Uninsured driving -BVRLA Dealing with continuous insurance

The Directgov website says "Driving a vehicle on a road or in a public place without insurance against third party risk is an offence. You need to be correctly insured for the vehicle you intend to drive or you could face a fixed penalty notice"

Uninsured drivers inflict a major financial burden on other motorists, estimated at around £380 million each year or around £30 of the cost of each insurance premium. The damage caused in road traffic accident results in large number of claims for settlement by the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB).

Uninsured drivers also impose other costs on society. Research and surveys show that uninsured drivers are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents, fail to follow road traffic signs and signals and potentially be involved in other criminal activity.

The Department for Transport (DfT) announced a package of measures to crack down on the estimated two million motorists on our roads driving without insurance.More information HERE

On the 19th April 2011 the BVRLA - British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association issued a press release "Dealing with continuous insurance"

The organisations behind the new continuous insurance enforcement (CIE) regulations have pledged to help BVRLA members ease the burden of compliance.

Speaking at a BVRLA seminar earlier this month, representatives from the DVLA and the Motor Insurer’s Bureau (MIB) said that they would give the industry time to implement the new regulations while also providing advice and support.

Laws on continuous insurance due later this year introduce a new offence of being the registered keeper of a vehicle with no motor insurance. As the registered keepers, leasing and rental firms will be held liable for any fines issued against their vehicles for being listed as uninsured on the MIB’s Motor Insurance Database. They will not be able to transfer their fines to customers.

Speaking at the seminar, David Hancock, director of enforcement at the DVLA, said that the agency would put the resources in place to ensure that members of the BVRLA were not victims of any unintended consequences of compliance.

The new system will put the onus on rental and leasing companies to work with their customers to help ensure that vehicles are added to the Motor Insurance Database in a timely manner when they are leased or rented.

Neil Drane, head of database services at the MIB and also speaking at the BVRLA event promised to work with his members to come up with a single and efficient method of updating the database.

“All our members will comply with the law, but the less administratively burdensome we all can make it the better,” said Nora Leggett, the BVRLA’s head of member services.

The CIE scheme is expected to operate as follows:

The DVLA’s vehicle keeper database and the Motor Insurance Database will be regularly compared to identify vehicles which are not recorded as covered by a valid motor insurance policy. If, after several checks, the vehicle still does not appear on the motor insurance database, an advisory letter will be sent to the registered keeper informing them that their vehicle does not appear to be insured. Registered keepers may do one of the following:

Inform the DVLA that you have made a declaration that the vehicle has been sold or SORN’d, with appropriate evidence being provided as proof of this

Inform DVLA that the vehicle is stolen and provide a crime reference number
Confirm with the motor insurer that the vehicle is insured and is recorded on the motor insurance database
Get the vehicle insured

Further checks will be conducted on both databases (i.e. DVLA keeper database and Motor Insurance database) and if, after a further month, the vehicle still appears as being uninsured then the registered keeper will be issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice (£50 if paid within 14 days of issuance).

Source: BVRLA

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A fresh approach to funding

11th May 2011

The BVRLA has set up a new steering group to improve the availability of competitively-priced funding for the vehicle rental and leasing industry.

The Funding Steering Group will help existing and potential funders better understand the vehicle rental and leasing industry and its related risks and rewards.

It is already working with at least half-a-dozen new funders to evaluate the opportunities and product requirements of the industry and identify any barriers.

“This group has been created to help replace some of the liquidity lost since the Credit Crunch as banks struggled to build up their balance sheets and improve their flow of lending,” said BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis.

“Our industry has coped with this squeeze and now it’s time to help lenders return to the market and explore new funding opportunities. From the conversations we have had with potential lenders already, I am confident that there is new finance available for leasing and rental companies.”

The BVRLA’s new initiative comes as the industry’s main funder, Lloyds Banking Group, continues to slowly reduce its £1bn exposure to the rental and leasing market. Although Lloyds has pledged to work with the industry to make this transition as smooth as possible, the association is keen to help Lloyds’ customers in particular to reduce their dependency on its funding.

The steering group is chaired by BVRLA honorary treasurer and board member Brian Back and includes representation from the association’s three key sectors of membership: Graham Hale of Fleet Hire, Andrew Cope of Zenith Provecta, Roger Hancock of Thrifty Car Rental and David Barlow of ProHire.

Following the group’s initial meeting in late April, the BVRLA has begun work on producing an ‘Industry Profile’ document for potential funders and aims to conduct a funding survey of members by the end of May.

"We want to get a clear understanding of which sort of finance they want to provide and what sort of companies they want to deal with. The information we get from the survey of members will help us point them in the right direction,” said Lewis. In the longer term, the BVRLA is also working with the Finance and Leasing Association and exploring alternatives to bank funding.

Source: BVRLA

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BVRLA and the Equality Act red tape

6th June 2011

The BVRLA has called for the vehicle rental industry to be granted an exemption from the Government’s Equality Act on the grounds that it’s application would increase costs for consumers and operators through adding “an unnecessary layer of red tape”.

Banning any form of age discrimination in the vehicle rental industry could cost the sector more than £34m per year and add up to 30% to the price of hiring a car or van.

The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association wants the industry to be exempted from the government’s proposed age discrimination legislation because regulation in this area is not required and would introduce a huge administrative and cost burden on its members.

Statistics show that young and inexperienced drivers, particularly males, are much more likely to have accidents and it costs more to insure them. Despite serious safety concerns about these drivers gaining access to a range of high-powered cars, vans and minibuses, a significant number of rental companies do rent to people under 21.

The Government has agreed that it is justifiable to charge higher prices, deposits and excesses to people in this age group. However, the new legislation would present rental companies with the ongoing burden of having to provide statistics to justify these charges, which could be challenged in court.

The BVRLA feels that the industry would also face extra administrative costs involved with insurance claims and vehicle repairs, which would end up increasing the price of vehicle rental for all customers.

“Older and younger drivers are already able to hire vehicles and the government accepts that some younger or experienced customers should be charged more,” said BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis.

“But our industry is still being threatened by this new tranche of pointless red tape, something the current government has sworn to eliminate.

“Costs for our vehicle rental companies and their customers will rise and no-one will benefit – where is the logic in that?”

Source: BVRLA

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Electric vehicles are too expensive

6th September 2011

Electric vehicle manufacturers need to reduce their prices if they want to energise the market, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association has warned.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), just 812 buyers have taken up the Government’s £5000 Plug-In-Car Grant so far this year, suggesting that electric vehicles are still too expensive for most consumer and fleet buyers.

“More than a dozen new electric and hybrid vehicles are set to hit the UK market over the next year, but most of them will be decorating showrooms unless manufacturers are more realistic on pricing,” said BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis.

See the rest of this BVRLA Press Release HERE

Source: BVRLA

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New safety recall system for 2012

21st September 2011

The BVRLA is partnering with technology company Ebbon-Dacs to provide the fleet industry with a free online vehicle safety recall notification system in 2012. Although the UK has a good record of handling vehicle safety recalls, fleet owners are facing rising costs in administering and managing the range of paper and digital notifications they receive from motor manufacturers.

“Our members own and operate more than two-and-a-half million vehicles and finding a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution that the whole industry can adopt has been one of the association’s long-term goals”, said BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis.

The new recall system is the result of close work between the BVRLA, its members, motor manufacturers and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). Alastair Peoples, VOSA Chief Executive said: "Britain has some of the safest roads in the world and the recall system contributes to this. It's really encouraging to see manufacturers and the fleet industry working together to improve the effectiveness of the safety recall process."

His views were echoed by Simon Oliphant, chief executive of Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions and chairman of the BVRLA Leasing and Fleet Management Committee: “This is a great example of the industry working together for the greater good – improving safety and duty of care while eliminating a mountain of paperwork and associated costs.”

See the rest of this BVRLA Press Release HERE

Source: BVRLA

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