Taxi Driver Online

Bradford taxi firm boss speaks out over rise in insurance costs



A cab driver boss fears taxi firms will be driven out of Bradford if insurance companies insist on keeping their premiums sky high.

Khurram Shehzad, who runs Manchester Road Taxis, said he has had to reduce his fleet of cars to five from 13 because he cannot afford the insurance premiums, which have risen from £1,800 per car per year in 2011 to £3,500 per car this year.

He fears he will have to move elsewhere if premiums keep going up.

“False whiplash and fraudulent claims are affecting the innocent people that are out there trying to earn a livelihood for themselves and their family,” he said.

“It has come to a stage now where drivers are registering in other boroughs, which is giving them an average saving of 60 per cent on insurance costs.”

Mr Shehzad said his problems started when a passenger claimed on his policy, causing his premiums to nearly double.

“I am going to eventually be left with no alternative but to sell my vehicles,” he said. “It is easy for an insurance company to say ‘no quote’, but what about the drivers that are going to go off the road?

“A number of drivers I know are out of work and have had to go to the job centre looking for other sources of work and this is hard for them, as they do not have a wide variety of skills as driving is all they have known.

“Unless something is done to change the way licensing is carried out it will mean a number of drivers losing their livelihoods.”

Bradford East MP David Ward (Lib Dem) said: “The good news is we are making progress.

“The spiral of ever-increasing premiums was out of control, but I do think we are managing to control it now. The spiral has been broken with us tackling referral fees and legal costs.

“We are also successfully dealing with uninsured drivers, but the most important thing is that the Government, mainly through pressure from the Transport Select Committee, is doing something and taking it seriously.

“We now have a fraud unit and last June, a change in the law saw insurers link up with the DVLA to look at uninsured drivers. Things are heading in the right direction, but we need to see premiums keep coming down, not increasing.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, (Lab, Wibsey) who has been contacted by Mr Shehzad, said: “I believe there is a serious problem in the way the insurance market is working and treating Bradford.

“This needs to be tackled by Parliament as I believe the impact is damaging to the city.”

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/n ... nce_costs/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I don't think anyone can not agree with him, they seem to have a free hand to raise past any inline rises.

Just about sums things up.

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IDFIMH

Of course taxi and private hire drivers jumping of the bandwagon with hired vehicles costing hundreds per day, and similar whiplash claims dont really come into it?

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I thought the Government said within the last few days that they were going to investigate car Insurance!!

Didn't say how long it would take or that they were going to do anything afterwards.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

True...But I guess they cant say til they've done the Study and government Studies often just fizzle out.

There's one on our rank at the moment, a 58 plate Mondeo price, £167 per day. That costs more in 2 weeks than a £2,000 whiplash claim.

They might do if they can be bothered to pull it from the back of the shelf along with all the other things they are on about investigating.

yeah, they got to kill us first

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The problem is CC, do you take the replacement vehicle and continue to earn a living or sit at home? The insurance companies will not pay loss of earnings even if that is less than the daily rental costs them.

A couple of years ago a boy racer ran into the back of me - I refused the TX2 they wanted me to drive as I am a full grown adult and they are built for ex-jockeys. So I found a Fiat Scudo already licensed in Plymouth, it cost them about a third of what the hire company wanted for the TX. Thing is after deducting the fuel from my daily "Take" I would only have been marginally worse off than if I took the daily fee they were paying. Now if they had offered 2/3 of the daily hire fee they wanted to pay for the TX I would have been quids in.

Someone should sort out this racket - the Insurance Companies should refuse to pay exorbitant rental fees and should tell the Vehicle Hirer's that Loss of Earnings will be paid to Drivers if that is less than daily rental rates.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

If my car is damaged in future I will take lost earnings rather than a hire car, we all win then, I get time off paid and the insurance company pays me £350pw rather than £1000 for a car.

They paid my loss of earnings when I had a non fault accident and I could only use a car at the weekend because I was already insured to drive it. The claims guy suggested I get another job so I wouldn't be so out of pocket, I suggested they should have settled sooner so my insurance would not charge me so much until the claim was settled. It took them 18 months to settle the claim for loss of earnings although the vehicle, which was a right off, had been settled within weeks of the accident they wouldn't give me my no claims back until the police had completed their investigation and taken the chap to court who caused the accident.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Insurance is pointless, IF you expect to get paid out on fully comp


Buy a car off a forecourt (say £10,000) on finance (so thats a £14,000 debt) and write it off the next day and the insurance may value it at £7000 (if your lucky) leaving you £7000 out of pocket, or you take out "GAP" insurance, that covers the £4K insurance but does it cover the difference bewteen sale price and trade/write off value?

then theres excess, usually so much as to make claiming pointless

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Id reckon most People in the UK wouldnt bother to claim for repairs where no other party is involved for less than £700 as its not worth the grief...and that's money kept safely in the bank for the insurers and they know it.

Its one massive con ..it really does need looking into.