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Car Insurance : 1890 - 1920
Mechanically propelled vehicles were not used on the roads
of the UK to any great extent before the beginning of the
20th Century and, consequently, car insurance is of more recent
origin than fire, theft
and general liability insurance.
The early underwriters tended to adapt the practices of these
existing insurance departments to the requirements of car
insurance, and hence they placed more emphasis on the subject
matter of the insurance (the car) for rating purposes, than
they did upon the driver.
More weight is now given to the driver and his experience,
particularly to the young driver, and premiums reflect this.
Car Insurance: 1920 –1930
The increase in road traffic after 1918 and
the rise in the number of occasions when members of the public
were injured without being able to obtain financial redress
through the negligence of uninsured motorists, led to the
introduction of the Road Traffic Act 1930.
This Act imposed, for the first time in the U.K. a statutory
obligation on the users of all cars to provide security against
their legal liability for death of or bodily injury caused
to third parties.
An indirect consequence of the practice
of adapting the rating and other techniques of the fire, theft
and liability departments to cater for car insurance was,
that when cars began to appear on the roads
in larger and larger numbers after the first world war, the
greater part of car insurance business tended to be placed
with the larger, composite offices which were, perhaps, best
equipped to provide suitable cover.
By the late 1920's these Insurance companies - most, if not
all, of which were members of the Accident Offices Association
- had come to realize that their joint and separate interests
would undoubtedly be best served if they were to agree to
adopt a more or less standard set of guidelines and basic
rates for car insurance.
Thus, under the banner of the Accident Offices Association,
the Car insurance 'tariff' came into operation.
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UK
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