The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian insurers were yesterday said to be suffering “pure frustration” over the delayed launch of an online portal that would enable the Royal Bahamas Police Force and road traffic authorities to detect the estimated 30-40 percent of vehicles thought to be uninsured in “real time”.

Anton Saunders, RoyalStar Assurance’s managing director, told Tribune Business that the portal’s launch will enable police officers to potentially scan car licence plates and inspection certificates to instantly determine whether a vehicle is properly registered, inspected and insured.

With other industry executives branding the level of injuries and uncompensated losses from accidents caused by uninsured drivers as “scandalous”, he added that the portal’s development - coupled with proper, consistent enforcement by the police and Road Traffic Department - is critical to resolving the “big problem” of rogue road users in The Bahamas.

“For the frustration we are going through, we all talk on the way forward for how we deal with Road Traffic, the police, the agents and ourselves,” Mr Saunders told this newspaper. “There was supposed to be a portal for the registration and cancellation of vehicles and policies, and for the police to scan and everything, but everything has been delayed.

“This is being held up, but not by the BIA (Bahamas Insurance Association). There’s frustration. This is the issue we have in this country. People put things in place that are impossible to implement. I can just tell you there is pure frustration from the point of the insurance companies.”

Mr Saunders directed Tribune Business to speak with Julian Rolle, the BIA’s chairman, for further details but added: “What the portal would have done is make the police’s job easier, as they could just scan the car to see if if is registered and insured, and pick up anything else illegal. There’s frustration on our part. That’s all I can tell you.”

The RoyalStar chief’s comments came as the Road Traffic Department announced that reforms to the Road Traffic Act, mandating that all vehicles and drivers have insurance for at least a further six months post-inspection date, are now in full effect following a year-long transition period and “full compliance is mandatory”.

The changes also give insurers and drivers two and five days’ respectively, to notify the Road Traffic Department of any motor insurance policy cancellations with the latter also required to return the documents to their agent/broker.

Mr Rolle, when contacted by this newspaper, confirmed that the portal has been developed with testing completed. However, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) governing all parties’ - police, Road Traffic and insurer - access to it, and how it and its data are to be used, has yet to be agreed and signed-off.

The BIA chair, acknowledging that there is an existing method for reporting motor vehicle coverage cancellations to the Road Traffic Department, typically on a monthly basis, said this mechanism has been “in place for quite some time but it’s inefficient”.

Referring to the proposed portal, he added: “Yes, there has been development and testing has been completed. However, there’s a certain MoU that needs to be signed that governs use of the portal and access to the same. That’s being reviewed by the Attorney General’s Office.

“It will allow for efficient and effective cancellations, and also issuance, of policies on a real-time basis. That would make the process significantly more efficient. We await final approval from the Attorney General’s Office on the MoU so that we can bring the system online. There is a process in place but we’re trying to make it more efficient.”

Meanwhile, brokers and agents voiced concern to Tribune Business over the requirement to notify the Road Traffic Department of a motor insurance policy’s cancellation within two days as they have yet to be told who this information must be sent to and how.

Bruce Ferguson, Professional Insurance Consultants (PIC) president, said: “The advertisement doesn’t say, and they haven’t clarified, how we report it, who to and by what method we do so. The BIA also asked this question, as some insurers have done, and nobody received a reply. They probably don’t know themselves.

“We’re going to reply for now through the normal e-mail address and, as far as we’re concerned, that will be compliance. What they do with these notifications we will leave up to them. We asked the same question and received no reply whatsoever. They haven’t thought it out and what they’re going to do with these hundreds, if not thousands, of notifications they receive.

“It’s probably a tick box exercise. It will have no effect whatsoever and add to the workload we have to do. We’ll do it to stay compliant with it. I cannot see how they will act on it.”

Mr Ferguson also revealed he is “strenuously opposed” to motorists taking out just six months’ coverage as opposed to annual insurance policies as he voiced fears that this could be encouraged by the six-month minimum post-inspection and licensing requirement.

“One insurer has gone so far as to change their cover notes from three months to six months,” he revealed. “What we don’t want to see is clients taking the ‘six months’ literally because, in some US states, six month policies are the ‘in’ thing. We don’t want to encourage that in The Bahamas market because it will cause a lot of problems since, after six months, you have to renew again.

“We’re going to be very strenuously opposed to any suggestion from clients that they want a six-month policy. As far as we’re concerned, the policy is for 12 months and we’re going to keep it that way. I think the rest of the market will be in step. There’s never been any suggestion that a six-month policy is a good idea or will be entertained. It will lead to more non-renewals and duplicates the work that we have to do.”

Mr Ferguson said he would only permit six-month motor vehicle policies for persons who were leaving the island, or to bring coverage in line “with the expiry date”. However, both he and RoyalStar’s Mr Saunders agreed that full, consistent enforcement of the road traffic laws by the authorities is the only proper way to crack down on, and reduce, the menace posed by rogue and unlicensed drivers.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force previously said around 50 percent of all traffic accidents involve uninsured vehicles, and one key element in the Road Traffic Act reforms that may force positive change in vehicle owner and driver behaviour is the power granted to the police to impound autos until they are brought into compliance with the law by being properly insured, licensed and inspected.  

The Act’s a new section 60A allows police officers to seize, confiscate and impound vehicles where the driver either “fails to produce a valid certificate of insurance” and/or it is unlicensed and lacks a valid inspection certificate.

To secure the vehicle’s release, the owner has to both pay a $300 fine and produce evidence that “a valid certificate of insurance” and licence has been obtained and is in effect. If a vehicle is impounded for one year and not claimed, the Royal Bahamas Police Force can sell it and use the proceeds to cover the cost of holding it.

“It’s up to the police whether they enforce the Act,” Mr Ferguson said. “It’s the usual problem in The Bahamas. Will it be enforced and for how long? Will it be enforced for just a few months? Uninsured motorists are a terrible problem when people get injured or their vehicles are damaged. It’s scandalous that so many people are going without compensation in so many accidents through no fault of their own.”

Mr Saunders added: “This is not rocket science. Nothing that the Government is doing from the insurance or vehicle registration side is going to work unless there is pure enforcement. If we don’t enforce the laws, what is going to drive someone to comply.

“Nothing they are doing is going to force someone to register or insure their car unless the penalty out there is so severe that it makes them think twice. If you stop me, and I have no registration, no insurance and you give me a ticket that allows me to go back on the road, I am still breaking the law.

“At the end of the day, there is nothing the insurance companies nor the Government can do to force me to buy insurance or register a vehicle except enforcement, and the penalty has to fit the crime.”