Latest Car Insurance News
Welcome to Expert Car Insurance News. Here you will find all the latest information concerning the motor insurance industry.
Posted June 2008
Car Insurance Company goes Green!
As if the green colours of
Morethan were not enough, this subsidiary of Royal & Sun Alliance
has gone one step further with the launch of an insurance scheme called
"Green Wheels" that aims to help UK motorists drive their vehicles in an
eco friendly manner, thus saving fuel and leaving less carbon footprint.
The technology for this car insurance scheme uses Formula 1 technology
in a Green box which simply plugs into the car's management system and
then records all of the driving habit data such as acceleration,
breaking and number of short distance car trips. The data gathered is
then transmitted to Morethan's Green Wheels website where existing car
insurance customers can access an array of reports on their driving
through secure methods.
Only time will tell whether this innovation which is the company's
contribution towards the eco friendly "Together" campaign will be
successful in reducing carbon footprint or perceived as another gimmick
whereby it is simply another organisation trying to gather customer
data, watch this space!
Posted June 2008
RAC Breakdown Data Fleet Findings
Some interesting data released into the public domain by the RAC reveals that fleet or company car drivers are twice as likely to be involved in a car accident compared to the average car driver. The implication here is that businesses may be paying high fleet car insurance premiums for the bad driving habits of their employees.
In addition, the number of days lost to business following car breakdown's equates to nearly 12,000 days lost. The consequences of this are not just the time lost sitting by the road waiting for the RAC or other breakdown organisations to rescue them, the cost of repairs needs to be factored in along with car hire replacement. According to the RAC, nearly 33% of breakdown call outs are not actually necessary and can be explained by fleet car drivers putting the wrong fuel into the car, running out of fuel and leaving lights or gadgets on which run the battery down. Other reasons include leaving locking wheel-nuts at home when a tyre needs changing on the roadside.
The RAC argues that through driver training and better procedures to ensure fleet cars are maintained on a regular basis, much of the downtime in business days and resulting costs would be reduced. In addition, their would be lower instances of car accidents meaning fleet car insurance premiums could be less.
Posted June 2008
How does your No Claims Discount Protection cover you?
It was recently announced by Esure car insurance that the terms of their “no claim discount protection” would be changing to “protection for life” meaning that all Esure policyholders with no claims discount protection are entitled to a guaranteed discount level no matter how many claims are notified during the life of the car insurance policy.
Normally car insurance no claims discount protection is offered by insurance companies as an optional extra and usually incurs an additional premium.
Research conducted by Esure into motorists understanding and awareness of what constitutes “protected no claims discount” revealed that 37% of those questioned were not aware that there maybe a defined number of claimed after which the no claims discount doesn’t apply. For example, some car insurance companies specify that no more than two or three claims are allowed over three years even with no claims discount protection.
It will be interesting to see in the coming months whether other insurers
follow suit by emulating Esure or change the perception of those motorists
who are not aware by communicating more clearly in policy booklets and
marketing literature what their no claims discount actually means in
terms of number of claims allowed.
Posted June 2008
How would you react immediately following a car accident?
According to recent research conducted by Norwich Union Car Insurance carried out in conjunction with Dr Chris Burgess, normal behaviour and logic disappears for some drivers as a result of the stress and trauma following a car crash.
Of the 1,556 drivers surveyed, 19% of these were coerced by the third party to take the blame, when in fact two thirds of the 19% were not to blame for the cause of the motor vehicle accident. Is this another sign of changing Britain where morals and decency appear to be in sharp decline? Not surprisingly, however, was the finding that two in five questioned suffered post traumatic stress symptoms. More worryingly, was the statistic that nearly a third of drivers appear to be completely unprepared should a car accident occur. It is reassuring to know that most car insurance companies do offer information and advice including helplines with motor insurance policy documentation. Motorists simply need to heed this advice and place these advice booklets in the glove compartments of their vehicles.
Lastly, as part of this research Dr Chris Burgess identified four different car crash personality types, these ranged from “Arbiters”, “Copers”, “Doubtfuls” and “Hopefuls”. Interestingly, all of these displayed significantly different traits, age groups and in some cases be at a higher or lower risk of post traumatic stress following an accident.
