There are three million vehicles traveling in Italy without insurance Compulsory RC: it is 5.6% of the fleet in circulation. The estimate is from Ania, the Association of insurance companies. But among the reasons for the lack of insurance – a problem for the community and for those who pay the policy, who end up paying more, having to also include the risk of the uninsured – is that the price cannot be indicated. If it is true that for years the cost of compulsory car insurance in Italy was significantly higher than that of other European countries, it is also true that this gap is closing. Over the last 10 years the average price of car insurance has fallen by -23%, compared to an increase in consumer prices of +19%. This means that, in real terms, the decline in the car insurance premium was -36%.
The decline in the average price of car insurance had, among other things, two important factors positive effects: on the one hand the convergence of the average Italian price with the average of the Euro area, with a differential that went from almost 200 euros to less than 50; on the other hand, the convergence of prices, in Italy, at an inter-provincial level: the Naples-Aosta differential, which has long been used as a “spread” for car insurance, has more than halved, thanks to a drop in prices in the southern areas higher than that experienced in the Centre-North (where they were already lower).
These are some of the indications contained in the recent communication conducted by Ivass (the Insurance Supervisory Institute), displaying the data of a specific survey, called IPER, Survey on Effective Prices of Car Liability, established in 2013.
An obligation but not for everyone
RC car compulsory for everyone? Not exactly. The law provides some exceptions explicit. In fact, they are not subject to the obligation:
- Vehicles formally withdrawn from circulation (those deregistered for demolition, but also those for export);
- Vehicles whose use is prohibited, temporarily or permanently, by virtue of a measure adopted by the competent authority (for example those seized or subjected to administrative detention);
- Vehicles not suitable for use as a means of transport (vehicles that are not technically capable of circulating because, for example, they have no engine);
- Vehicles whose use has been suspended following a formal notification to the insurance company; the suspension, specifies the law, can be requested several times up to a maximum of ten months (for historic vehicles the suspension period can be extended several times and cannot last longer than eleven months);
- Motor vehicles propelled exclusively by mechanical force and traveling on land but not on rails, with a maximum design speed exceeding 25 km/h or a maximum net weight exceeding 25 kg and a maximum design speed exceeding 14 km/h h;
- Any trailer intended for use with a vehicle as defined above, whether or not attached to it;
Light electric vehicles identified with a specific decree of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy and of the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport (for example scooters, Segways and monowheels). Wheelchairs intended exclusively for people with physical disabilities are also excluded from this obligation as, as the law specifies, “they are not considered vehicles”.
The Ukrainian crisis and inflation
The decline in the prices of car insurance policies was uninterrupted until the international crisis of the war in Ukraine with the consequent flare-up ofinflation. The first increase in 2021, with a +3.8%, and then in 2022 a further tightening of 11.3%. Last year the increases were contained below 1%.
It should be noted that the increases did not manifest themselves uniformly in the various segments of the car market, affecting both younger individuals and those with a higher risk class to a greater extent. At the basis of these increases is the push that the average costs of claims are giving. In fact, as is known, the pure premium (which with the loadings makes up the tariff premium) is the product of the frequency of claims and their average cost. And this perhaps explains the increases in prices for younger insured people, more prone to claims, and in any case insured with a more negative forecast.
A tool for controlling and verifying the driver’s actual accident record will be the “black box”. Taking into account that the black box has become a very widespread detection tool, present on at least a fifth of vehicles in circulation, the Antitrust Authority has recently proposed, to stimulate customer mobility, the identification of a minimum set of information on the driving style of drivers that can be “portable” from one company to another. Competition between companies would be increased, the effects of customer lock-in would be reduced and all policyholders would benefit.
2024-02-18 06:08:00
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