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Just like the housing market, the costs of buying, insurance, and running a car for the first time is proving too much for many young motorists. Direct Line car insurance has found that 12% of young drivers have pooled their finances with either family or friends in order to afford their first vehicle. With the running costs alone coming in at approximately £2000 for the first time insured young driver, the economic strain can be too much for one to afford.

There are in the region of 2 million young drivers that that have taken the co-ownership option, which is approximately 6% of all motorists, to get them mobile, when alone they wouldn’t have been able to find the money.

Quite apart from the obvious effect on the bank balance, the research also shows these young motorists are also motivated by ‘green’ issues. Of those that currently share a vehicle 23% said that they shared because it’s more environmentally friendly, with each person responsible for only half of a one car’s worth of manufacturing energy costs and pollution. 14% also said that they believed it would help reduce road congestion, in that they couldn’t both be driving at the same time. This is supported by the fact that 82% of all motorists believe that the continuing high personal carbon footprint caused in large part by vehicle emissions is a growing concern.

Direct Line said that their policy of permitting named drivers to earn their own no claim discount was of significant assistance in this circumstance, so that the second driver will have earned a discount on what can be otherwise prohibitively high car insurance costs.

The Post Office has recently been trumpeting its van insurance deal as one of the best on the market with plenty of top class benefits and options. The cover boasts a ‘keep you on the road’ option of a replacement van of a similar class to your insured vehicle if yours is off the road due to an accident, for up top 7 days whilst your van is repaired.

The insurance cover has the 24 hour emergency helpline normally associated with domestic car insurance and their promise is that they will sort everything out with just one phone call. As the cover is intended for the small business the offer of £50 cashback shouldn’t go amiss either. Optional Legal protection can be added to assist in the recovery of uninsured losses should you have a no-fault accident.

Adding to the ‘get you back in business as soon as possible’ philosophy, there is a physiotherapy programme which applies in the event of an accident and includes up to £400 worth of treatment which is carried out by specifically appointed chartered physiotherapists, subject to their normal terms and conditions.

The normal range of cover is available from third party to fully comprehensive van insurance with some facilities applicable to the comprehensive option. Vehicles must be no more than 3.5 tonnes, gross and must be a van, i.e. a vehicle designed to carry goods, tools and supplies and not used as plant or machinery. It also includes European cover for up to 60 days in the EU, which can be upgraded to comprehensive as an optional extra. And payments can be made annually or monthly with the addition of the normal credit fees.

Direct Line car insurance says drivers are placing themselves at risk from an unexpected cause. There are many couples that spend a lot of their journey time together arguing, and as a consequence, not concentrating properly on their driving and placing their lives and those of other road users in jeopardy.

They found that almost 75% of couples owned up to bickering whilst in the car, with 70% saying that the driving ability of the other person was the most likely thing that they would be arguing about.

Women, when asked the subject that sparked off the disagreement, 44% said it was that their partner had been unnecessarily critical of their driving ability. This matched very closely the percentage of men that believed that men were inherently superior drivers. In contrast most men said that the reason for arguments in the car were down to their partner being unable to read a map and give accurate directions.

From the road safety point of view 60% of the couples surveyed agreed that their disagreements had a detrimental effect on the driver’s concentration on the scene through the windscreen and around 12% admitted to the bickering causing them to speed in frustration and annoyance.

A Direct Line car insurance spokesperson said that we all vary in our driving techniques and perhaps as a passenger we should think twice before offering an opinion on the drivers capabilities. If we don’t we may contribute unnecessarily to a lapse in concentration that could cause an accident.

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