NZ ABI Equivalent?

[mashman]

The ABI, the Association of British Insurers... what their function was i'm not entirely sure. Anyway, these guys decided to sell their data for public consumption (to a point and for a price). This data was made up of the combined databases of all of the registered british insurers. It wasn’t cheap… a yearly licence fee broken down into manageable chunks throughout the year, because “they” were nice… thousands of pounds (couple that with DVLA and Police data (yup)) it added up to tens of thousands...

When a vehicle makes a claim in the UK, the claim it's logged on a database and classified. A, B, C, D... A and B were your run of the mill bumps, dings, scratches and road worthy after a crash type vehicles. C meant the vehicle was written off, but it was only an insurance write off, not a vehicle write off and hence could go back on the road. D meant fubar.

This data performed the basis for the introduction of vehicle checking companies in the UK… ya know, stolen vehicles, vehicle accident history before you buy type stuff…

It had them all, tractors, cars, off road vehicles, trucks etc… oh and bikes… I got very interested in the grouping of the bikes for some unknown reason (insurance was high), so out of curiosity went to see if the rationale behind motorbike insurance costs by engine size were well founded. Ha ha haaaaaaa… Out of all motorcycle crashes and classifications A, B, C and D, D classed 125’s accounted for 51% of every bike crash, all engine sizes combined and all classifications of motorcycle crash…

so my question was answered... it's all bulshit, lie, lies and more lies, if you can afford a big bike, you can afford to run it if we screw you for insuarance

I asked the boss if we could go “public” with the facts that we had found (I got in touch with someone at Superbike Magazine who was interested in some more info too) and we tried. Now if I was a conspiracy theorist… in fact we’ll leave it there I guess… we all had to find new jobs...

Anyway... do you have an ABI provider over here, as I’d love to find out if anyone on here has access to it and wants try and get the facts out there???

[tomtyer-drake]

good point! not something i know about, but surely someone must have access to the data.

however without compulsory insurance its not as easy to see a true picture of it.

i wonder if the dvla would have info of all the bikes written off and broken into engine size percentages.

[mashman]

In all honesty, that wasn't my true agenda... my focus was more that it highlighted the need for better training (most learners learn on a 125 in the UK)... but as training isn't a revenue gatherer it's always best to tackle it from a different angle... Thing is you'll never win on the insurance argument as it's the cost of the bike that sets the level of insurance... which kinda makes sense. I just wish they'd take everything vehicle related and throw it on fuel... but that's me!

The DVLA just provide vehicle information, VIN checking, licence plate history of a car etc... it's the police and insurers data that's the key. Unfortunately by the time we got the police data, we were already, erm, finding trouble operating...

Funnily enough though, there was an article on yahoo yesterday outlining some research from a guy from Otago University???, who researched police reports and found that it's the 250's that have more crashes in NZ... And most of your learners seem to ride 250's... go figure... again though, there's no money in it and the only thing you can hypothesise about is that learners "maybe" aren't getting proper, quality training properly...