Letter of the week

It's all about locks
Your recent feature illustrating the various features of insurers' private car policy wordings (24 January, Insurance Times) was very informative.

I was particularly intrigued by the number of companies that "offer" replacement locks cover.

The replacement of locks is particularly important where the keys have been stolen and the thief knows the details of the car, for example, in a housebreaking or a handbag snatch.

In my view, in these cases the replacement of the locks should be paid for under the basic policy, without the need for any special extension. (I believe the ombudsman shares this view). It should also be done as quickly as possible.

In these cases, until the locks are replaced, the car is an accident waiting to happen, not just from the theft damage aspect, but what could happen while the car was being driven by the thief. The potential of third party injury claims arising from stolen vehicles is something that is often overlooked by insurers.

Roy Rodger
Insurance Training and Consultancy
Wirral

Redundant, not retired
In relation to an article published in Insurance Times (29 November) concerning the closure of Crawford Liaison Unit at Preston, we wish it to be known that the information published was incorrect in that the two persons named, Hilary Anderson and Susan Moulding, have in fact not taken "early retirement", but have been made redundant.

Hilary Anderson
Susan Moulding

Are brokers that expensive?
It is not so long ago you printed my response to correspondence received from David Smith of distribution and marketing at Zurich Commercial.

I repeat now verbatim the opening paragraph of his latest offering for anyone not fortunate enough to have received one.

"As you are aware, commercial insurance premiums in the UK require substantial increases. Both of us will need to justify these increases to the customer and be more transparent about our earnings. We also need to be prepared to examine our own operations to reduce costs and mitigate premium increases."

Assuming mergers and acquisitions have for the short term ceased, I feel it is now time for all the leading composites to nail their colours to the mast and specifically comment on the future of business transacted via brokers.

The agenda is no longer hidden and I for one would like to know where I stand.

I feel genuinely guilty that as an animal I seem to cost insurers so much. Yet "outsourcing" is now the way forward in so many aspects of our business. More technology and fewer staff (trained or otherwise) are now essential for future prospects.

I know premiums have to rise, but I am perfectly capable of explaining this myself and declaring my commission.

I wonder whether the number crunchers have ever explored the costs involved for brokers in the servicing of even the smallest of commercial risks. I can see my fellow brokers nodding furiously as I recount the endless hours spent on site and on the phone dealing with the "what if" and the "can we?" All time saved for the insurer's staff to enable them to concentrate on reducing backlogs. Backlogs that presumably would become a thing of the past in a fully-trained, fully-serviced direct dealing service centre.

We appear to be on a slippery slope of inevitability regarding this, but I would make a final appeal to all to rethink distribution channels. Are we really an expensive way of doing business?

Steve Scott
Woodside Insurance Services
Leeds