Speed Awareness Courses - What they aren't telling you
Date: Thursday, May 05 @ 05:49:32 UTC
Topic:
My editorial piece in last week's newsletter about Speed Awareness Courses got a lot of interest with a number of you emailing in with your experiences.
My distaste for these courses arises because they are a profit making business with a a few select companies making a lot of money. Speeding fines go to central government but the fees for these courses are shared between the companies that are contracted to run them and the police, conflict of interest anyone? And many drivers choose the course over a fine and endorsement because they assume it will avoid an insurance premium penalty, and that's not always true.
The quality of the tuition that is being provided on these courses is also a concern. For example on one an attendee asked why black-and-white chevrons erected on bends varied in numbers and was told by the tutor that the number of chevrons indicated how many accidents there had been on that bend! Laughable were it not so serious and of course complete bunkum.
Here are the facts surrounding the insurance issue. Attending a course avoids a conviction so you do not need to volunteer the information when taking out or renewing a vehicle insurance policy. But a number of insurers have grown wise to this and are now specifically asking if you have attended a speed awareness course and then loading premiums where this is the case. I don't yet have an exhaustive list of which companies do ask but Admiral and Elephant are two who do. If you know of others then post in the thread below.
Course attendees are still being told that attendance means no increase in premium and on one course where an attendee asked the question her instructor said that, as there was no national database of attendees, if she chose not to tell tell her insurers they would never know.
So if you are unlucky and receive a Notice of Intended Prosecution with the conditional offer of a speed awareness course instead of a fine I advise you to do some research before accepting one or the other.
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