£800 million impact of EU drivers on UK roads

A new report ‘The rise of EU drivers in the UK', commissioned by car insurer LV=, reveals that the number of resident drivers from other EU states has risen by 270,000 in the last six years and HGV traffic from the EU has increased by a third.

Taking into account the cost of insurance claims, accidents and potential congestion the report estimates that the cost to the economy of foreign EU drivers will total £795 million in 2008 - a rise of more than £100 million from 2006.

The report by LV= shows that the number of foreign EU drivers resident in the UK has risen by more than 50%, from 534,000 in 2001 to 804,000 in 2007. With 88% of that increase (240,000 of the additional 270,000) coming from 2004 onwards, the report indicates that the 10 countries joining the EU in 2004 and further two in 2007 have driven the increase in total EU drivers.

In addition, HGV traffic has risen by over 33% in the same six year period and now one in seven HGVs on UK roads is from another EU country.

According to the report, The Republic of Ireland tops the overall foreign EU drivers in the UK list with 25% of drivers and Germany comes second with nearly 19%. Polish drivers come third making up over 18% of EU drivers in the UK. Italian drivers make up 9% of EU drivers on British roads, and the French 7%.

John O'Roarke, Managing Director of LV= general insurance, said: "There has been a steep rise in drivers from other European countries over the past few years and our report shows that the cost of insurance claims, accidents and potential congestion has escalated as well. The development of the EU has enabled people to be much more mobile in their lives and work, however, there appears to have been little forward planning to cope with the impact of this. For the safety and benefit of all drivers on UK roads - both UK and foreign nationals - we believe the tightening of driving standards across the EU should now be a government priority."

Proposals due to be introduced in 2012 and fully implemented by 2032 will bring certain elements of licensing into line across the EU, however currently driving test standards vary hugely and in light of the increased amount of cross border traffic revealed in the research, LV= is calling on the Government to introduce more stringent EU wide driving standards.

Insurance claims

Insurance claims involving foreign EU drivers in the UK have grown every year from 2001 to 2006 according to data from the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB). Since 2001, collisions involving EU drivers have risen by 61.4% from 11,685 to 18,865.

In terms of accidents, drivers from Poland top the accident tables, with 16.6% of all claims followed by drivers from Germany (13.5%), The Netherlands (13%), France (10.7%) and Spain (7.9%). However, the countries that have seen the largest increases in claims from 2001 to 2006 are Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Latvia, Poland and Estonia.

Based on this data, the report by LV= estimates that the cost to the insurance industry of claims involving all foreign EU drivers in the UK in 2006 has also risen dramatically - almost doubling in the last five years to £36 million. The cost of claims involving drivers from the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 has increased six fold to £12.6 million in 2006.

John O'Roarke, Managing Director of LV= general insurance, said: "One of the particular problems we as an insurance industry, and therefore motorists, suffer is the ability to resolve a claim quickly when it involves a vehicle from outside the UK.

"When two vehicles from different countries are involved in an accident the current process is costly and slow, meaning that the most complex claims can take years to settle. This is because there are so many intermediaries involved in the negotiations. By tightening up driving and vehicle standards across the EU we can hopefully reduce the number of accidents."

According to the LV= report, it is not only the insurance industry that has taken a hit from claims involving EU drivers. Add in the expense of the added pressure on emergency services and the damage to our roads, and the cost of accidents increases to £225 million in 2006. Also, because many accidents involving foreign EU drivers are believed to go unrecorded, the £225 million figure could well be an underestimate.

John O'Roarke said: "The insurance industry is already feeling the effects of the increasing numbers of EU drivers on British roads through rising claims costs. This could potentially impact insurance premiums, whilst the expense of additional emergency services and road maintenance will inevitably have to be met by the British taxpayer. There is already some Europe wide legislation planned but this needs to be widened and brought forward to help alleviate the issues."

Congestion

Foreign EU drivers in the UK were found to have added 5.34 billion vehicle miles to the traffic on UK roads in 2007, up by a third from 4.04 billion vehicle miles in 2001. In 2007, EU car and lorry drivers combined contributed an estimated 6.6 billion vehicle miles to UK traffic.

The cost of congestion from these EU drivers and EU goods vehicles was an estimated £328 million to the economy in 2006. This looks set to rise to £494 million a year by 2012, giving a cumulative total projected cost of congestion from EU drivers over six years of £2.6 billion.

For UK motorists, road congestion is the most noticeable change on our roads over the past five years. The report shows that more than two thirds of motorists thought that roads had become more congested over this period.

Congestion in the UK has become an important issue for many motorists, with official data showing that average vehicle speeds have fallen slightly over the last six years. The increase in the numbers of EU drivers' regularly using UK roads is likely to be playing a key part in slowing down Britain's traffic.

Steve Green, Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police and Association of Chief Police Officers Lead on Road Policing, said: "'We are aware that with the changing economy and cultural diversity brought about by the development of the EU, there has been a significant increase in the number of foreign nationals using our roads. This obviously has an impact on congestion and puts additional pressure on the Police and emergency services. However we are working closely with the Department for Transport to ensure that our legislation and policing methods are evolving to make dealing with foreign national drivers easier."