Dziennik Ubezpieczeniowy, 9.05.2008

Simple solutions?

Not only in Poland, also across Europe the insurance market is closely tied to the vehicle registration market, Marta Kasperek reports from the 2nd International Motor Insurance Forum organized by Pro Motor .

(…) Piotr Kaczanowski znotes that by introducing a prolongation clause in 2003, the legislators did not predict the side effects it would entail. In connection with a sanction-free traffic code regulation stipulating that a registration authority should be notified within 30 days after an insured vehicle is sold, the clause is to blame for the fact that the authorities are too often not informed about car sales. (…)

As it turns out, however, in other countries there are simple and quite obvious solutions of this problem. In her presentation of motor insurance regulations, Sophie Compere, director in the Belgian Motor Insurance Information Centre & Tariff Bureau convinced conference participants that only "small” amendments may enable effective registration and record of vehicles. An obligation to take out MTPL insurance before registration or personal number plates kept by owner even after car is sold allow minimizing the number of uninsured drivers.

Hanna Hakanen, manager in the registration team of the Finnish Vehicle Administration (AKE) showed another way of decreasing the number of uninsured drivers. The idea is to outsource the majority of vehicle registration and record services to external firms. In Finland, over 300 such partners register cars. The country also has an interesting solution in terms of writing off cars. When a vehicle is crossed out from register but the owner has not returned his number plates to a competent authority, insurance policy will still be valid. Insurance cover will only expire when the owner returns his car’s plates. (…)

A similarly reliable, database-integrated (insurers’ database, vital records) system was presented by J.J.Smits, WBF manager from Holland. The system has one weak point, however. Dutch insurers have as many as 28 day to provide the national RDW database with information on the signed policies. Hence, the database is never up-to-date.