I regard the move to delete driving other cars (DOC) cover as yet another nail in our industry's coffin (News, 4 August).

The Motor Insurance Database (MID) concept is laudable but flawed. This stems from the way we transact motor insurance in the UK, where we insure the driver rather than the vehicle. I understand that most of Europe and the rest of the world do things the logical way, the other way round.

My German and Italian friends, for example, happily let me use their family cars when I visit and find it difficult to understand that my own policy, for underwriting reasons, restricts driving to the over 25s.

UK insurance has a way of linking underwriting and premium savings to driving restrictions, whereas the correct moral attitude (to protect the public) is to insure a vehicle for "any driver".

The origin of "driving other cars" was a service (remember that word) provided by an insurer to protect a policyholder from inadvertently driving an uninsured vehicle, because of this flaw.

Thus, in the UK, the police can check on the database that a given vehicle is "insured' by XYZ Insurance, but I imagine that any driving restrictions are not flagged up. The only way an officer can be sure that the car is insured at that time is to check that the driver is named (or not excluded) on the certificate. This might not be immediately available and will have to be "presented" at a police station.

The MID can only be even half relied upon if we insure the car rather than the driver.

Compulsory core cover should be Road Traffic Act (RTA) third party only for any driver, with any restrictions applying only to the other non-RTA covers, for instance, the "own damage" element.

To discourage uninsured use, there should be an insurance certificate or disc displayed on the windscreen, as seen all over Europe - and indeed on our own Channel Islands.

It is amazing how many people are prepared to drive an uninsured car but will pay road fund tax, because the lack of it is plain to see.

I note that it is the 'make me happy' people taking this action first, but the direct and supermarket insurers (maybe they know a bit about service and customer loyalty) will continue to offer it. My family use Tesco, looks like I'll have to follow.

Malcom Corbett
Corbetts

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