Page 1 of Sheila can get stuffed

In a move that is surprising in only that it`s taken so long the European Court of Justice has ruled that offering lower car insurance premiums based solely on gender is illegal, and will cease next december.

Put simply, you can`t scream equality for all with one breath and shout gender superiority with the next. Sorry ladies, but here`s something that may or may not come as a revelation;

Women are NOT safer drivers, they just make fewer claims, and therein lies the difference. I`ve been driving for 20 years, and been a truck driver for 6 of those, and honestly the worst vehicular atrocities I`ve ever witnessed have been perpretated by the fairer sex.

I`d never claim that guys are without blame, oh god no, but what`s been happening is that the number watchers, who commute to work rather than drive, look at the plain numbers in front of their face and make judgements based on statistics.

Case in point. Woman pulls up at a T-junction and stops. I pull up behind her in my truck, a safe distance behind and wait. I have a good view of the road we both want to turn on to. I can see the woman rooting around in her handbag (I presume) while the road ahead becomes clear, and still she`s not paying the slightest bit of attention to the road.

The car behind me toots its horn, the woman looks up, doesn`t check the road, and pulls out at high speed. The motorbike that was approaching (at a safe speed)from the right swerves to avoid her, loses control, the rider is thrown off and into the wall to my left. He`s wearing full leathers and a crash helmet, but still suffers a broken leg. The bike is totally written off and the woman that caused the accident is nowheer to be seen. She caused the accident, but was not affected it. Therefore, on paper, she`s a safer driver than the biker. Her insurance will stay down, but the innocent biker`s will go up

I`d love to say that`s an isolated incident, but I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the most ignorant, selfish, stupid, lazy and impatient drivers on the road are woman. Men are gits too, I`ve lost my rag on occasions, but seriously, it pales into insignificance in comparison.

Sorry if anyone takes umbridge with this post, but I tells it like I sees it. Annie`s one of the best drivers I know, my sister could do with braking a little earlier but she`s good too.

Now. Elderly and foreign drivers are a whole new kettle of fish altogether...

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This item was edited on Tuesday, 1st March 2011, 18:43

Quote:
Pete-MK says...
Women are NOT safer drivers, they just make fewer claims, and therein lies the difference. Are you saying they make fewer claims volume wise compared with men? Or fewer claims per 100? Either way I`m, not sure this backs your point up terribly well.

Don`t get me wrong, I`m against discrimination against either sex, and am happy with this ruling. :)


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What I meant was that while woman may have small accidents, they won;t make a claim, whereas a guy will claim for any accident.

Man+Man. Exchanging insurance details before a word is said

man + Woman. The woman will invariably ask "What do you want to do?" as in "Do you want to bother with insurance companies?" (this happened to me near Hastingleigh)

Woman + Woman "Let`s just call it knock for knock, eh?"

My point is that the numbers of actual accidents are comparable, but the willingness to include insurance companies in the case of small knocks is lesser with ladies. While this might not be a bad thing in the grand scheme of things, it skews the numbers, leading to the belief that female drivers are better behind the wheel, when they simply aren`t

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Quote:
Pete-MK says...
Women are NOT safer drivers, they just make fewer claims, and therein lies the difference.Erm, as far as an insurer is concerned. where is that difference?  If they make less claims then as far as insurers are concerned they`re safer drivers.
Will have to wait and see how this changes things `in the real world` - or if other policies reduce to balance it (yeah, right) but I do struggle to understand how you both are happy that in all likelyhood most houses will start paying out more money in insurance and insurers will make even more money. :/  My missus is a great driver and is often embarrassed by some of the driving we see - when you just know `It`s a woman`.

What about health insurance then?  It is a fact women live longer than men - and can often lead different lifestyles.  However, it has to be illegal to base policy premiums on that fact based on the same logic?  The complicated methods of working out premiums are based on such assumptions though - and while not perfect, I`m not quite sure where this leaves us.
EDIT: Pete, do you have any evidence  at all for your previous post or is it ironnically based on massive sexist assumptions?

Ste

This item was edited on Tuesday, 1st March 2011, 19:52

The specific point I heard (and most pertinent to the insurance companies) is that men make higher value claims than women: men just cost the insurance companies more.

I`m glad about the ruling too. The news are reporting it as meaning higher insurance for women in future, when the headline should really be fairer and lower insurance costs for all (as a whole).

If you want to start splitting us into insurance groupings, what about specific insurance for black people or short people. I`m sure that would go down well.

Not massive sexist assumptions. You`ll notice I comment several times that blokes can be prats behind the wheel too. I`m not speaking from a MCP point of view, I`m just speaking from bitter, bitter experience.

But hey, maybe I`m biased because I have to squeeze my truck past stupidly large, stupidly parked people carriers during the school run EVERY F***ING DAY.

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In my experience, blokes seem to be more dangerous on the motorways, whereas I see total lack of attention to the road and other cars around town from lady drivers..

This seems to back up previous comments that blokes have higher value claims and women just have the odd little knock..

Quote:
Pete-MK says...
Not massive sexist assumptionsWell I think it is Pete.  The whole point of the thread is that it is wrong that insurers make assumptions about the people they insure based partly on their sex - but you then make a statement of assumptions that says men will exchange insurance details `without a word` (which I think is completely wrong - and think more than anyone they`ll look at the damage and want an insurance claim as a last resort) whereas women go `knock for knock.  i.e. you totally based your assumptions about how claims are made based solely on sex - but you believe it`s wrong for insurers to base the prices they charge partly on it.  Not a shred of evidence either, just opinion - whereas sadly, I`m sure insurers could give **** loads.
Quote:
alfie noakes says...
The news are reporting it as meaning higher insurance for women in future, when the headline should really be fairer and lower insurance costs for all (as a whole).but will it though???  I fear not.

Insurance premiums are based on so many things - but at times ask completely the wrong questions. :(  My wife was made changed jobs earlier in the year and went from the Civil Service to a Primary school Teaching Assistant.  Her insurance went up.  She explained that she actually wouldn`t even be driving to work any more and would be walking to work - so the change was irrelevant.  Yearly mileage maybe a couple of thousand miles in that car.  Didn`t make a difference and the premium went up - for being driven far less - totally because of a job.

Ste

SJ, I`m only speaking from personal experience, as I`m sure you are too.

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I hope this doesn`t mean my insurance goes up, about to pay it for the year, as always with my mum as named second driver to reduce the cost, so I was happy with the daft "sexist" system.

I think I read somewhere else about this ruling, they were saying for it to stay as is, they would have to prove women are better drivers, rather than the anecdotal evidence of claims.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 1st March 2011, 21:45