An SMS could end your vehicle's insurance-free ride
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Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is deploying technology which will enable a simple SMS query to ascertain whether a vehicle is insured or not. The move will help bring within the insurance net the lakhs of uninsured vehicles in India.
IRDA is working on a Vehicle Insurance Status SMS System (VISSS) project which envisages creation of a huge database created from motor policy information supplied by all insurance companies.
In a draft report, IRDA said the VISSS would provide an additional facility to police authorities to verify insurance status of the vehicle. At present, the only proof of insurance, which the policy can rely on, is the insurance certificate which has to be produced when demanded by a police officer. But despite the statutory requirement of third-party liability insurance, insurers estimate that a large percentage of registered vehicles in the country are uninsured. According to data released by the insurance industry, there are around five crore policies in force while the total number of vehicles are over eight crore.
A common searchable database has been discussed by the industry for several years. Besides identifying uninsured vehicles it would also enable companies to ascertain the claim histories of vehicle that seek to buy insurance from others when their rates are raised for poor claims track record. One reason why the database could not be completed was that the different level of computerisation of various companies. Speaking at a recent reinsurance summit, insurance regulator J Harinarayan had lamented at the lack of co-operation among industry participants to even share basic information on insured vehicles.
Vijay Kumar, who heads the motor insurance business at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said, “From production numbers, it is obvious that there are many uninsured vehicles. Each of the large manufacturers produce nearly two million two-wheelers every year, while the number of policies is less than 20 million,” he said. He added vehicles end up being underinsured usually, because the insurance premium from them is too low to make it economical for the company to do a persistent follow-up.
Motor insurance is one of the portfolio of the non-life insurance industry. In motor mainly two types of policies are issued, ‘Package’ policy and ‘Liability only’ policy. Package policy or comprehensive covers ‘Own Damage’ and ‘Third-Party Liability’ where as ‘Liability only’ policy covers the statutory ‘Third-party liability’ only. Under the provisions of Motor Vehicles Act all vehicles which ply in public places must be insured to cover third-party liability.
Under the new system, anyone who wants to know the insurance status of any vehicle plying in India has to SMS the registration number of the vehicle to a telephone number connected with the portal. The vehicle registration number will be searched in the system and insurance status of the vehicle with period of cover will be sent through SMS. In case of new vehicles, insured for the first time, instead of registration number, engine number or chassis number of the vehicle needs to be sent.
Source - economictimes.com
