Of the twenty worst postcodes for uninsured drivers in the UK, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire house 17 – 85% – of the worst offending zips in the country. Compared with other counties, that equates to seven times the average, based on figures reported by the Motor Insurers Bureau.
The organisation retains details of all vehicle registrations nationwide and, although overall figures for uninsured drivers are in decline, these two counties really buck the trend.
What these drivers don’t comprehend is that when you or I have a collision with one of them, unless we’ve forked out in advance on top of our basic van insurance policy for protection as an ancillary product, we either have to settle out of court or stump up for the excess and fear the worst when it comes to renewing our once-cheap van insurance policy due to prior good driving behaviour, we find our policies hit with the lack of no claims bonus.
This then has the knock on effect of us using blameless driving to use as a tool to drive down the cost of our van insurance when we try to carry our policy over to a new provider, and they offer us an introductory discount on our proud driving history.
Either way, a collision with an uninsured driver costs us big time. It also stands to reason that uninsured drivers have no cover for a reason. They are either not concerned about protecting their business or worse, themselves, making them a threat on UK roads. Or they have previous convictions, which would make their car or van insurance renewal excessively expensive.
This is money that insurance providers are not taking in income but are having to pay out against, where sensible business owners have had their van insurance policy protect against accidents derived from uninsured drivers.
And guess who has to foot the bill? Yep, it is those of us who pay our car or van insurance like clockwork who, recognising their true value, will do anything to keep their domestic or commercial vehicle on the road.
To name and shame, areas of Birmingham and Bradford were the worst culprits for hiding uninsured drivers. That percentage is enough to prove that they make a considerable contribution to the estimated half a billion it costs to support these criminals every year.
So, come Birmingham and Bradford – help the UK to build upon the work put in by some of the other counties in our drive to be a fully-comprehensive driving nation. Act upon the letters that should have been sent out in June to all uninsured drivers as a result of OFT recommendations as they investigated the rise of vehicle insurance.
It’s not as if you don’t know where they are! Get the money back to the insurers so that we once again obtain cheap van insurance as and when we need it.