the injury. For the claimants, they also appear to benefit with almost 90% reporting that they were satisfied with the approach and treatment they had received. NU is also piloting a similar EBM based solution for back pain. Posted November 2006 Insurers rush to back Road Safety Week Britain’s car insurance companies have added the weight of their
knowledge and experience to the message of Road Safety Week which ran
from 6th to 12th of November. The insurer believes this initiative could have a significant impact on the safety of our road users by reducing the motive to drive amongst young drivers at the most vulnerable period of the day by making it financially beneficial to choose other forms of transport at night. This is achieved by penalizing the insurance policyholder with a £25 surcharge for driving between 23:00 and 06:00. For agreeing to this driving curfew young drivers are rewarded with a 40% reduction in the standard More Than rate. The scheme seems watertight as there is a GPS black box installed in the car which reports the car’s position when the ignition is turned on and when it is turned off. This enables the insurance company to monitor the driver’s car use and to charge accordingly if it is used during the risk time. Stressing the disproportionate amount of road deaths involving young drivers Mary Williams from BRAKE, the charity promoting Road Safety Week said that DriveTime was a welcome incentive but Brake will be pushing the government to establish some form of stepped licensing which restricts drivers who have just passed their test so that they build up their skills gradually. This would avoid the post test reckless activity that so often results in tragedy. Posted November 2006 Where does your mind wander to while you drive? As a part of ongoing research into factors affecting driver behaviour, the leading car insurance provider More Than has found that the level of concentration on the task of driving varies widely. 25% of motorists confess to paying full attention to driving less than 75% of the time (some owned up to a worrying 10% of the time.) When applied to the whole driving population it shows that nearly three and a quarter million of us spend time whilst driving thinking about work issues, a further two million have our minds on family related matters. Next on the list of distractions was sex, with nearly one and a quarter million drivers’ minds wandering in this direction whilst at the wheel. Things that happen to take our mind off the task of safely piloting our vehicle along the ever-increasingly busy highways add to the prospect of accidents due to lack of driver attention. Other major distractions include nearly 25% admitting to using a hand-held mobile whilst moving and the actions of other road users causing irritation and frustration. The driver habits of others causing the highest levels of annoyance comprised tailgating, hated by 28% of the study, hogging of the fast lane on multi-carriageway roads (20%), being cut-up (14%), motorists driving too slowly (11) and conversely, drivers travelling too fast (also 11%). A spokesman for the More Than car insurance company said that motorists thinking about work or sex rather than applying themselves wholeheartedly to the task of driving could be extremely dangerous for themselves, their passengers and other road users. They encourage the motorist to apply themselves 100% to task of safe driving. Posted November 2006 Car insurance contributes to an increase in the Cost of Motoring Index The third quarter of the 2006 Cost of Motoring Index from the RAC shows a year on year increase with the total cost of running a new car of almost 11%, averaging out at £5,539. This figure is up from £5,000 in 2005. Car insurance added an extra £23 to the annual bill for drivers
which amounted to a 6% increase. Car finance rose by an average of £92 (10%) which was made up of the increase in interest rates in August 2006, and together with the overall rise of vehicle prices (of the target survey group). Also up by approximately 10% are car service and maintenance costs. The recent market correction in the price of fuel from the highs of nearly £1 per litre has not counteracted the effects of the increases in other motoring costs. In fact, fuel is the only cost to have reduced in that period falling 4% to an average £1,112 per annum. February 2006 to March 2006 News Articles January 2006 to February 2006 News Articles December 2005 to January 2006 News Articles August 2005 to November 2005 News Articles April 2005 to July 2005 News Articles May 2004 to December 2004 News Articles March 2004 to April 2004 News Articles
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