hmmm.... suspect something dubious....

This is the place for posts that don't fit into any other category.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
Forth
Posts: 179
Joined: 24 Apr 2004, 23:09
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

hmmm.... suspect something dubious....

Post by Forth »

<font color="red"><b>Insurers call for tougher car rules </b></font id="red">
<font color="blue">Sandra Haurant
<i>Guardian</i>
Wednesday February 23, 2005 </font id="blue">
Owning an uninsured vehicle a should become a criminal offence, the Association of British Insurers said today.
Currently it is illegal to drive a car without insurance, but the proposed changes would make being the registered owner of a car with no insurance an offence too.
The body of insurers claim that introducing the offence would reduce the cost of accidents involving uninsured drivers (which currently stands at an estimated £500m) by some £100m and improve safety on the roads.
According to the ABI, the UK has one of the highest levels of uninsured motoring in Europe, with one in 20 motorists driving illegally at any given time - more than one million in total.
Accidents involving uninsured drivers currently add around £30 to the average motor premium, and uninsured drivers are ten times more likely to have been convicted for drink driving and three times more likely to have been convicted of driving without due care and attention, the organisation said.
DervDonkey
Posts: 65
Joined: 25 Oct 2004, 01:08
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by DervDonkey »

So, something else to line someone's pockets at the expense of those of us who own, but don't necessarily use, more than one car.
It certainly won't affect the "people" it's supposed to target - they'll just be even less likely to actually register their cars than they are now...
Maybe the insurance companies ought to get their money-grabbing house in order first - a young lady I know (20 yo) with a clean driving record was quoted over £1100 for a 1.1 litre Pug 106! Small wonder there are so many uninsured drivers when these companies seem to use any little excuse to hike premiums.
oilyspanner
Posts: 1246
Joined: 26 Oct 2003, 16:08
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by oilyspanner »

This seems to be a common thread, its easier and more profitable to "punish" the law abiding than to address the real problem, there is a strong incentive for less than law abiding motorists to buy a taxed runner and just drive it for as long as it lasts, avoiding speeding tickets, congestion charges and insurance premiums, after the tax runs out dump it and buy another, as these vehicles are in "limbo" being between registered owners and as traffic police "producer" stops are so rare nowadays there is little risk.
Stewart
User avatar
Kowalski
Posts: 2557
Joined: 15 Oct 2003, 17:41
Location: North East, United Kingdom
My Cars: Ex 05 C5 2.0 HDI Exclusive 145k
Ex 97 Xantia 1.9TD SX 144k
Ex 94 Xantia Dimension 1.9TD 199k

Post by Kowalski »

Making it an offence to have an untaxed vehicle makes no sense and will hurt many people who have cars that are legitimately off the road, e.g. classic cars, cars being repaired / restored. I had a Xantia off the road (on private land) for the best part of a year when its clutch needed doing do I really need to keep it insured under such circumstances?
There is a police policy of impounding uninsured / untaxed cars which are on public roads. The owner is given the option of insuring the vehicle or not and having it scrapped. Generally the insurance costs more than the vehicle so the vehicle ends up being scrapped and the owner buys another £100 (or less) vehicle and takes their chances. Really the policy needs to involve harrassing people who do this, i.e. taking each and every uninsured car a person buys until they change their ways and start insuring them, behavior has to be changed.
Speed cameras can't impound untaxed or uninsured vehicles only traffic police can do that.
User avatar
born2die
Posts: 160
Joined: 19 Jan 2005, 13:33
Location: under that b****y citroen again
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by born2die »

I am no angel a few years ago I got caught twice with no insurance all other docs in order but there we go I was youg and ******* stupid but now I am paying the price and rightly so. I think 1 good alternative is that if you are caught sans insurance the police outside body should work out what there premium should have been and then get the courts to enforce the appropriate ammount + charges etc + having points and convictions on your licence. But in this day and age all the police need to do is park up at the side of the road and point a beam at you and they then know if you are insured taxed moted etc.
instead of picking on the people that have all the relevant documents and pay good hard earned for there insurance the insurance companys would be able to recoup some of there money from the ******** and not from those honest enough to pay for insurance etc.
bxbodger
Posts: 1455
Joined: 23 May 2003, 03:34
Location: Lovejoy country (Essex!!)
My Cars:
x 1

Post by bxbodger »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">instead of picking on the people that have all the relevant documents and pay good hard earned for there insurance the insurance companys would be able to recoup some of there money from the ******** and not from those honest enough to pay for insurance etc.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
But it won't happen!! Thats the underclass, they don't pay fines, they get legal aid, a free house paid for by us, they don't go to jail and if they do it doesn't bother them. they have no stake in society-all they do is take, with no contribution!!
We who DO have a stake, however, are the big fat easy targets!!!
Grrrrrr.....................[:(!][:(!]
DLM
Posts: 524
Joined: 13 Aug 2001, 03:01
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by DLM »

I totally fail to see the logic of making ownership of an uninsured car an offence - it's just being administratively convenient to certain parties (the insurance companies, in this case). A case of carts and horses, methinks. h
However I'm all for cracking down on those who DRIVE an uninsured car without any insurance. But who would pay to enforce it? Local authorities? The Police?
Those who don't take responsibility for their actions normally continue to do whatever they want, almost regardless of any legislation.
jeremy
Posts: 3959
Joined: 20 Oct 2002, 16:00
Location: Hampshire, UK
My Cars:
x 2

Post by jeremy »

Of course they could be a system of displaying insurance details in a similar manner to the VEL. The principal problem is that as insurance companies can only issue premium demands rapidly and certainly take forever to issue policies and proper certificates. Suggesting they should do something efficiently for once is not something that appeals.
jeremy
tomsheppard
Posts: 1801
Joined: 19 Dec 2002, 14:46
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by tomsheppard »

Trade association trying to increase its profits. Most of what you read is seeded by somebody who thinks they'll get their hands in your pocket.
alan s
RIP 2010
Posts: 2542
Joined: 26 Jan 2001, 15:53
Location: Australia
My Cars:
x 6

Post by alan s »

I'm afraid it's this worldwide push towards facism; big business in bed with big government.
We get it out here all the time too. A few years back, there was a push to try to outlaw car ownership over 10 years old when our average fleet was then 12 and supposedly encouraging us to keep cars no longer than 5 years.
A few of us targetted the main protagonists which happened to be Mazda at the time and wrote to them telling them that as former Mazda owners we were amazed that they have now admitted their cars wouldn't last more than 5 years (which is what they'd effectively done) and that as a result, we wouldn't ever be buying anything Mazda again, after all, if the manufacturer didn't have confidence beyond 5 years why should we? I then wrote to the minister and told him that he was obviously being paid by the manufacturers and would he care to reveal who the money (or kind) was coming from and whether it went directly to him or his party.
The y didn't respond, but obviously they got the message. The idea died shortly afterwards.
The same with our gun laws. I live on a small acreage and have animals. We have a Fox plague but it's both unlawful for me to own a gun or even if I did get one licenced, for me to use it; I would be prosecuted in a big way. However, we are always seeing on TV that banks, servos and stores are held up by toerags with guns.
If caught, they get charged with all kinds of things and sometimes even get off on a "good behaviour bond" but I can never see in the charges and convictions that one has ever been charged with a "firearms" offence for sticking someone up (ie) having an unlicensed gun.
<b>Moral of the story:-</b>
If I want to get rid of the Foxes, I should advertise for a bank robber with a sawn off rifle as they seem immune from prosecution for those kinds of things. Hey; that's not a bad idea! I might ring the newspaper right now and see how I go...[:D][}:)][:o)]
Alan S
Post Reply