The different insurance premiums between men and women have been in the news this week. European Judges were urged to rule that insurance companies were breaking EU law if they charged women lower premiums than men.
This news will undoubtedly get the conversation in pubs up and down the country onto that old chestnut: “Who are the best drivers – men or women?”
I have been in the driver training business for over 20 years and I could honestly say that judging by the thousands of drivers that I have assessed on the road and the ten thousands of drivers who have completed our online risk assessment, there is no difference between men and women in their driving ability. Insurance company stats would tell a different story, they would say women are less risk. They are right, women are less risk, but that doesn’t make them better drivers, nor does it make them worse drivers than men!
Insurance companies judge risk by cost to them and female drivers cost them less than male drivers. There are of course many reasons for this; women tend to drive fewer miles than males. Most two-car families have one small car for driving around town, with the other used for family trips and at the risk of being labelled sexist (which I am not) the man normally gets to drive the larger, more expensive car. If both the male and female were involved in a small shunt accident, it would cost more to fix the car driven by the male.
I believe a better approach to insurance would be to scrap discounts for women and the no claim bonus scheme and even higher insurance costs for young drivers. Before you all think I have lost the plot completely, let me explain my alternative. Everyone pays for third party insurance and receives a sticker (like the tax disc) to be displayed in the windscreen, this would reduce uninsured drivers as the authorities and all road users could see at a glance if the sticker was missing. Then drivers could pay extra for fully comprehensive cover, but the cost of this cover would depend upon a driving assessment i.e. low risk drivers pay less than high risk drivers. These assessments could be done by approved driving instructors who could also, at the end of the assessment give feedback on how to improve their driving. The cost of these assessments to the driver would be outweighed by the savings on insurance premiums.
This system would benefit good safe drivers no matter their age, sex or their chosen career. It would benefit society through drivers taking regular driving assessments (say every five years) and insurance companies through reduced accidents. Drivers would improve their driving if they knew they would be assessed regularly. In fact the only people who would lose are unsafe drivers – what a shame!
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