-
Where are my Depends?
Dunno if any others have been impacted (pardon the expression) by this; it hit me today. Evidently the insurance carriers hit you with a rate increase at age 60; then you get a bigger hit at age 65 and more every three years after that ………… Give it up should you want to be behind the wheel past age 80! I am now talking insurance for our buses….I have decide to pick out a Deluxe Walker!
Why you may ask…because passing any one of thes milestones moves you to an old fahrt position; after all you can no longer can see, hear, think, or a wide variety of other anomolies….all of your facilities have been replaced by a distant look in your eyes accompanied with that very large ball of drool in the corner of your mouth, that all determined by an actuary somewhere, that basically say’s you are now a lousy driver…borderline assigned risk!
This has nothing to do with the agents that you may have, rather than the fact when any of us hit these milestones we are now considered to be impaired by the carriers themselves! Those under this age thing, consider yourselves lucky for the time, remember, it will happen to you, if you live long enough. I have been driving for, ahem, 50 years and have never, that’s right never, had a moving violation or a ticket! Not saying that I didn’t deserve a ticket or ten, I have never had one, nor have I ever been involved in an accident.
So for now, lucky me, gets to pay an additional 300/year just because of my age and I have only hit the first of many milestones.
Mad as Hell,
John
-
5 Replies
-
I feel your pain John! I have a B class CDL with passenger/School bus endorsement that I worked hard to acheive. Does that count for something? Insurance company says …. NO! Already got the the depends in stock in case they are needed. The locker has a glass front that says “Break in case of Emergency!”
-
I have National Interstate and they always ask if I have a CDL and defensive driving courses. They must count for something with them. I do have both, so I don’t know what the upcharge would be for a lack of them. I have not yet hit the magic 60, so I have not gotten any age related increases, yet…
-
Here ya go ole buddy….
-
Marlene at Miller Agency (which represents all the companies that know what a Prevost conversion is) is a wealth of knowledge. She pointed out to me that there are limits to the discounts we might be able to get. There are all sorts of discounts insurance companies recognize including the Class A or B licenses, but even if you are a safe driver (accident free) and have a CDL you might get as many discounts as allowed by belonging to a specific group or club, having the coach secured when not in use, etc. You can be sure agents such as Marlene will apply all the discounts possible.
-
Every fall the desert southwest is invaded by visitors from the north; this year is no exception. I would guess that a clear 50% of the winter visitors arrive in some form of recreational vehicle; right now 5th wheels seem to be the rage however there is certainly no shortage of very large motorhomes, all shapes and sizes, ages and models including a respectable amount of Prevost conversions.
My best guess for the average age of the visitors would be 70, some younger and some way older. The one thing I have noticed is that very few of these large vehicles show any signs at all of ever being involved in shall I say mishaps! I will add that the favored speed on the freeway is somewhere around 50 mph, lane choice no matter, and that that speed is down to less than 20 mph, with their half of the street being extracted from the middle, on the city streets which can be annoying for those of us who live here year around.
Nearly every one of these vehicles have tow cars, save the hefty collection of rattling Dodge diesel “dually’s” that are the trailer haulers. Every day I witness either an accident about to happen, one that has happened, or one that nearly happened in toad’s with license plates from Iowa, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Texas and so on. Red lights are ignored, pedestrians are ignored, bluish lane changes across three lanes on the freeway are not uncommon, and many of these old gaffer’s want to race off of every green light. As I am penning this I can hear a “snow bird taxi” passing by, our term for an ambulance on it’s way to the emergency room; true it’s still morning so the coronary rush is still on!
So you ask, what am I trying to say………….. Well, I am speculating is that all of us who own bus conversions are one, pooled into this group of rv owners when rates and requirements are factored into our insurance and two, although most are very careful with the rv’s, advanced age seems to spill out in the vehicles they have all driven for 50+ years, the automobile. Most certainly a large laundry list of accidents and citation’s in automobiles are factored into the rv insurance rates, even though I do feel that most seniors tend to borderline being too careful with their rv’s, so careful that they may well cause others to have accidents…dunno. This has absolutely nothing to do with any insurance agent rather the underwriters and where, how they collect their information and determine their rates and even the age “milestones”.
Also, I would be willing to speculate that Prevost conversions are involved in much fewer “events” than traditional rv’s and with that said I further believe that rv’s are involved in far fewer incidents than automobiles even when one factor’s in the relative low percentage of these vehicles on the road. I could expand on this more however what is to me patently evident is that the underwriters charge us more because they can.
Log in to reply.