Driving without third party liability insurance is a criminal offence. Yet in 2019, nearly 90,000 drivers were caught driving without insurance in the UK. This number must be the tip of the iceberg; the Motor Insurers’ Bureau estimates that there are over 1m uninsured drivers (4% of all drivers).

What to do immediately after an accident

If you are injured in a road accident, your first priority must always be to get to safety if possible and then assess the need for medical attention. Check yourself and your passengers for injuries. If necessary, or if there is any doubt at all, call an ambulance.

If possible, you should then:

• Write down the number plate of the other vehicle
• Make a note of the vehicle make, model and colour
• Call the police and make a note of the police reference or CAD number for the incident
• Assuming that the other vehicle has stopped, take the other driver’s name, contact and insurance details
• Take as many photos of the accident scene as you can and draw a diagram of the scene.
• Notify your insurer

What if the driver does not stop or is uninsured?

If the other driver says they are not insured, or flees the scene of the accident, the police will investigate. If the police are unable to trace the driver or they confirm that the driver is uninsured, they will notify you.

If you were injured, or your car or other property has been damaged, you could make a claim through your own insurance – assuming you have fully comprehensive cover.

However, unless your policy includes a clause for accidents caused by uninsured drivers, claiming through your own insurance will likely affect your no-claims discount. It will also hike your premium, especially if you are a recently-qualified driver.

Thankfully, there is an alternative in the form of the MIB.

The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB)

The MIB is a not for profit organisation that compensates victims of uninsured and untraceable drivers through a central fund.

Established in 1946, the MIB is funded directly by the car insurance industry through motor insurance premiums. In accordance with the Road Traffic Act 1988, all UK motor insurers must contribute. It is estimated that funding the MIB adds between £20 and £30 to the average motor premium.

When considering that the MIB handles around 26,000 injuries involving uninsured or hit and run drivers every year, few would question the value of the safety net provided by the MIB.

The MIB will pay compensation for injuries as well as vehicle and personal property damage.

Do I qualify?

If you have been involved in an accident with an uninsured or untraceable driver, the MIB will consider your claim if you meet the following criteria:

• The accident happened in the UK including the Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Gibraltar.
• Attempts to identify the driver and their insurer have been exhausted.
• You have notified your insurer and the police.
• If you sustained an injury, you should have informed the police as soon as possible and the subsequent claim must be started within 3 years of the accident.
• If your vehicle was damaged but you were not injured, you should start a claim as soon as possible after the accident.

The MIB processes claim applications from all road users including car drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.

They will also consider claims from UK citizens involved in accidents with a foreign-registered vehicles – either in the UK or within the EU. However, claims against foreign drivers may no longer be possible once the Brexit transition period ends.

Can I claim as a passenger?

Yes, unless you were aware that the car you were travelling in was also not insured. To reject your claim, the MIB would need to prove that you knew the driver of the car you were travelling in was uninsured. As it is not considered reasonable to ask to see a driver’s insurance documents before accepting a lift, this is rarely an issue.

If you were aware that the driver was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, you also cannot claim through the MIB.

Is there a downside to claiming through the MIB?

In the past, some claims have taken substantially longer to settle through the MIB than through an insurer. However, the MIB now state that they will endeavour to reach a decision within 3 months. For lower value claims this period can be less than six weeks.

You may need the money sooner for medical treatment or to get your car back on the road. If you need money to fund treatment or other costs immediately, the MIB may consider an interim payment.

How do I start a claim through the MIB?

All claims must be submitted online. The online forms are dynamic and they walk you through the process. You will need to grant access to your medical records and provide any evidence you have in support of your claim, such as photos of the accident scene.

Once an application form has been submitted, the MIB will start to investigate. They will contact all relevant parties including the DVLA, the police, your insurance company and any witnesses.

There is no need to appoint a solicitor and most people choose not to. If you are a minor or are unable to handle a claim due to injury, a solicitor can act on your behalf.

How do the MIB reach a decision?

If the MIB decides that the other road user was responsible for the accident, you will receive compensation.

It may be that both you and the other driver were each partly responsible. In these cases they may reach a finding of ‘contributory negligence’ and your compensation would be adjusted to the extent that you were to blame.

For example, if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt, you would likely receive reduced compensation. This is because your actions likely contributed to the seriousness of your injuries. Your compensation may instead be calculated on the basis of the less severe injuries you would have sustained if you had been wearing a seatbelt.

If the MIB decides that you were responsible for the accident, you would not be compensated. However, you would have the right of appeal.

General damages compensation is paid for any pain, suffering and loss of amenity you have suffered. Special damages will be paid for any costs and losses you have incurred. You can use an online calculator to estimate the amount of damages you would receive.

In the UK, around 1.6million practical driving tests are taken every year. However, during the coronavirus lockdown which started back on the 24^th March, all practical driving tests were cancelled unless the person was an identified keyworker.

Driving tests were allowed to resume on 4^th July. As we all adjust to the post lockdown world we are living in, there are a number of changes during the test itself as well.

Booking the test

First of all, anybody who did have a test booked in the four months during lockdown would’ve been sent an email which had assigned them a new date. However, these dates are invalid and you must go online to book your preferred test date. These new emails inviting you to book have started going out in batches from the 16^th July 2020 in the order the tests were booked in. At the moment if you did not have a test already booked then you can’t book one until the backlog has cleared to prioritise those affected by the lockdown.

Tests will be staggered in times during the day to minimise the number of people in the test centre at once.

When you book a test, you will need to declare if there is a good reason why you can’t wear a face covering such as a physical or mental illness or impairment – for instance asthma and breathing problems, or if it causes severe distress. However, wearing glasses does not count as a good reason and you will need to prepare before your test with wearing one whilst driving.

During the test

If your face covering becomes a problem your examiner will ask you to stop to adjust it and may end the test early if it becomes a safety issue. Therefore, it will be a good idea to ensure you understand how to stop the vehicle in a safe, legal and convenient place in case this occurs – your 4 Wheelz instructor will be aware of this and will make sure you have plenty of practice.

Furthermore, if you make a serious or dangerous fault, which will mean you have failed the test, the examiner will guide you back to the test centre where the test will end. This is in order to minimise your contact together within the vehicle.

Examiners will also wear face coverings and your driving instructor will not be allowed to accompany you on your driving test.

At the end of the test

Once the test has completed, the examiner will give you feedback from outside the vehicle and you may ask your instructor to come over the listen to it if it is safe to do so.

You must not come for your driving test if: you or someone in your household has coronavirus symptoms, you’ve been told by the NHS Test and Trace that you have been in contact with a person who has coronavirus or you have returned to the UK in the last 14 days, unless from certain countries or territories. In which case you must stay home and change your driving test appointment which you can do free of charge if you are self-isolating.

It is also recommended to postpone your test if you are clinically extremely vulnerable.

Another point of concern is for people who are coming close to the two-year deadline since they had taken their last theory test. Unfortunately, if the two years has elapsed then your theory test certificate will not be extended so you will need to take your theory test again. If you had booked a driving test, the DVSA will cancel your booking and refund you for this but you will have to book and pay for another theory test.

At 4 Wheelz, all of our franchised instructors are registered with the DVSA and we have many competitive packages for students learning to drive, including discounts on block booking your first lessons. Find out more here and if you would like to find out more, call us on 0800 44 88 288.

Are you preparing your students for the latest changes to the car theory test which will be coming into force in April 2020?

Currently, students have to answer 50 questions in total in a total of 57 minutes, with 5 of them revolving around a “case-study”. However in the new tests your students will be asked to watch a short, silent video clip instead and will be asked three questions based on the video. During these questions the video clip will appear on the left hand side with controls to play or pause and move the video, as well as to watch it full screen.

The video clip will be of a typical driving situation, perhaps through a town or down a country lane, in a similar vein to the current hazard perception videos However, instead of being asked to click when you spot a hazard, your students will be asked questions on what they saw, for instance:

1. Why are motorcyclists considered vulnerable road users?
2. Why should the driver, on the side road, look out for motorcyclists at junctions?
3. In this clip, who can cross the chevrons to overtake other vehicles, when it’s safe to do so

Your students will have four possible answers to choose from.

The aim behind the test is to make the theory test more accessible, especially to people with reading difficulties such as dyslexia, learning disabilities and other development difficulties such as autism.

4Wheelz is a driving school that operates as franchises throughout Birmingham and the West Midlands. If you would like to train to become a driving instructor, then you can find out more about our excellent training program here. Alternatively, if you would like to join us as an instructor from another driving school (or maybe you were operating independently) then click here to find out more about our franchise.

In the last decade, one of the big talking points in the car industry has been the rise of “driverless” cars with manufacturers including Volvo, Nissan, Mercedes and Renault all showing off concept cars and promising more and more autonomous vehicle features. Are your students prepared for a world where they could be sharing a road with cars that would make better decisions than themselves?

The different levels of autonomy

The term “driverless” cars currently cover a broad range of definitions as manufacturers work at different levels of autonomy. The Society of Automotive Engineering came up with 5 “levels” of autonomous vehicle which is the generally accepted definition.

Level 0 Automation – This is your everyday car with no autonomous features at all – the driver is in full control of steering, braking, accelerating, parking, reversing etc.

Level 1 Automation – This level is known as “Driver Assistance” and there are already some vehicles on the road today with this level of automation. This is where the driver still maintains control but has various features to assist them, such as adaptive cruise control to maintain a safe gap from the vehicle in front, lane assist etc.

Level 2 Partial Automation – This level is currently being developed where the vehicle can assist with steering or acceleration functions but the driver must be ready to take control of the vehicle and is still responsible for most safety critical and environmental monitoring.

Level 3 – Conditional Automation – This level of automation is the biggest leap from the previous three levels which is where the vehicle begins to monitor the environment using sensors such as LiDAR and the vehicle begins to take over from the driver. The driver’s attention is still critical at this level but functions like braking can be left entirely to the technology.

Surprisingly, some manufacturers such as Audi have already created vehicles with this level of autonomy 2 years ago but they were unable to launch in the UK due to Regulation 104 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, which states: “No person shall drive or cause or permit any other person to drive, a motor vehicle on a road if he is in such a position that he cannot have proper control of the vehicle or have a full view of the road and traffic ahead.” Audi did announce plans to launch the car in the UK last year but at the moment legislation is yet to catch up.

Level 4 – High Automation – At this level, the vehicle is capable of much of the steering, braking, accelerating, monitoring the road and responding to situations, on its own. At this point the autonomous driving system would alert the driver when it is safe to switch the vehicle into this mode though the technology still struggles with dynamic driving situations such as traffic jams or merging in the road.

Level 5 – Full Automation – It is believed these cars won’t have steering wheels or acceleration and braking pedals. They will be free from geofencing and the driver simply inputs the destination and leaves the system to go. (Geofencing is a GPS system limiting the movement of Level 5 autonomous vehicles to certain areas).

This technological advancement is very exciting and could possibly make our roads much safer, especially as it is estimated that 96% of all traffic incidents are attributed to some form of human error.

However, are you preparing your students to the reality they could be sharing the road with more advanced vehicles? Also, these vehicles could make faster and better decisions than they could? The main issue with this technology at the moment is its ability to predict the unpredictable factors i.e. us, but if our students will be sharing the roads with these types of cars, have we taught them that we will need to change our driving attitudes in order to be safer for autonomous vehicles? Is it even possible that a child born in 2020 may never need to drive? Only time will tell.

4Wheelz is a driving school operating as franchises throughout the West Midlands. If you would like to become a driving instructor, then you can find out more about our excellent training program here. Alternatively, if you would like to join us as an instructor from another driving school (or maybe you were operating independently) then click here to find out more about our franchise.

Driving lesson prices have risen substantially in the last few years due to increased motoring costs. Car prices, service costs, fuel, and car insurance have all increased which has dramatically forced up the cost of driving lessons.

The cost of driving lessons varies, but generally, you can expect to pay between £24 & £28 per 1-hour manual driving lesson. The cost of automatic driving lessons is usually more than manual lessons ranging from £26 to £30 per 1-hour lesson. The DSA (Driving Standards Agency) recommends 47 hours of tuition using a professional instructor to pass your test successfully.

The total average cost for a learner will be around £1200; this includes all of the lessons plus the cost of the theory and practical test.
Some driving schools offer starter deals for novice drivers with no experience; examples are three driving lessons £49, five driving lessons £75, ten driving lessons £125.

When booking your first driving lesson ask if there are any starter deals but be aware most starter deals are non-refundable which means if you are unhappy with the instructor you either continue with the lessons you have paid for or you lose your money. If the driving school offers a money back guarantee don’t worry book the starter deal and if you are unhappy after your first lesson claim your money back under the guarantee.

If you’re in the West Midlands, 4 Wheelz Driving School offers two great deals and if you’re not happy with the first driving lesson you’re covered with a full money back guarantee. Also included with both deals, gold membership to one of the best theory training packages available at no extra cost.