ICBC…..sigh….
Why do people put up with the inflexible and outdated policies imposed by ICBC in this province? I had to re-insure my car this morning, and cycled over to the office as my insurance had expired, but I left very frustrated. For one, I wanted to insure my car for a couple of weeks since I won’t need it for the entire month of August, but the insurance system is set up so that 15 days insurance would work out to roughly $500 a month. I wouldn’t save any money by doing that and having it uninsured for August.
Secondly, ICBC won’t allow you to simply take the current plates, unassign them from whoever they’re registered under, and re-insure them under a different name. No, you have to pay $46 to buy new plates when the old ones are perfectly good. I understand that it’s due to how their system works, but it’s a very inflexible system.
We really need a Pay As You Drive (PAYD) insurance system in this province. ICBC might not like this model because it creates an incentive to drive less, but it makes sense from the perspective that those who spend more time on the road are a greater risk and should therefore pay more. Instead, someone like me who tries to minimize vehicle usage is forced to pay the same premium as someone who uses the car each and every day for every little errand. In fact, this creates an incentive to drive, as the extra kilometres do not affect my premium one iota, and when I don’t drive, it feels as if I’m paying for nothing.
There are some very basic options to choose from based on what the vehicle is primarily used for, but these options are not nearly comprehensive enough to capture the wide range in driving frequency. It’s time ICBC re-examined it’s insurance system; like the carbon tax, it would be one more way to shift the balance in favor of those who drive less, and one more tool in the government’s emissions reduction efforts.
