While I sympathise with Mr Green (Letters, 13 March, Insurance Times), I fear he is beating an old, worn out drum. The remedy for uninsured motoring is with us now in the form of the Motor Insurance Database (MID).
Unfortunately it is not being used to its full potential.
1. Due to data protection constraints, police and traffic wardens are not permitted to make random checks on vehicles. Many of the vehicles that we see involved with claims under the MIB uninsured drivers and untraced drivers' agreements have no match on the database and are often well known to the police as "local runabouts". Random checks would identify these and get them off the streets.
2. Many traffic policemen are still not using MID and, indeed are unaware of its existence. We are told that there are some 20,000 police inquiries a week to the MID, but yet, when I ask policemen, they don't know what I'm talking about.
I suggest the readers find out for themselves - ask your local bobby if he knows about MID - mine certainly doesn't.
Given the investment by insurers in this, and the fact that police have free access, I cannot believe the level of unawareness among the officers I have talked to.
If we are to crack the uninsured driver problem once and for all, we need freedom to carry out random checks and every policeman should know how valuable MID is in this respect.
Roy Rodger
Motor Investigation Agency
Liverpool
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