Yeah, more gov’t. That’s just what we need. Topic for a different forum.
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That is the number of people that paid the fee, the actual number of people driving without insurance and vehicle registration is likely ten times that amount.
Focus on this loophole is nothing more than a distraction from the real problem: unlicensed and uninsured drivers.
There are a number of reasons a vehicle owner may choose to pay the insurance waiver fee; to maintain registration on a farm truck or perhaps a classic car that might not leave the garage this year.
For those instances VA will let you deactivate your registration and reactivate it as needed. No insurance needed while deactivated.
No question, Unlicensed and uninsured drivers are a big problem…
But I want to address your two assertions, the Farm Vehicle and the Classic Auto.,.
Here is Virginia, there is Farm Vehicle Insurance that is cheaper than standard vehicle insurance and depending on several factors. Full-Time or Part-Time (over 50%), how many miles is it driven a year, etc… If it’s a full time and driven on so many mile a year it could be as low as $25 a month, or $300 a year, a savings of $200 over your suggestion of the Uninsured Motorist Fee…
Not only are you saving money, you are actually covered by insurance and if the farmer had an at-fault accident, with your suggestion the best he could hope for is no ticket…
My suggestion given an at-fault accident, not only would he not receive a ticket, he would be covered for any damage or injuries his accident caused…
Then, there is your suggest for a classic car that might not leave the garage this year. Also, in Virginia, there are insurance policies for classic cars that are only taken out for shows and the occasional Sunday drive, and they also cost less than the Uninsured Motorist Fee, they also offer some measure of insurance coverage.
Granted, you could say, "Your 1967 Chevy Chevelle, with all original numbers is worth over $100k and the insurance is not cheap for that… And I agree, but if you cannot afford the higher premiums for that policy, then you need to sell that car and take the proceeds and invest in in your IRA or 401k because you will not be able to afford to drive in when you finally retire, if art all…
Worse case, it the car is not going out for a year, you can turn the plates in and stop the insurance… Not all that practical, but a possibility… You could re-new your plates maybe 10-times and not spend $500 getting new plates…
My '84 Harley Ironhead Sportster qualifies for Vintage Plates and a reduced insurance policy, but I want to make sure if it is ever “wiped out”, it is fully covered… I have paid for a Qualified Appraisal and my insurance policy will not be not be negotiated nor will it be depreciated due to its age, mileage, and other factors that would have affected its value. My premiums are based on the miles driven a year and the replacement cost based on that appraisal… (and my “spotless” driving record…)
I am not aware of any “deactivation” option. All my vehicle’s registrations renew in November. I did not want to try to remember what was due when… I had to actually bring my plates to the DMV, turn them in and pay a new registration fee (no prorate and no rebate on the unused portion of the old registration, etc…)
Now in October or so, I log onto the DMV site and renew all the registrations all at once and the all the inspections are done over the next few weeks
It’s there, I used it for a car that was “ off the road” for over a year.
https://transactions.dmv.virginia.gov/apps/webtrans/reg_deactivate/deactivate_intro.aspx
I went to the link and it appears that this in a wonderful idea and you can easily re-activate the plates on line… I wonder how this would work on the insurance with a multi-vehicle policy. I have four vehicles on my policy. On the multi-vehicle policy, the different endorsements are based on four vehicles and as they say it’s cheaper by the dozen. Four example, I have rental/trip interruption coverage, but I would never need that coverage on all four vehicles at one time so induvial premiums for each vehicle is lower than they would be for just one vehicle…
As for my Harley which is a special carrier policy, they treat motorcycles differently, my company does not suspend, but cancels the policy. They pro-rate the months. They assume that you will drive a motorcycle more in the warm months than during the cold months. If you drive the motorcycle from May to October and then cancel, you might get a 30% rebate. However, If you drive from November to April, you might get back 60%…
Yeah, you will never win that one with the insurance company, there is always a “penalty…”
But a Great Suggestion and one I will try to remember…
But you brought it up here. It’s OK to have different opinions on the proper amount of government. We do need to understand that government can and usually is good for citizens. Unfortunately news sells better when controversy is presented. It’s odd that elected officials complain bitterly about the amount of government but go home and take credit for the same laws that they fought against.
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Mandatory insurance is not really insurance. It’s just a fee you pay to allow bad drivers to stay on the road. A lot of it just goes for agent commissions and expenses.
Insurance is not insurance ? Have you not had enough coffee yet?
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Insurance can be reasonable when the risk is low to the insurer. Mandatory insurance includes the high risk clients.
You’re funny. And you’re really disillusioned.
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Just semantics, but that type of insurance is often termed “self insurance”. Many corporations here in Silicon Valley that provide health insurance to their employees don’t actually buy health insurance, neither do they pay health insurance premiums. They usually hire (for a fee) an insurance company to handle the administration of their health plan, but the plan is “self-insured”, meaning they pay the benefits directly from their corporate assets.
George , health insurance and vehicle insurance are not the same thing .
Jerome does not understand insurance at all .
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In a state like VA where, up until recently (the subject of this thread), you could pay a one-time yearly fee instead of having auto insurance, there was no corporate anything to pay up. If you got into a problem with and uninsured driver…all you had was your own insurance. Thus the concerns laid out in this thread about premiums going up, in part, because of that. (Tho’ there are other reasons for increased premiums).
No they’re not. But they do share the “free rider” problem which results in insurance coverage mandates. The insured end up paying for the uninsured (mostly indirectly) if people are allowed to be uninsured.
Wouldn’t you or your own insurance company be able to make a claim on the other driver’s “fee” the state was holding? I was thinking the “fee” is actually a type of bond, money held by the state & used to pay claims, but if no claims, it was returned to the car’s owner or carried over to the next year.
That discussion is above. It goes into some weird state “pot” of money that, in one way or another goes to insurers, presumably to help keep rates down. But no - there is no way for a “victim” in an uninsured accident to get any compensation.