Press Release: Many uninsured cabs since Jan. 1

Alpina sounds the alarm

Several insurers have decided to stop insuring cabs as of January 1, 2018. As a result, many cabs are now looking for new car insurance but driving around uninsured until then.

Cab companies were aware

Several insurers have decided to stop insuring cabs as of January 1, 2018. They have informed the cab companies about this, but quite late which means that many cab companies now have to look for another car insurance. Insurers have the option of not renewing contracts. This can be decided if the claims costs are too high. But it can turn out to be unreasonable.

What is the current situation?

There are now hundreds of cabs driving around that are not insured. They drive considerable mileage, so the risk of an accident is proportionately high. The insurers who terminated the policy as of Jan. 1, 2018 still run an after risk. That is, the original insurer of the claiming cab can still be sued for a claim after Jan. 1, 2018. But the after risk is also only limited. The situation is that injured parties can hold the cab company liable for the damage caused by an uninsured cab. For a €1,000 paintwork damage, the damage is still manageable, but what if severe personal injury is caused by a cab? Cab companies cannot pay for this themselves, nor can they claim any other insurance for it. Bankruptcy may then be inevitable.

Insuring can be done, but gets trickier

Since January 1, the Alpina.nl already received more than 100 applications to insure cabs. There are still a few insurers willing to insure them, but the supply is getting thinner. Alpina.nl requests quotes from insurers to come up with the best insurance at a reasonable premium. They still manage to insure them at a reasonable premium, but the pool is getting thinner. Tesla's are popular as cabs. These cars are an even bigger problem to insure All-Risk.

"We call on insurers to think along with entrepreneurial Holland. Insurers must also be willing to help out when things get tough. It is also not good for the image of insurers to push away problems. A socially involved insurer also thinks with us when insurance is a bit more difficult," said Marc Alpina, co-owner of Alpina.

"At Alpina.nl we compare car insurance. The power of comparison is to find the best car insurance at a fair premium. Our mission becomes more difficult because insurers are failing in their duties. Motor vehicles need to be insured, that's what insurers were created for. To keep costs covered, they may increase premiums. Excluding cabs from insurance cannot be the intention."

Yet this is what is going on en masse right now. In the Netherlands there is a safety net for this kind of situation. That is De Vereende. However, it has limited options in terms of coverage. For example, All-Risk coverage is very expensive and for models with a list value above € 90,000.00 not even possible.

Update:

Association acknowledges lack of competition for cab insurance
The Dutch Association of Insurers confirms that there is little choice of insurance for cab companies and is considering engaging with its members about the lack of competition. This states the Verbond in response to an investigation by the Financieel Dagblad into the uninsurability of cab companies. Strictly speaking, drivers can only go to De Vereende and Avéro Achmea, although these insurers also recently screwed up the premium significantly.

The Financieel Dagblad observes that since the beginning of this year, one by one, the major insurers have dropped out of the cab market. Either they no longer cover the risk at all, or they attach such strict conditions to it that most drivers can no longer go there.

The first 7 months of 2020 saw a huge drop in the number of cabs allowed on Dutch roads for the first time, compared to the same months last year.