Each year, nearly two million students travel an average of 91 miles from their universities to their homes to spend the holidays with family. But this year will be exceptionally difficult for students, as restrictions in England have given them a strict travel window of only six days before national lockdown measures against the COVID-19 pandemic are reinstated, Cuvva said in a release.
While universities and UK governments have promised rapid testing for students to ensure they remain safe, officials have advised against non-essential public transport travel. This will force many students to reconsider travel by train, and instead opt to borrow a family car and/or ride home with close friends. While a viable workaround, Cuvva anticipates that this option will be hampered by insurance-related complications.
According to Cuvva, a majority of the UK’s top ten car insurers do not offer a flexible cover option on borrowed vehicles. The insurtech also noted that the inflexibility of some auto insurance policies could force families to ring up an insurer, wait in a long queue, and pay more than is necessary to add a student to a policy for just one journey – all very inconvenient and risky in this time of pandemic.
“Locking consumers into Inflexible annual premiums, with few options for flexible cover to adapt to challenges this year has presented, means students’ options for borrowing or lending vehicles for these important journeys is restricted,” commented Cuvva CEO Freddy Macnamara.
To address this inflexibility, Cuvva is calling on insurers to ease the burden on students travelling by car.
“The least the industry can do is give consumers a much deserved and early Christmas present by offering rebates for vehicles many have been unable to use regularly during lockdown, whilst also ensuring that they do all they can to help students get home easily and safely to their families for Christmas,” said Macnamara in a statement.
Source: Insurance Business Magazine
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