Your profession can tell someone a lot about you – a business expert, a tech whiz, someone who is great with people, a highly motivated person. But can your profession tell someone how likely you are to be involved in a car accident? According to a new study from insurer 1st Central, yes it can.
In the figures
According to the insurer, they have compiled a list of the professions with the worst track record based on a review of some 400,000 policyholders. If you are a financial adviser, you may want to turn away now.
The study involved looking at claims made by people across 2017 and their occupations. It showed that financial advisers were topping the charts for the number of claims made so far, this year, an increase from 4th place in the same survey taken in 2016.
Overall, those working in the health industry are the most likely to have an accident with doctors, pharmacists and dentists all being in the top five professions. Of course, this could be connected to factors such as long working hours, stressful jobs and even things like very full hospital car parks – known to be some of the most dangerous places to drive in the country!
The top ten
The top ten professions to have had accidents in 2017 are:
1. Financial adviser
2. Doctor
3. Pharmacist
4. Dentist
5. Solicitor
6. Accountant
7. Aircraft cabin crew
8. IT manager
9. Letting agent
10. Project manager
This compares to the list created at the same time last year that showed the top ten as:
1. Accountant
2. Solicitor
3. Doctor
4. Financial adviser
5. Letting agent
6. Airplane cabin crew
7. Bank manager
8. IT manager
9. Pharmacist
10. Train driver
Some professions have left the top ten entirely including bank manager and train driver (that’s a reassuring one) while others have retained their position as the most likely to be involved in a shunt of some kind.
The least likely
While there are the most likely to have accidents, the study also showed the professions who are least likely to have an accident, based on the figures for this year so far. The occupation least likely to have an accident are painters, a big improvement from last year when they were the 10th least likely to have a bump.
The ten least likely professions to have an accident were:
1. Painter
2. Farm worker
3. Builder
4. Mechanic
5. Lorry driver
6. Factory worker
7. Cleaner
8. Bus driver
9. Chef
10. Ambulance driver
Several of these occupations would be classed as professional drivers such as bus and lorry drivers as well as ambulance drivers so its no surprise to see them on the list.
Drink driving
It is interesting to contrast these lists with the list issued last month by Money Supermarket that looked at the occupations most associated with drink and or drug driving convictions. It found that mature students living at home have a massive 28.5 in 1000 chance of being caught and convicted for this type of offence.
This was followed by mature students living away from home (16.5 per 1000 drivers) and then scaffolders (4.5), labourers (4.3) and ground workers (4.2).
Why it matters
Of course, you aren’t going to change your profession based on the likelihood that you have a crash, but these kinds of figures are used by insurers to help rate professions and therefore the cost of your insurance. Currently, professional sports people like footballers and racing drivers top the charts as the most expensive profession to insure while funfair employees and scrap dealers also rate highly.
At the other end of the scale, occupations such as nurses, coastguards and bursars are rated at the lower end of the scale for insurers based on various data. Women have seen lower rates than men, but this changed in 2012 when new EU directives meant that insurers couldn’t use gender as a rating factor.
Are you one of the professions that has the most or least accidents? Do you agree or disagree with the findings from 1st Central Insurance? Have you been affected by high insurance premiums because of the job that you do or convictions? Let us know in the comments below.
Does the survey take nightshift workers into account ,surely fatigue MST play a major role
It wasn’t a survey, it was a study, i.e. they compiled their list from claims data
I work 12 hour days and 12 hour nights and I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that I am far less fatigued before and after a day shift than a night shift. When I am working nights I get a solid 8 hour sleep during the day, and am up 2.5 hours before work starts. When I work days I never manage more than 4.5 hours and I get out of bed 20 minutes before work starts. So night shifts only have a positive effect on my driving
I’d be interested to look at the equivalent of a chart of professions that insurers use to calculate insurance.
what about long-term unemployed and retirees?
I am 78,and the only accident I have had has been caused by a stupid (young) woman cutting across me, with her small child in the back seat. I almost managed to avoid her, too.
Notice how quick they are to match gender equality when it comes to paying out money however we’re still waiting for gender equality when it comes to wages!!!
Well stop going off and having babies then! (Just kidding btw 😉
Good to see builders in list
Nobody is employed as an Ambulance driver. They are medical professionals namely technicians or Paramedics. It is disrespectful to refer to them as professional drivers when many have gone through years of medical training to earn their title, not to be referred to as a driver. Even Patient Transport Services are medically trained.You don’t call doctors, chest listeners or anal probists. Or call Nurses.. Doctor assistants.
Describing people who drive ambulances as professional drivers in no way denigrate they other aspects of their job but instead recognises the additional training and testing they receive over and above that of “Joe Public”
Obviously someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about.
I am a response driver but I am NOT paramedically trained (only 3 day 1st aid course) trained because of the job description.
I do however HAVE to pass an advanced driving test twice a year in order maintain my heigh standard if driving (not only at work but privately as well) in order to continue with my job.
It’s dick heads on the road – like you who cause accidents.
Glad I’m in the profession least likely to have an accident.
That was a nasty reply to someone who was sticking up for the Ambulance Service. Remember the old saying “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!”
Also other drivers have give way to these drivers to give them a clear run. Any driver must not cross for RED no matter what is behind him/her. Not to cause a danger to him/her self or other traficants. Doing so is liable to a fine.
Keith how do you know he is a dick head and causes accidents. He was sticking up for people like you it seems you are the dick head
I take it you are a Ambulance driver then
May I twist the question to ask “What persons/professions CAUSE the most
accidents?
Professional women…
Light touch paper, stand back and watch it burn 🙂
Merry Christmas to one and all.
Happy days are here again,
the sun is shining clear again…
or what cars do they drive to cause the most accidents (B*W….? fill in the *)
B*W and A**i are among the worst car drivers!
Used to be B*W but now A**di seem to have overtaken (or, at very least, are coming up on the inside – a not unusual A**di trick).
You know why though don’t you? Because Audi is an accronym for Another Useless Driver Inside!!
The bigger the car the bigger the EGO.
I have driven a BMW 320D and currently a BMW 520D over a period of 8 years and have never been involved in an accident.
That wasn’t the question, ” how many have you caused”
That’s because B*W cars do not have indicators….
B*W drivers have lazy fingers.
Can’t agree with your statement overall most likely is those in health industry,
Those involved with ambulances are least likely, in top 10 very narrow range of professions probably outnumbered in total by nurses who don’t even feature.What about physios, OTs, dieticians.
This just illustrates what a lottery it is when you state your profession on insurance forms. Should I put my profession Physio or my job title university lecturer, I am one and the same , I am the same driver a physio who happens to practice as a uni lecturer but may well get a different quote.
You are qualified as a Physio, however your job is a uni lecturer
I am amazed that lorry drivers are in the “least likely” category. There isn’t a day go by without hearing on the news that a major motorway accident has involved a lorry/lorries, many of which seem to turn over or breach the safety barrier.
As a cyclist (not a racing or sporty one) I’m always impressed how lorry drivers slow right down until they can pull right out to overtake me with much greater room than many car drivers.
Yes I have always had respect for lorry drivers, even when I used to cycle to school as a kid. As you say they always gave you a lot of room, and courteous.
It never ceases to amaze me where some of these 40 foot, articulated lorry drivers are expected to put a vehicle like that. In my town down a small side street with parking both sides, then up a ramp that is on an angle and arc to go to a meat packing station adjacent to a rail track; not to mention having to reverse around a corner from a main road in to the initial side-street !
Hi William. I used to be an HGV driving instructor, trained by the Road Transport Industry training board. With regard to passing cyclists, we always taught our pupils that to pass a cyclist safely. you had to leave a sufficient gap between the cyclists and the truck so that should he or she, fall off their cycles, or be caused to wobble with air pressure, the gap should be such that he or she will not fall under any of the nearside wheels.
Yes my husband was a lorry driver and had loads of near misses through idiots in cars who decide at the last minute to cut across his path to go down a slip road causing him to brake hard which is really really hard with all that weight behind him in his 40 foot lorry as his load all comes forward and makes it harder to brake, in the driving test people should be taught how to drive around lorry’s as everyone seems to think that lorry’s fully loaded have the same brakeing distance as cars do and they haven’t. Plus cars pull into a tiny gap in front of moving lorry’s too so they have to break hard (that gap is there because lorry drivers know there braking distance) I know as I’ve seen it on numerous occasions.
YOU MISUNDERSTAND, lorry drivers are the least likely drivers to have a car crash,
I did HGV course years ago, and they were all responsible people, if they crash, income is gone, so
need to be smart and sober on the road
You should realise there are hundreds of thousands of lorries on the road and as a percentage of all accidents they are probably least likely to have an accident. As a car driver myself I have more respect for the drivers of heavy goods vehicles than I do other car drivers.
It was a study presumably among the insured in Britain, ie British trained tested licenced and insured Truck Drivers. As ‘Pub Landlord’ Al Murray might say; “the Best in the World”.
Your average car driver might typically drive 10,000 miles a year, a lorry driver up to 100,000. For the number of miles they cover, they are involved in very few accidents. WHEN they are involved, the accident tends to be more serious due to the weight and size of the vehicle. MANY accidents that lorries are involved in are caused by car drivers.
43 year’s hgv1 driver no accidents now happy I’ve retired so all who think they are a good driver think on
Probably caused by a car driver cutting in at the last minute, just remember hgv’s need more stopping distance
Doesn’t matter what profession your in motor insurance is a lottery and a legal con. How can putting my wife on my insurance decrease the cost of my policy when she is a provisional licence holderhas NEVER driven AT ALL in her life and would never drive our car.
Personally I think the underwriting cartel all sit around in the pub and draw lots on how much they are going to rip us all off for the next 12 months.
RANT OVER !!
I couldn’t agree more Craig. I’ve been driving approximately 41 years, never had an accident, I’ve got countless years of no claims bonuses under my belt (they only count 9yrs worth ) yet my premium has gone up £48.00 this year. Oh, and my professions were miner, builder and finally water engineer. I took early retirement some years ago. I Drive a Audi A2, off road secure parking, the area were I live (supposedly) has the lowest crime rate in the UK and astonishingly I still get ripped of by car insurers. It stinks big time!
I am apparently a very bad insurance risk. I haven’t had a single accident in 40 years of motoring. In the eyes of the insurance industry, I am due an accident.
I am in similar position and am now 60 so I have spent a lifetime paying through the nose for nothing!!! All I can think is how much I would have saved if I had the guts to self insure instead of buying fully comp insurance. If I had stuck to 3rd party only and put the money aside, then I could have been driving an Aston Martin DB9 by now, instead of the Ford Focus which I now own.
You are spot on my friend
It’s not the profession that causes accidents but idiots in fast cars that don’t now how to drive and why do we need cars to go fast when the max seed is 70.
Because if you need to overtake a slow moving vehicle on a single carriageway, you can safely accelerate to more appropriate speed and then quickly slow down once you have passed the vehicle (if you are breaking the speed limit).
Technically illegal, yes. However, much safer to overtake quickly at an appropriate time.
Unfortunately, it’s the d*ck heads who decide to over take when on coming vehicles are approaching. Or their vehicle is underpowered to accelerate quick enough to overtake safely.
Why are fast(German) car drivers, in such a rush, that they feel the need to get past the car in front, on a windy B road, at 50 Mph? If I see a A sniffer in the mirror, intimidating me, I’d deliberately stay 5 Mph under the limit, slight braking from time to time, till he backs off. I have no anger, or negative emotion against anyone, while driving. If I’m in a bad frame of mind, I’ll simply not drive!
Sorry to say but it is stupid drivers like you who cause accidents. If you think it is clever to drive just under the speed limit to deliberately keep another driver behind you need to go back and read the highway code. It is just pure jealousy that you cannot afford or have the ability to drive a fast car it is drivers like you who sit in the fast lane of a motorway not pulling in to let other drivers pass and thereby causing anger and frustration to other road users.
You missed my point. I only do that, if the driver, of whatever car behind me, revs up close to me, so I can’t even see their bumper, to intimidate me to go faster, while I’m maxing the speed for that road. ONLY then do I put my brake lights on, to encourage him to back off. You never know what’s round that next bend, or ridge, if I had to brake suddenly, he’d rear end me.
I always pull in, to let drivers past, or signal that safe to do so, but not if THEY are aggressive. I never drive in the fast lane on motorways, I only use it to get past lorries, or if coming to a slipway, where cars are entering the motorway.
As for being jealous, of not having a fast car, what’s the point, 70 mph is the limit here. Speed kills, best to drive within the limits and get there, a little longer.
You look like a rolling ‘accident blackspot’ to me. If you put the proper effort into driving your own car instead of trying to annoy the rest of us you might find yourself flowing with the traffic instead of holding it up.
No such thing as a fast lane,the inside lane is the driving lane and the other lanes are classified as overtaking lanes
Why not pull in as soon as it’s convenient to let aggressive drivers pass? If they are going to cause an accident wouldn’t you rather not be part of it? Since their aim is to get past each driver in front of them, they will soon have disappeared ahead into the distance leaving you to drive at a speed of your own choosing rather than 5 mph slower..
People tend to forget the set speed limits are the maximum speed. It doesn’t mean that’s the speed you have got to drive at.
I agree with you on that it is very dangerous driving.
I tend to do the same to these intimidating drivers too James but its not personal, just a safety thing. If you needed to stop in an emergency you dont want someone crashing in to the back even though the driver in the rear would be 100% at fault. The last thing to do is speed up because whatever speed you did it still wouldnt be fast enough for them and if you crashed or passed a speed camera the other driver, probably Carolyn, would escape it.
I would wish for more police driving officers (not cameras), especially if trained to spot the difference between idiots of both types: so many that they can catch both speeding and slower drivers: both types are problematic regards road safety and crashes: slower drivers in the fast lane; drivers performing 30MPH on national speed limit roads and drivers that hesitate repeatedly when pulling out onto main roads: go, then brake: causing cars behind to break quickly also……they are maybe not as problematic as those driving too fast however, they are a BIG problem which should not be under-stated.
James, that’s dangerous driving.
Driving 5 miles an hour under the limit is not dangerous driving. The speed limit is the maximum speed not the minimum. Driving slightly under is the sensible thing to do to avoid inadvertently breaking the speed limit.
Sounds like the ranting of a jealous man. And remember we have a channel tunnel and ferries that take us to the continent where many speed limits are higher.
Even so, a lot of cars have the capacity to go much faster than necessary even overtaking, and its people who want such toys who are the most dangerous.
I have 2 cars, my everyday car which gets me to work and back that is a 1.4 very economical diesel. my 2nd car is a high powered 457bhp German car. When these cars are produced in the factory they are send out as equals to which ever country is their destination. Sadly the humans that buy them are NOT equal. To stereotype anyone with a “toy” car as the most dangerous is plain stupidity. Cars are many things to different types of people, most see them as labor savers ie not having to walk places or use public transport to be surrounded by all types of characters sat on them (I hear my partners stories weekly on who was being a t**t on the bus) to a certain group of people it’s a passion to have a performance car, call us “petrol heads etc” but that is how it is. And yes even some within the performance car community can still be absolute crap drivers in which case a crash is inevitable. But you will find most of us are very competent drivers who have had to be good drivers for many years to be able to get insurance on high power cars to an affordable price. When ever I assess an opportunity to experience the power of my 2nd car is safe within my ability I do so. It’s all about timing / forward thinking & anticipation. The power can get you out of bad situations quickly too when you see a developing “sandwich” on a motorway. And as for those tailgaters pressuring the cars that are doing the maximum speed on a given road, I have ZERO time for them, and it does annoy me greatly when I am pressured in my 1.4 doing just fine and at the correct speed to be blinded by say van lights that are the perfect height to dazzle in all of my mirrors. I give them what they want by going as close to the roadside as poss whilst slowing to allow them to pass, but they still have to hurl abuse and hand gestures as they pass. And on the flip side when in my high powered car, the amount of idiots I get wanting a street race. All boils back to as humans we are not equals in abilities and attitudes.
I was going to write this. Speed limit on French Motorways is a little over 81mph, similar in Spain if I remember rightly, and then if you have yourself a nice bmw or audi or Porsche and so on, you’re not going to tootle along at 70 on the autobahn. That is asking for trouble….
Hear, Hear Rickie. I have just retired from being an HGV driver and seen so many times the antics of lunatic FAST drivers, I have always maintained Any Idiot can drive fast, it’s simple, but controlling the vehicle and being competent is a whole different ball game. And in my years of driving experience I also have found some of the worst culprits for BAD driving are B*w and A**I drivers they seem to think they are on a Formula 1 circuit.
I have driven both A***I and B*W to class all people who drive these cars as rubbish drivers is like saying all politicians are rubbish at there jobs lol.
I have been qualified to the highest a civilian can do for driving does that make me a bad driver cos I drive an A***I.
It’s all about attitude and safety.
When you pass your test everyone thinks they can drive, sadly as we know it is not the case.
If all drivers continue to develop themselves the road would be a better place.
Barry,don’t forget the vw golf drivers who think that they are driving a racing car .
I so disagree – if a driver is skilled at vehicle control, excellent at reading the road and looking ahead, brilliant at predicting other people’s manoeuvers without signals, adjusts their speed to the road conditions and the vehicle they are in (ie slower driving when brakes do not match the power of the car), I believe this driver will be likely to drive very fast when conditions are safe and be good at avoiding accidents.
The drivers I am frightened to travel with are the slow-goers who do not look ahead and predict the movements of the vehicles ahead of the one in front and who, terrifyingly, creep slowly out onto fast roads from blind exits.
Looks like they’ve missed out Uber drivers from the 10 most likely to have an accident.
There’s a severe shortage of functioning lampposts in London these days.
Oh and watch out for Uber Prius cars attempting to drive down the steps at Broadgate Circle by Liverpool Street station
Taxi drivers have fewer accidents too. It’s the third party drivers that course the accidents involving taxis. I speak with 30 plus years experience.
SO how come my profession isn’t in top 10 or bottom 10 BUT my premium – despite 16 years no claims bonus (with no claims) – doubled this year across the industry. No point shopping around they were all the same and more on some sites. Absolute fix.
I would be interested to know how retired people feature in the. My occupation is retired but could I be paying over the odds
That’s a good point, older people who have falling eyesight and reactions, are a cause of accidents. We’ve all seen the YT vids of little old ladies, who hit the gas, while parking, instead of the brake, and plough into a shop front. Guess, premiums should go up for them first?
Generalisation again. I am 77, have 22!20 vision, police trained, passed advanced test, quick reactions. Maybe I am lucky but why should my premium increase because of my age?
On principle I agree, but unfortunately personal experience says that many of your contemporaries are notorious for causing accidents, not necessarily having them. This by driving so slow as to cause people to lose patience to get around them, or to lack in observation when changing lanes etc. If it wasn’t for the fact the govt would cash in, I would be an advocate for regular driving retests, especially after retirement age. Maybe our insurance would be better adjusted against these results. But for now, despite you being a good (if not excellent given the training) driver, your “category” is definitely “at risk”. It is unfortunately all too obvious on the roads.
when a car over or undertakes you in a 30 mph zone and you are doing 30 wll it be a mature driver ? my money is on some one who may be wearing their cap on backwards .How come an 18 y/o will struggle to insure his/her vehicle for less than £2 k when my British prestige car costs a few hundred ? think we should leave this one to the insurance companies as they deal in actual statistics
I’m staggered just how few accidents there are.
It would appear most motorists are so tired at the end of their journey they miss the road entirely parking on the FOOTpath!
(It’s no wonder so many kids are driven to school, causing the rush hour much to the annoyance of.., yes, motorists.)
I am a Psychoanalyst, and I have not been involved in an accident, in 25 years, and when i did it was a sales rep, on a sunny afternoon, placed his car in reverse and hit me, said he did not see me, 17 ft long, 6ft wide !!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Craig totally
I’m a barman. I do not work past 8pm at the latest. I am allergic to alcohol and drinking 3 pints will hospitalise me and possibly kill me so I choose to be teetotal. Compared to a shop assistant my profession puts my insurance up by £50. Why am I picked on and lumped into the claims made by the average barperson? All my personal habits should be taken into account or your profession should not count.
Also when I was unemployed my premium went up £60. When I got a job then they refunded me £30. Their logic was I would be on the road at a time when accidents are most likely to happen.
Well I’m a taxi driver with maximum dicounts etc etc though renewing my family car insurance was rejected because of my job. Over 60 clean licence max no claims!!!
my son has the double whammy of being young and an audi owner! His first 6 years were spent on a motorbike and i can tell you it doesn’t matter the profession, to car drivers, bikes don’t exist! He then spent a year in an old fiesta to get used to a car now he has an Audi, he also is a bar manager, so drives a lot at night. The oiks around late at night in their corsa’s and astra’s aren’t all doctors and dentists!!!
My biggest problem with the motor insurance industry is NCB. I have 2 cars but can only use my NCB for one of them. The fact that I have been accident free and held a clean licence for 50 years is only taken into consideration when I insure my main car. However if I have an accident, or even a speeding ticket that event will be used negatively for both my cars. They want it both ways, everything skewed to their own advantage.
You can only drive one car at a time so surely they should take that into consideration.
I ride a motorbike also and last year when I had two motorbikes I only had to pay a further £70 to insure the second bike
I had the same issue but went to Admiral who at the time were competetive and gave NCD to both cars, after a year you effectively have two NCD certificates.
Why should my insurance premium increase since becoming unemployed after 15 years of the same job? I now average 5 miles in a fortnight travelling to the wholesalers, midweek, mid afternoon. Instead of 36 miles a day travelling to and from work in city rush hours! I state that I now have limited annual mileage, but stating that I’m unemployed would more than wipe out any saving.
Three years ago I moved a mile away to a similar area where my car was to be kept in a locked garage overnight (previously on a drive). Nothing else changed except the postcode and both my car insurance increased premium and my breakdown cover premium increased. I still do not believe that my car is more likely to breakdown or that I am more likely to have an accident, or my car more likely to be stolen because I have moved about a mile up the road.
Most and FEWEST accidents please!
Mike T,
Please see list 2, “Least likely”
It is amazing to see how many people rate themselves as good drivers because they’ve never had an accident despite the havoc in their wake. We are all human and humans by nature make mistakes. If everyone got off their high horse and accepted that we all have a right to use the road and were courteous to each other there would be far fewer accidents. It has nothing to do with what car you drive or what profession you have. It’s about attitude and an awful lot of comments on this site suggest a number of you could take a closer look at yourselves before criticising others.
Oh and just for openness I drive a 320d touring. Police trained advanced driver for 20 years. Ride motorbikes and pedal cycles.
The drivers most likely to have accidents are the arrogant ones and you can spot them amongst these comments!
I agree with Bob, drive/ own two cars but no claims bonus doesn’t count on other car. I also ride a motorcycle again never ever made a claim but counts for nothing BUT should some careless driver hit me the Insurance companies want to know (and I can only assume) they will charge me more. They rip off the good/safe drivers whilst allowing poor/bad drivers to continue to drive by being given reasonable Insurance’ quotes?
If this information is accurate, where do us old ‘uns feature?
My wife has her own car, has driven since 1966 and has had one minor shunt in all of those years. Her current annual mileage is less than 1000 miles, mainly for local shopping and an occasional trip to our son’s house some 10 miles from where we live.
I too have my own car (which my wife never drives) and my mileage is less than 5000 per year. All of our driving is ‘social and domestic’. I have driven motor bikes and cars since 1956 and although I too have had a couple of daft minor shunts over those years, I have had no claims in the past 25 years, or may be it’s even longer. I must add too that the combined value of our cars probably does not exceed £5000. Yet we are both penalised (as are many in our situation) to the tune of a total of £1000 per ann for our premiums.
Also, there is lots of bad press (mainly from younger driving idiots who live in belief they will never be old – may be the won’t!) about older drivers. It has to occur to one that motor insurers are a bunch of devious liars who perceive older drivers as soft targets for premiums exploitation rather than truthfully underwriting what are the real risks based on one’s driving/claims history which, with hi-tech data now available to all, has to be easy to define.
The other con. of course is that if one makes a smallish claim, by the time one has paid the compulsory excess, plus any voluntary one too and then the renewal premium hyke, one has invariably underwritten one’s claim anyhow. (We are also finding the same principle is applying to our dog’s insurance!) But, of course, we need to pay for the indulgent and avaricious excesses of the insurance industry board rooms.
Have you trid Saga. Like your wife I only drive less tan 3000 miles a year. My husband is aso on my policy but rarely drives my car. My insurance with Saga== £126 pa.
I am retired, as is my wife, and we are both insured with Saga who have been easily the cheapest over the last 2 years. Also if you don’t change insurance regularly your premium will be hiked up. There is no benefit to being loyal these days.
I was told by an insurer that now that i am retired I will have less driving experience due to the fact I will be driving less, therefore a greater risk. “Absolute nonsense”. Insurers seem to devise ever increasing criteria to raise premiums.
Where are couriers in this list?
If whiplash injury was made an optional extra – then premiums would drop significantly. It is bogus claims for injury that drive prices up – not the profession you are in! Have premiums for accountants dropped since they are not such a gteat risk this year as opposed to last?
I do understand it’s not a profession but unemployment gets hammered with extra premiums for the privilege as it’s expected that you’ll do extra miles, be in unfamiliar places, therefore more likely to cause an accident. So in real life where does it rate?
When my son was learning to drive, some years ago, we looked at putting him on my Isuzu Tropper insurance but at £300 extra we thought we would see what it would cost to put him on my wife’s insurance; so he learned to drive on a hot Subaru Impreza for only £30 extra premium. Go figure.
Any excuse to load a premium. 35mph 3 points, points gone extra 2 years for insurance to clear it!
Its not about what profession your in I agree Craig. Or what car you drive. Its how you been taught and how much attention your paying when driving. Experience does help but not always. I have 9 years NCB and someone hit my car recently. My insurance went up. Shocking how insurance companies penalise non fault drivers with high premiums. Im a Specialist Nurse by the way!
What about retired and old,and experienced, driver. Where are they?
I now know why, having the doctor title, my insurance premium has been loaded, despite not having a claim in the last 5 years. Interestingly, the fact that I’m retired makes no difference!
Someone drove into me as I was straightening up in a parking space – my fault!!!! The insurance company then recorded that it paid out to me when it paid out to the character who drove into me and penalised me accordingly. Who do these companies employ? Where are their brains (answers on a postage stamp).
By the way – why do the articles on this website keep crashing – I have had two reloads to get this far.
Well am shocked that chefs are just off bottom of list. have always been told that we carry a loading of insurance because we work mainly in licensed premises.
I have Motor trade insurance as most firms will not insure in connection with the Motor trade. So this list is exactly what I would expect. Having been a roadside technician and recovery mechanic, seeing the end of someone’s existence gives you a different attitude to driving.
When I told my insurers that I was a mechanic they increased my insurance.. Their excuse was that I was more likely to drive a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
my wife takes her mother to hospital appointments so parks in hospital carparks.
And had a accident.
It really is time that the Government stepped in and stopped insurance companies applying increases for specious reasons on max NCB drivers, simply because they can! It’s no less than white collar theft.
So, where’s my cheaper Insurance then? I hate discussing accidents with Insurance firms, sort of wishing it upon yourself. But people who need a license as part of their working life should be better than someone who justs commutes. The Salesperson was a known candidate at one time, but they are on the red list, almost extinct now. The internet has allowed firms to view products online.
You don’t realise how lucky you are until you try to insure yourself as a professional actor/musician. So many friends of mine fudge it and label themselves a “teacher” (they do workshops), but I decided to be honest, and not risk being in an accident (with pa in the car), and have them refuse the claim, or worse, report me for technically having no insurance. I am 40, no accidents, no traffic violations, and parked in a private locked garage. Yet on a mitsubishi outlander, I’ve only just got my insurance below £1000!
I asked why once, to be told it’s because I “might” be famous, or I “might” give someone famous a lift. How is that fair??? I have a friend who is a legitimate teacher and is friends with a few B Listers. She’s giving them lifts all the time, she doesn’t get stung! Yet because I warble a bit once a week, I’m presumed to be chauffeuring for Robbie Williams and the like!!
The whole system needs a massive overhaul and government intervention to level the playing field a bit.
Ive had 3 non fault accidents in the last 5 years, 2 were when the car was parked up & the other was when i got shunted whilst sitting in traffic. Though this didnt affect my 9yrs + ncb, the fact that i have to declare them means my insurance has gone up over 30% in the last 3 years…so im obviously paying for someone elses actions! how can that be right?!! Bloody rip off
A learner is under constant supervision of a person who has passed their test. This means (hopefully) that two people are concentrating and therefore lessens the chance of an accident!
What a load of old cobblers! Purely statistics thats all. Doesn`t matter
a damn what your profession is….on todays roads having an accident
is a 50-50 chance!
Does the survey take nightshift workers into account ,surely fatigue MST play a major role
It wasn’t a survey, it was a study, i.e. they compiled their list from claims data
I work 12 hour days and 12 hour nights and I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that I am far less fatigued before and after a day shift than a night shift. When I am working nights I get a solid 8 hour sleep during the day, and am up 2.5 hours before work starts. When I work days I never manage more than 4.5 hours and I get out of bed 20 minutes before work starts. So night shifts only have a positive effect on my driving
I’d be interested to look at the equivalent of a chart of professions that insurers use to calculate insurance.
what about long-term unemployed and retirees?
I am 78,and the only accident I have had has been caused by a stupid (young) woman cutting across me, with her small child in the back seat. I almost managed to avoid her, too.