UAE insurance discounts for safe driving

Drivers in the UAE who manage to keep their traffic records clean will soon be able to claim discounts from insurance firms, according to officials quoted in a Dubai newspaper.

According to Gulf News, the upcoming scheme is designed to promote traffic safety.

The Abu Dhabi federal officials claim that this is the first time such a reward scheme has been offered here, although we are already aware of several insurance firms in the UAE that offer discounts for accident-free records.

Based on the new scheme, one year without traffic accidents and black points would mean a 20% reduction in the premium for “insurance policies against loss, damage and civil liability.” A two-year clean traffic record would receive a 25% discount, while a three-year record means a 30% discount, and for four years it is 35%.

For those who hold a clean traffic records for five years, the insurance companies will supposedly provide a year’s free insurance “against civil liability,” whatever that means. Drivers who get involved in an accident but did not cause it will still hold a clean traffic record.

But good luck claiming those discounts, as drivers will need to “produce a document from the Interior Ministry certifying that their traffic records are clean” before asking for the discounts. Call me lazy, but I’ll probably not bother with a discount if it means dealing with yet another bureaucratic desk-jockey at yet another government agency. I get enough attitude as it is from the ten other government departments that expats have to line up regularly at.

The paper adds that “concerned departments will work on a mechanism to link traffic records of motorists to a federal system of insurance companies to facilitate the smooth flow of information.”

On a separate note, I paid Dhs 1800 for third-party insurance on my rare BMW M Roadster last year. This year, the same insurance firm reduced my rate to Dhs 1500. While discount schemes already exist, it is unlikely that driving standards will change without a change in overall public attitude. If you really are a good “safe” driver, you wouldn’t even need anything more than third-party insurance, no matter how expensive or rare your car is. I’ve never had anything beyond third-party insurance since I got my licence in 2003. Of course, there are vandals and floods, but then again, this new scheme isn’t intended for those problems.