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For the less scrupulous it will mean that they cannot afford not to insure"
Page 37
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insure their trucks have anything to fear. "I don't think it will change anything for most truck operators." he says.
"It just tightens things up, which has to be good for the general public. For the less scrupulous, though, it will mean more than ever that they cannot afford not to insure."
However. Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA Motoring Trust, is worried that punitive measures might be taken against some operators as a result of gremlins in the so-called Motor Insurance Database.
-If somebody deliberately runs a truck uninsured they deserve everything they get thrown at them," he says. "However, the only worry is when a clerical error sneaks in and an operator faces having his truck impounded because his details appear wrongly on a database.That is quite a scary prospect and the new system must be able to address this." These measures are coming in at a time when the insurance industry is putting its own house in order, says Janet 'Tindle of insurance brokerage the Robinson Leslie Group. Gone is the old scam of an insurance company reminding a hard-pressed operator to renew his policy a few days before it expires, when there's no time to shop around for an alternative quote.
Regular reminders
-Since January we have all been tightly governed by the Financial Services Authority, which has a benelicial knock-on effect to operators." she explains. Now it is common for brokers to contact their customers about policy renewal three months before expiry, and then tying up the policy a couple of weeks before it expires But ultimately the onus for keeping within the law is on the operator."It is not our duty to ensure that a company insures its vehicles," saysTindle."It is down to the operator." Ecott suggests one way hauliers can avoid this problem is by setting up direct debits to automatically renew policies: "This helps to put some of the onus of renewal onto the insurance company." •