The Motor Insurers Database – MID Enquiries

Continuing our series of articles aimed at helping our HGV Insurance and Truck Insurance clients to understand the important role the Motor Insurers Database (MID) plays in identifying uninsured vehicles we take a look at how information and enquiries are handled.

When you take out truck insurance and HGV insurance, your policy details will be added to the Motor Insurance Database (MID), run by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). This may be consulted by the Police in order to establish who is insured to drive the vehicle. If you are involved in an accident (in the UK or abroad), other UK insurers and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau may search the MID to ascertain relevant policy information on behalf of victims.

A search of the MID can only be conducted using the full Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM). It is not possible to search on a name, or address, or policy number or even a partial VRM.

The information held on the database is supplied by motor insurance companies and reflects the information that has been supplied to them by the policyholder. If the information retrieved is found to be incorrect or the data is missing, the insurance company should be notified so that they can make the correction to their own files and the MID.

Subject to certain conditions, the UK Information Centre at MIB can search the MID on behalf of a victim of an accident or under provision of the Data Protection Act.

Anyone can check that the vehicle they are about to drive has a record of insurance on the Motor Insurance Database (MID) by using www.askmid.com.

It is also possible to check the MID (for a fee) using www.askmid.com following an accident to determine if the other vehicle was insured.

Fleet Insurance customers may also be interested to note the additional requirements detailed as follows:

As a commercial policyholder YOU are responsible for regularly submitting information about your vehicles to the database.  Your insurer can tell you how you should do this or you can take a look at the Insurer Submission Route options. This area of the MIB website will provide you with all the other information you need to comply with the law. 
If you drive a vehicle insured on a company policy, you need to make sure that your vehicle is on the MID.  Check with the person responsible for arranging the motor insurance in your company.

The ACPO Lead for Uniformed Operations explains how your company’s vehicles could be seized if they are not on the MID:

“The use of ANPR at the roadside is helping the police to rid the roads of uninsured vehicles.  During 2006 around 50,000 vehicles were seized by the police.  ANPR teams check against the Police National Computer, the Motor Insurance Database and the DVLA database.  If a vehicle is not taxed or insured, reported stolen or lost, or if the keeper of the vehicle is wanted by the police for any other crimes, they will be stopped and further checks will be made.  The vehicle will be seized if there are no valid documents, and if proof of ownership or insurance is not produced within 14 days of the seizure, the police have new powers to crush and destroy the vehicle. 

Company car drivers are also at risk of seizure if the company has not registered the vehicle details on the MID.  You, as a fleet vehicle driver, may be inconvenienced by the police if your company has not passed on your vehicle details to the insurance provider.  A quick phone call to your Fleet Manager may save you unnecessary hassle at the roadside.”

So it is no longer enough just to be insured, you must ensure that your company vehicles are on the MID!

We will continue our look at the MID in future articles, but in the meantime we would emphasise the need for all of our clients to understand the need to inform us of any changes of vehicle under their HGV insurance and Truck Insurance policies as soon as possible, and always before taking the vehicle onto the public highways.

As ever more information is available at www.mib.org.uk

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Fleet Insurance, HGV (Haulage/Truck). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.