VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 2 MAY 2014:
Car insurance and van insurance providers are so obsessed with cutting costs that they’re willing to try anything – including the aid of their own customers.
You know that insurance companies have been turning over every last rock in an attempt to reduce their operating costs when they actually come up with a plan that will help both them and consumers. Well, that’s what’s happened this week, when one insurance provider has decided to move forward with a new programme that will offer a 10 per cent discount on a policyholder’s premium if they’re willing to fit a dashboard camera to their vehicle.
The idea is to provide better evidence in the event of car crashes, which cost insurers an arm and a leg. The 10 per cent rate drop isn’t too shabby either, and will be especially helpful to commercial van insurance policyholders that have a number of vehicles they have to keep on the road. On top of that, a dash cam is good for employers to keep tabs on their employees and how they comport themselves behind the wheel; whilst a telematics device can tell you quite a bit about a driver, having a video feed is even better.
So who cares about how this could be a terrible idea when it comes to the invasion of privacy, right? Sure you might say that the programme is voluntary, but that won’t stop the camera from capturing the action from people and vehicles outside the car or van that pass by. Not everyone actually enjoys having camera footage taken of them, despite the massive number of CCTV cameras spread across the UK like George Orwell’s worst nightmare.
Why are insurers so up in arms right now? Well that’s easy – new data from another major insurance provider found that fraud went up by nearly 20 per cent last year when it came to car accident claims, which means projections are it will be higher this year still. High fraud activity equals vast sums of cash being spent on spurious claims, so insurers are trying to head it off at the pass this year instead of just raising our rates like they usually do instead. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll still raise our rates this year too.