Lower risks – Lower Premiums?

In today’s difficult economic climate it is more important than ever to make sure you make every penny count. That’s why we help may hundreds of haulage insurance customers to find the best policy at the most competitive price every year.

However, at a time when the cost of HGV insurance is rising due, in the main, to ever increasing claims costs, many insurance companies are teaming up with vehicle manufacturers and other organisations to research the latest safety technology to help to save lives, reduce injuries and also cut the costs of accidents.

With the continuing advancement of technology several new initiatives are being researched which could bring about a quantum leap in road safety and revolutionise the way that HGV insurance works.

An example of such an initiative is adoption of electronic stability control (ESC) an automatic override that prevents drivers from losing control in a skid. At present 63% of new vehicles in the UK are fitted with ESC, but in 2012 all new cars will be required to have this by law. According to research conducted by Thatcham, a not-for-profit organisation that carries out research aimed at reducing the cost of accident claims for insurance companies, 380 lives have been saved by the introduction of ESC.

There were 572 pedestrians killed on the roads in 2008. For that reason Jaguar and Mercedes have introduced the pop-up bonnet. Should the vehicle strike a pedestrian the bonnet rises up, keeping the victim away from the hard metal of the engine.

Drink driving is another high risk factor, a driver who has drunk double the legal limit is 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. Ford has produced the “AlcoKey” which has a mini breathalyser kit built into the key. If the driver blows into the mouthpiece and registers a reading above the legal limit a red light flashes, telling the driver the key will not start the car.

In many cases the new technology is not just about saving lives but also about avoiding the minor incidents which make up the majority of collisions. Whiplash is the most common injury with 436,000 claims a year in the UK. Typically these accidents are where a driver runs into the back of another vehicle at a junction. However new technology can stop this happening. New tests with vehicles fitted with collision mitigation braking systems-where the vehicle brakes autonomously when it sees an obstacle are very encouraging along with simpler systems such as orange lights beside mirrors which tell you if there is someone overtaking in your blind spot.

Another new development is lane departure technology, where a buzzer sounds when the vehicle edges across the white lines without indicating. This is taken further by some vehicle manufacturers who are experimenting with a system where the steering wheel rights itself, nudging the vehicle back into the lane if the driver crosses white lines without indicating.

As well as the improvements in vehicle safety on our roads for drivers and pedestrians the insurance industry should see a reduction in the cost of claims. Experts believe that if the automatic braking systems mentioned earlier were fitted to all UK vehicles Britain would see 150,000 fewer whiplash injuries, £1.3bn saved in repair costs and £700m in health compensation.

Of course there is no substitute for careful driving and insurers will always look to reward careful drivers who have good claims records with competitive HGV and Haulage insurance and here at Isis Insurance we are able to tailor individual policies to suit customer’s individual circumstances.

Whatever the development in new technology we will continue to provide our clients with competitive Haulage and HGV insurance policies.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 3:14 pm and is filed under 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.