Whilst gazing idly at some tempting looking tubs of guacamole down the local chippy, Bankstone News chanced to overhear a fascinating exchange between two young women just ahead in the queue.
Unwilling to continue spending what she plainly and unequivocally regarded as exorbitant sums on motor insurance, one told the other she had got rid of her car and was finding it cheaper to travel by taxi. If her calculations beg the question, the recent European ruling on gender equality in insurance could soon lend them greater credence.
Clearly things have come to a pretty pass when young people find personal chaufferage more affordable than vehicle ownership. But with the youth of today increasingly inclined to think car insurance is overrated, losing the custom of people like this young pescivore may be the least of motor insurers’ worries.
A more worrisome calculation – one implicitly raised by confused.com’s Gary Klot commenting this week on the findings of the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into the krazy kost of kar insurance – is that the maximum fine for driving without insurance currently stands at £1000 and is often as little as £200 in practice, which, particularly if you are a younger driver, compares rather favourably with the cost of getting insured.
“Fifteen percent of young drivers cause 31% of all accidents,” Klot complains, “leading to 40% of all motor claims.” How can we root out these ne’er-do-wells? “Making the driving test harder, re-assessing the pass plus scheme, and increasing the use of telematics devices should all be investigated,” he said, backing calls for the creation of a special insurance police force – a bit like the religious police in Saudi Arabia, probably.
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