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THEY DON'T CARE: WHY SHOULD WE?
Page 3
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Reducing risk should be a powerful tool in negotiating insurance renewal rates. Fit a burglar alarm to your house or car and you'd expect your insurance premiums to fall. Opt for a really secure front door and window locks in your house and you would reckon on saving even more on your premiums. Better security reduces your risk of being burgled, or the likelihood of your car disappearing overnight, right?
But not when it comes to trucks. It appears that you can choose the most secure vehicles under the insurance industry-accepted Thatcham initiative, perhaps paying extra for the privilege, and you won't receive any discount on your premiums.
When you consider that Thatcham is the UK's only motor insurance research centre, and produces the vehicle alarm performance tests that all insurers base car premiums on, you begin to wonder just why they are bothering with trucks. There's little or no financial benefit to operators — nor, bizarrely, are insurers themselves becoming more competitive to attract new custom,
Most truck operators would be interested in anything they can do to cut premiums. Many companies have seen insurance costs ratchet ever-upwards over the past few years, and would be keen to see those costs fall, But if there is no benefit, why bother? Especially when buying a more secure truck could cost more to start with. Insurance companies need to set premiums according to a realistic risk assessment and not simply keep premiums high because they can. There is no incentive for manufacturers or operators to seek the greater security police, customers and society at large demand if they face only financial penalties for doing so. It seems insurance companies aren't interested in better security—and if they aren't interested, why should anyone else be?
"Nor, bizarrely, are insurers becoming more competitive to attrad new customers"
• More and more of you are calling on the government to increase speed limits to 50mph on suitable single-carriageway roads. We have received hundreds of letters from readers, and we have also written to anyone with political influence who is involved with transport. If you haven't added your voice to the campaign yet, there is still time —you'll f ind a coupon in any of the issues over the past few weeks which you can fill in and return if you believe we should be pushing 50.