Daily briefing: Tuesday – end of the road for uninsured drivers

Last night heralded the launch of a new era in the crackdown against uninsured drivers.

I’m referring to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) TV campaign aimed at raising public awareness of the new government-backed Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme. This is good news for the industry and consumers, as uninsured drivers currently add around £30 to every motor insurance policy.

The insurance industry pays around £500m to the MIB to fund uninsured driver claims each year - a tremendous cost to the industry. So is it a surprise to learn that insurers have forked out £1m to pay for the advertising campaign around this scheme, as we revealed last night?

Transport minister Mike Penning said the figure was a “bitter pill to swallow” for the industry – and the industry will no doubt agree. With no access to government funds, the MIB has stumped up the cash. From 20 June, it becomes an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle, rather than just driving while uninsured.

Penning said the Department for Transport was working with the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office on increasing the level of fines for uninsured driving. The currently average is about £180, but the offence boasts a maximum fine of £5,000.

Some will be left feeling that it will be the government that end up ‘quids in’, rather than insurers, including one broker, who told us: “One thing is clear, the government and the courts are the ones getting the benefits from the fines imposed. I fail to see how this will keep costs for the motorist down because the MIB will still be paying out and the insuring public are still paying a high premium. Why can’t the insurers keep the fines to fund the MIB? That’s a much fairer scheme.”

Latest hire for Hastings

Things are hotting up on the South coast, and no I don’t mean the excitement surrounding Brighton and Southampton’s promotions to the Championship. I’m talking about ambitious broker Hastings Direct, which today unveiled another senior hire. It has brought on board Tobias van der Meer to head up Hastings Retail, effectively the broking arm of Hastings trading under brands such as Hastings Direct, Insure and Renew.

Van der Meer was previously in charge of the money and broker lead businesses, as well as all front- and back-office operations at aggregator Moneysupermarket.

The appointment comes just a few weeks after Hastings hired former Helphire chief executive Mark Adams as chief financial officer and is another big step forward in its push for a flotation in 2012. But nothing is certain yet.

Meanwhile Zurich is still busy getting its own house in order and today unveiled a host of changes in its commercial broker division, five months on from its UK general insurance restructure.

Danny Walkinshaw is digital news editor.