Big brother??

[Mike Arman]

>Subject: Re: Bend over - here come the insurance companies again
>
>
>AUGH!  too big brother!  just wait till they make it mandatory on all cars!=
>  gah!
>
>On Wed, Feb 20, 2002 at 03:16:07PM +0100, Phil Payne wrote:
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1831000/1831181.stm
>>
>> I hate to think ...
>>


Article refers to a black box which tells how many miles you drive, charges
your insurance premium accordingly. Evidently there's a low "base rate",
and then a mileage charge.

Now think about this a moment . . . here in Amurrica, where everyone has
two, three, or four cars, and there's only ONE licensed driver, this would
really make sense. Right now, I have two cars and three motorcycles - and
despite that fact that I can only drive one vehicle at a time, I get to pay
FULL insurance on EACH of the vehicles - 100% of the money for a vehicle
used say, 30% of the time.

I also need a small van or pickup every once in a while - I can buy some
beater for $500 which will do just fine, but I'll pay twice that in
insurance every year, even though the vehicle won't go 200 miles a year.
Obviously not practical, and ONLY because of the way insurance is written.
You can't tell me that a 200 mile a year vehicle has the same exposure as a
20,000 mile a year one - and the rates are almost the same!

Where's the fairness in that? Why would I need (and why should I pay for)
liability insurance on a vehicle that isn't running right now? If I do a
major repair, the vehicle may not move for two months, why am I paying
insurance on something which poses no risk to anyone?

Personally, I'd LOVE the idea of a base rate plus a pay-by-the-mile charge
based on USE, instead of simply OWNERSHIP, which is what we effectively
have now. Oh, yeah, I do get a multi-vehicle discount, but it is something
like 5 to 7% - whoopee.

Here's where big brother might do us some good.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman