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askMID and Trusting Insurance Companies
Blog Date - 21 August 2012
I'm in the process of moving the insurance from one bike to another. I've made a phone call, paid my fees and all being well the insurance should change from one bike to another on Friday. No worries...hopefully...
You only need to watch any of the various Police reality shows to see just how many tosspots ride and drive around without the correct insurance for their vehicle. Today the police have "ANPR" equipped cars. ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition. This means as the nice policeman drives around there's a camera watching all the number plates of any vehicles that come into view. This camera feeds into an onboard computer that reads the number and checks the database to see if there's tax, insurance and MOT registered against that vehicle.
It's all a bit big brother, but when I've religiously paid my insurance, tax and had the bike MOT'd, all at great personal expense, I hate the idea that some scumbag doesn't bother. If this system catches those who risk hurting others with no recourse for compensation then to be honest...I'm all for it. It seems statistically those who don't follow the regulations on such matters are the ones most likely to cause suffering to other road users.
My concern is that the insurance company themselves fulfill their side of the deal. I'm made my phone call and made a note of the name of the gentleman that has put in place the change of insurance. I've paid my bill. Now it's up to the insurance company to ensure that these actions are carried out. What happens if they do not? What happens if I hop onto my new bike only to be pulled up an hour later as there's no insurance? What happens if I'm unfortunate enough to have an accident and hurt someone?
I may stand there, as I've seen on the police reality shows, and swear to the heavens above that I have indeed carried out that which is legally required of me. But where is my evidence? In these days of online or telephone insurance there's no paperwork until the post man calls. And that paperwork is worthless as evidence these days as any geek with a PC and a printer can produce any insurance document. I could refer to my bank account and point to the money withdrawn but the insurance company, especially if facing a big claim, may state that was for new documents or a clerical error.
So I ask, where or how can a man alone prove that he has got insurance? If you're not on the system, if the computer says no, you are screwed, really screwed. You can't. You are forced to trust the insurance company and the computer system. There is only one place you can check, that I know of...
http://ownvehicle.askmid.com
This web page allows you to enter your registration number and see if the government's computers have a record of insurance on their database. It is still not final and conclusive proof that you are insured, it's merely an indication that you're vehicle is believed to be insured according to the database.
There is a note on the website that if you've recently changed your insurance then it may not be reflected for a couple of days. Great. You buy your bike, insure it online or over the phone that day and still there's no way to check. Even worse if you are indeed legally insured you may still get pulled and the bike impounded because the insurance company haven't updated the MID database. It's a minefield.
The only advice I can offer is keep as much records as you can. Which website did you use, print out the pages and the payment, ask who you are talking to on the phone and note their name as well as the time and date. Check out the askMID website and if theirs any doubt at all, make another call. It seems that no-one can prove they are insured, all I can suggest is that you do what you can.
Reader's Comments
Saron K said :-
It's a good thing to be able to check, but I wonder if other people can enter my registration?
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Saron, they sure can! Not quite so certain if that's a good thing or not...
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
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