Pay as you go insurance - what think ye?

Merrion

BBC Article

Norwich Union have launched a scheme in the UK by which young drivers can get insurance on a pay-as-you go bais. Cost is based on a flat monthly fee plus a per-mile premium that is based on peak and off peak risk times.

If such a thing was available in Ireland would you use it?

edmund_f

think it is an excellent idea!, espically as they are estimating the cost between 11pm & 6am to be £1/mile (would that be EU1/Km here? ) would mean the temptation of getting into a car after a few pints rather than getting a taxi less appealing. This must be a good thing, irrespective of the whole 'irish taxi's are crap' argument.

kleefarr

Yeah, I saw that. Think it's a great idea, especially for students etc. My only worry would be, while you aren't driving it and it's parked up some where, on the drive or out side your house on the street, what would happen if it was stolen or broken into?

edmund_f

perhaps exactly the same as if it did not have the GPS box fitted?. Doubt they could track the movements of the car based on the black box?. Could it be that this is the first step in totally tracking car movements, e.g. being able to log exact mileage in towns, country, average speed, highest speed etc and then base your preimum on your _exact_ driving?

puntosporting

Im not sure if it would work with insurance but maybe this could be used in relation to road tax?

Boggle

My only worry would be, while you aren't driving it and it's parked up some where, on the drive or out side your house on the street, what would happen if it was stolen or broken into?

Thats what the monthly tariff covers.

Could be decent enough for L drivers depending on how its worked. At 10000 miles at 6p, off peak it would give you a premium of £600 or (roughly E900) + monthly tariffs. (Although saying that a first time driver would pay more)

2 questions:
Would you get a full years NCB?
Wouldn't it be better off only insuring the car between 6am and 9pm (an illuminous ins disk and some sort of plate would make this clear to passing gardai) as drivers with only 1 or 2 years experience shouldn't really be driving at that hour (based on accident stats).

Boggle

Im not sure if it would work with insurance but maybe this could be used in relation to road tax?

Why not just put the road tax on the petrol price - then the bigger the car, the harder you drive it and the more miles you do the more you pay?

Captain Trips

Boggle wrote:

Why not just put the road tax on the petrol price - then the bigger the car, the harder you drive it and the more miles you do the more you pay?

It would lead to a fatal drop in the levels of beurocracy and perhaps the need to have *Less* civil servants managing this, thus creating "managerial overload". By dividing taxes into as many departments as possible, it means more jobs for more managers.

As an aside, remember that companies don't do anything that doesn't increase their own profits, so overall the corporations will benefit from any such scheme, especially as instead of the "unified" bitching of the AA and young male driver, we will all be competing with each other, effectively.

Plus it means more convoluted payment and people getting into the habit of paying a yearly insurance fee PLUS and pay per go fee. How about Pay per go road tax but with a minimum fee as well, so we get used to a yearly fee PLUS a pay per use fee.

It's simply a way to increase premiums with greater subtlety - like raising the monthly, then sneaking up some pay per go and so on. You won't get listeners on a radio shocked to hear of 5% increase here and there on pay per use (or better yet, link it to inflation and get 20% rises like NTR). People listen with a unified bitching front of the likes of George Hook and large single increases that effect everyone, so we all can put pressure. When we are all split and divided and living life pay as you go, we are all ****ed.

mike65

We did one a few months back, and the experience in New Zealand was mentioned. There the state provides basic 3rd party cover so if you have a licence you're covered, anything else you pay for. Its an exellent system.

New Zealand is unique in having automatic rather than compulsory classes of insurance. The Accident Compensation Act 1972 and subsequent legislation effectively abolished the right to take common law actions in respect of personal injury and substituted a right to compensation on a "no fault" basis from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), a government agency established for the purpose. Cover is universal and automatic, and takes the place of workmen's compensation and the personal injury aspects of third party liability for motor vehicles, general third party liability and products liability. There are limits on the amount of cover provided by the scheme and it is possible for private insurers to provide products which give entitlements additional to, but not including, those provided by the scheme.

Mike.

Boggle

It would lead to a fatal drop in the levels of beurocracy and perhaps the need to have *Less* civil servants managing this, thus creating "managerial overload". By dividing taxes into as many departments as possible, it means more jobs for more managers.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head on that one... The main advantage of doing this would be that you no longer have to have the cops parked on the side of the road checkin for Tax which is a dreadful waste of their time - and which I reckon (from talking to som Gardai) is quite disheartening for them. Never met a gard who initially joined up to stand on the side of the road checkin for Tax. (Anyway an OCR system linked to a database of Ins and Tax would be a better system as it would be able to check all cars instantly)

Plus it means more convoluted payment and people getting into the habit of paying a yearly insurance fee PLUS and pay per go fee. How about Pay per go road tax but with a minimum fee as well, so we get used to a yearly fee PLUS a pay per use fee.

Not sure what your getting at but - give for an example, someone who has a second car (perhaps for weekend use only) - Why should they have to pay a yearly fee so that they can drive it only a few hundred miles a year? This way, once there's petrol in it its taxed. (Not sure how it'd operate near the north though so I suppose its not as simple as all that)