Taxi Driver Online

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am sorry to announce that Octane is withdrawing from further participation in the ‘Standard’ Taxi market, although we remain happy to help with the more Non-Standard end, such as Plated Self-Drive-Hire, Limousines and Chauffeur risks.

We have stuck with it on the ‘Standard Taxi’ account for nearly three years, despite the huge hit of a £1.6 million passenger injury claim last year, but the loss ratio is still running poorly in this current year and the rating just never seems able to catch up with the speed of increase in both the numbers and the cost of injury claims. Clearly, the tendency for these claims is worse in some postcodes than others, but we have tried to protect the account with postcode limitations, only to find the problem spreading rapidly to so many other areas that we feel there is no choice for us but to exit the market and use our resources for other products. I’m genuinely sorry to have had to give up on this part of our account.

We will stand by any quotes that we have already given to you, until the end of July, after which they will expire, but we will not be providing any new quotes after today.

Similarly, we will accept instructions on any renewals that we’ve already invited. However, we will not be inviting any future polices as they expire, but will ask you to replace them at renewal.

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Nobody told me to use my initiative. To err is human to arr is pirate.

Mmmmm another one bites the dust thanks to personal injury claims. How many more??

When it comes to insurance costs and postcodes does it depend on where you live or where you work

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

Toots

I guess that's were broker's knowledge comes in. There is no hard and fast rule. Some companies look at your home post code only, some look at your licensing authority only and some look at both and charge for the highest rated from the 2!

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Nobody told me to use my initiative. To err is human to arr is pirate.

So what happens if you live and license in one area but then almost exclusively work cross border

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

If you Insure for the area you Licence and yet work in another area, your insurance can be invalid.

http://sdrv.ms/LftWTz

That sort of backs up what I heard from a commercial member

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

Thanks once again to the no win no fee / personal injuries fiasco!

Oddly enough, nothing. As long as all questions on the application are answered absolutely truthfully. I cannot think of a single insurer that currently rates on base office address which they would need to do to pick up on this. i.e. licensed hack in one LA works PH in another. I cannot think of a company that rates on declared area worked, just on the 3 permutations I mentioned in earlier post.

Not so, see above.

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Nobody told me to use my initiative. To err is human to arr is pirate.

Times come for the insurance companies to judge the individual, this banding thing is ancient, if they want to stop false claims then they need to start refusing bad risks without dragging the good ones in with them, they all say it's PiC doing it but you tell me what happens if you let people with no experience of driving on the other side of the road drive a cab knowing that a fast cab earns more, it's obvious that foreign and fleet drivers who dgaf are responsible for this overall.

Doom

Agree 100%. Problem is once you go past a point where you need human intervention to underwite, premiums rocket. There are some good ideas out there. For example i know of one insurer that charges a higher premium for 5+ year old Toyota Avensis's cos of the risk profile of the majority of drivers that use them as a weapon of choice. Post code rating does pick up a lot. If you look at certain Slough post codes on Google Street View you can spot a PH in every other driveway. Mainly 6+ year old E Class Mercs.

Insurance cos are increasingly giving the best deals for an area to a taxi insurance specialist in that area cos we know the local trade. I have been insuring cabs for 25+ years but have gained a huge amount of additional insight due to my actually geting behind the wheel and doing the job. I am starting to feedback some of the extra knowledge and experience with a view to helping ins cos identify more accurately the risk profile that will produce less claims.

Very often its the whole driving culture that is different even if an immigrant driver comes from say Pakistan where they drive on the same side as us. I think I've said before driving a 6+ year old Merc in Slough is probably better a better lifestyle than driving a Tuk Tuk in Islamabad!

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Nobody told me to use my initiative. To err is human to arr is pirate.

there's always a fee, a Hidden fee....at one time to Lawyers cut came out of the amount awarded so it was hardly worth their effort, now though they win their client a few thousand pounds which all goes to the claimant, then the lawyers have the right to claim for their own legal costs which can run into tens of thousands of pounds.

If this government had half a braincell they would revert to the older method where the Lawyers cut came out of the awarded amount, then they would only get a realistic percentage and something that reflects their true legal worth...a few Hundred quid on the average claim.

It's not rocket science..