Driving your vehicle on a road or in a public place without minibus insurance is an offence, so it is important to ensure your vehicle is insured. In this article we would like to explain why this is important and how you can stay on the right side of the law.
It is estimated that there are two million motorists on our roads driving without insurance. These uninsured drivers cause £380 million damage each year which results in large numbers of claims to the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB). Uninsured driving increases the cost of everybody’s insurance adding approximately £30 to each policy, including your minibus insurance.
To try and cut the number of uninsured drivers on UK roads the government recently introduced a package of measures which will crack down on those driving without insurance which means it is more important than ever that you make sure you have a valid minibus insurance policy.
This is called Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) and it means that it is now a legal requirement for you to insure your minibus at all times.
It is now a legal offence to keep a minibus without insurance unless you have notified the DVLA that your vehicle is being kept off the road and have a valid Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). You don’t have to be driving to be caught, simply owning the minibus and not having insurance can lead to you being prosecuted.
If you fail to keep your vehicle insured the DVLA will write and tell you that you must either buy a minibus insurance policy or declare your minibus off road.
If you should ever receive one of these letters it is important that you deal with it immediately. You will not receive another warning before more formal action is taken.
Some of the punishments introduced for failing to have minibus insurance include:
• Being issued a fixed penalty of £100
• Your minibus could be clamped, or even seized and disposed of.
• You can receive a court prosecution with a maximum fine of £1,000.
When you buy a minibus insurance policy your insurer will automatically send details of insurance to the proper database automatically so if your vehicle is already taxed you will not need to do anything else.
However if your vehicle is not already insured you must:
• buy a minibus insurance policy immediately;
• make a SORN, if the vehicle is not used on the road; or
• notify DVLA if you are no longer the registered keeper.
If you own a minibus it’s easy to ensure that these new rules don’t catch you out. If you still need to buy your minibus insurance don’t put it off call us at The Minibus Club where our helpful staff will be pleased to assist you.
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If you’d like to save money on your minibus insurance look no further than The Minibus Club. Why not visit their website to receive a free online quote for minibus insurance.
