Archive for February, 2017
ACCC Addresses Car Insurance Concerns.
Stratton Finance CEO Rob Chaloner has backed the ACCC’s stance to oppose a 20 per cent cap on commissions paid to car dealers who sell add-on insurance products, arguing that a commission cap will lessen competition and ultimately harm consumers.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued a report named “A market that is failing consumers: The sale of add-on insurance through car dealers”
, which claims consumers are being sold expensive products that often provide little to no benefit – and are sold at a time when the consumer is often buying a new car and distracted. It recommended a 20 per cent cap.
Chaloner argues: “Removal of competition has always resulted in a bad outcome for the consumer. In this case, the competitive nature of provision of insurance products to dealers means if commissions are the same industry-wide, insurers won’t compete for business and premiums will rise. This means higher costs hitting consumers’ wallets.
“If commissions are capped at 20 per cent, premiums will rise to bolster the dealers’ income to make it viable. There is no way around it, the consumer would suffer. Markets need to find their own level and free competition does that.
“Well done to the ACCC for not going along with this commission cap. It would simply hurt the people it purports to help.”
Chaloner also contends that a number of add-on insurance products are in fact highly valuable to customers, contrary to the ASIC report.
“GAP in particular saves consumers from harm in the real world. It can cost as little as $600-800 over a 60 month loan to know that if you write off your car, you won’t have to write an expensive cheque. Currently a dealership may earn a $240 commission from this. It takes considerable time to offer the product, inform the customer of the features and benefits and complete the contract. Let’s be realistic, if the service commission is capped at $120 nobody would bother and consumers would be harmed as a result,” notes Chaloner.
Add-on insurance is usually associated with consumer credit insurance, gap insurance, walk away insurance, and trauma insurance. Alternatively, it may relate to the vehicle itself, such as comprehensive insurance, extended warranty insurance, or tyre and rim insurance.
Uh-Oh, I’ve Used the Wrong Fuel. Now What?
As humans, we’re prone to an error or two from time to time. In fact, we could hardly consider ourselves human if we were perfect and not making the odd mistake. And while it’s not common to mix up different fuel types when putting them into your vehicle, it can and does happen. After all, for those pump nozzles to be colour-coded, and even slightly different fits, someone must have realised there was a problem. However, even if you end up making this surprisingly not so uncommon mistake, you can rectify the issue and minimise the prospect of any long-term damage to your vehicle.
When petrol is inserted into diesel vehicles, the more common mix-up, the engine and fuel injector system are most prone to issues. Petrol acts as a solvent to reduce the lubrication within a diesel fuel pump, in turn creating weakness within the diesel fuel pump. Where metals make contact with each other, a lack of lubrication can mean that tiny fragments are created. The impact of these fragments can be notable as they make their way through the rest of the fuel system. Engines potentially may also be exposed to damage as a result of the extreme and ill-regulated compression of petrol fuel.
Although diesel used in petrol engines still has the chance to create catastrophic damage, petrol engines tend to suffer immediate performance issues that are symptomatic of a fuel mix-up. This may include a poorly running vehicle, or one that won’t start at all.
If you’ve realised you’ve made a mistake, the most fundamental rule is to refrain from starting the ignition. As soon as you switch that key, fuel is circulated right through the system, extensively expanding the areas at risk.
Your first point of call should be to ask a licensed towing agency to transport the vehicle to a workshop premises, or alternatively, you will need to put the car into neutral and push it away. The problem with the latter approach however, is that there are few places immediately near a service station where it is appropriate to syphon fuel. Doing this on the side of a road, particularly major roads where service stations are located, is not the most logical location. Furthermore, you also run the risk of polluting the environment via waterways and the ground.
If on the other hand, you don’t immediately realise your error and only start to notice performance issues a short time after fuelling up, stop immediately and arrange for your vehicle to be towed away. The damage at this point, and certainly beyond, is more likely to be meaningful if left longer without being addressed. Diesel systems are likely to require a rework of the whole fuel system or worse, while petrol engines are more likely to need the fuel drained, lines flushed and filter changed.
Using the wrong petrol grade however, is of less concern. Although a lower grade still has the potential to have wider implications for a high-grade system, this is more reserved for specific vehicles. Even some high performance vehicles will slug away on a lower grade without any lasting damage, only a temporary reduction in performance levels. And if you fill up with a high grade fuel in your 91ULP vehicle, learn from your mistake and appreciate that the only damage was a few dollars difference between the cost in fuel grades – certainly not a few thousand dollars in repairs!
How Not To Use A Phone While Driving
They say that driving distracted is as bad as driving drunk when it comes to reducing your reaction times and making smart driving decisions. Some distractions are beyond our control, such as half a swarm of bees flying through the open window (not making that one up – this happened to someone I know), a screaming child or a busting bladder. However, using the phone is something that you can control.
We all know the rules. Handsfree is the only way that you can do this legally and safely. Putting the phone on your lap and glancing down so nobody knows that you’re using the phone is not an option. In fact, this is probably worse than having the thing openly visible up by the steering wheel in your hand – at least that way, you have half an eye on the road even if you do risk being spotted by the cops. When the phone is on your lap, you have to take your eyes right off the road to look at it. Bad idea.
You’ve got to think beyond the stereotype of teenagers compulsively stuck on smartphones madly using social media, too. Often, it’s adults who are at fault and who cause the accidents: “I can do it because that text, tweet or email might be really, really important for my work/family, and I’m a good experienced driver and I know the road and it’s not really busy and I’m used to multitasking and…”
Why do people compulsively check their phones while driving? A lot of it probably comes down to standard cellphone etiquette: it’s considered bad form to not respond to someone who’s texted you, preferably as promptly as possible. There’s always the thought at the back of our minds that the text that’s just come through might be something urgent – your significant other saying that he/she has locked the keys in the car and needs your help urgently, the school saying your child is sick, or a client from work trying to rearrange a meeting.
On the one side, you’ve got the fear of missing something urgent plus the desire to be polite. On the other side, you’ve got the law and the desire to drive safely. How are you going to resolve this one?
Go cold turkey
Even if the call is an emergency, you can wait a few minutes until you find a suitable place to pull over. It is possible to leave the phone alone and not respond instantly. Nobody is going to die. If the situation is that urgent, the person in question should have dialled 000 rather than you. Anyway, emergencies are few and far between, and there’s a chance that the text in question is going to be something along the lines of “3oclock Monday fine for meeting”. Put the phone on silent and put it in the glovebox or somewhere you can’t reach it or see it, then ignore it. It won’t kill you. However, texting while driving can kill you or someone else. This is also one of the only two options for L-plate and P-plate drivers.
Hand it to the passenger
If you’ve often got people in the car with you, the person in the front seat can be your hands while you get on with the driving. Your passenger can read out texts, send texts for you, look things up and give you information such as “Shirley’s sent you a hilarious picture on Instagram that you’ll have to look at later.” A strong-minded front seat passenger can also growl at you if you make a grab for the phone, or even physically stop you grabbing the phone, as suggested by this road safety ad from New Zealand:
Driving apps
Some apps solve the etiquette problem, meaning that the person on the other end of the text doesn’t think you’re rudely ignoring them. These apps are similar to the automatic reply emails that you can set up when you’re on holiday but are more short-term. Just before you start the engine, you turn the app on. If someone texts you while you’re driving, the app will auto-reply saying that you are driving and will reply as soon as possible. You can get them for iPhone and Android and several are free. Even the ones that aren’t free are a hang of a lot cheaper than a fine. This is the other solution for L-platers and P-platers.
Other apps go a bit further than merely auto-responding. Some block cellphone use while driving, are linked in with another device belonging to someone else for accountability purposes (e.g. a parent, significant other or boss, who get a notification if you do text and drive) and dish out rewards for appropriate behaviour (i.e. not using the phone while driving).
Handsfree
Going handsfree isn’t as hard as you think, especially if you have one of the newer Apple devices (which I don’t – I’ve got an older Android machine, so this isn’t an endorsement; however, I’ve seen my 19-year-old son’s Siri in action, especially after I started growling at him for texting while driving, which prompted the demo). Siri and the Android equivalent (e.g. Robin) can read out your texts and you can dictate texts to them, all while your hands stay on the wheel and your eyes on the road. This can lead to some interesting typos, or whatever you call the equivalent of speech recognition glitches, especially if you use that very common shorthand for seconds, “secs”. Pop your phone in a suitable cradle and turn on the loudspeaker, then you’re good to go.
Full integration
In a heap of recent vehicles, the makers have realised that people want to stay connected and get those important calls and the like while on the road, especially in the case of contractors and people who travel for business. Most vehicles come with full Bluetooth preparation and/or smartphone integration, basically turning your car into an extension of your device, so you can make those handsfree calls, send private messages on Facebook and get your texts read out by Siri or Robin. Some of them also work in tandem with the driver aids and will shut down (so you’re less distracted) if it senses from your driving and all the other sensors that the traffic is getting heavy and things are getting a bit hairy. These fully integrated “smartcars”, to coin a term, are also smart enough to refuse to let you go online and watch YouTube videos while the car is moving.
Jamming devices
Mobile phone jamming devices are illegal in Australia, so don’t even think about them. Yes, you can block your own phone use while driving but you can also block everybody else’s phone use, including all the people who are using handsfree and Bluetooth integrated calling, and all passengers in your vicinity. You could also block someone’s emergency call to 000.
The Guy We All Need To Thank: Nils Bohlin
What would you call a guy who has saved approximately 11,000 lives every year in the US alone and way more than that around the world? You’d probably think that you were reading a cracker of a superhero comic but this guy is for real. Was he a war hero? An emergency response guy like a medic, firefighter or cop?
Nope – he was an inventor. What he invented was the three-point seatbelt. His name was Nils Bohlin. In later life, he looked a bit like Father Christmas. Which is kind of appropriate, considering the gift he’s given to the world.
Bohlin was born in 1920 in Sweden, the country where he worked after graduating with an engineering diploma. His first significant employer was SAAB , but he wasn’t working on their cars; his area was on the planes. Specifically, he got to work on ejector seats, which were in hot demand at the time, the time in question being World War 2 when pilots were getting shot down and needing to bail out ASAP. At the time, there was a bit of competition going on, and the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel got the idea at the same time as SAAB and managed to get an operational ejector seat first. (Did they really independently get the same idea simultaneously? Or was there some skulduggery going on? Plot for a WWII spy thriller here.)
After the war was over (and SAAB had got a good working ejector seat), a new problem was cropping up. The demand for masses of fighter and bomber planes had died down but in the post-war period of prosperity, the demand for and use of the car had soared. It wasn’t just a toy for the rich any more. With a lot more cars on the roads going faster thanks to all the technology developed during wartime, there were a lot more accidents. A sort of seat belt had been invented: a two-point lap belt with a buckle that did up in the middle over your stomach. If you’ve been in some classic cars, you may have seen them (I have some very dim memories of using one of these, possibly in the ancient Mini owned by my grandparents when I was little… I think). While these two-point jobs were a heck of a lot better than nothing, they were not ideal. For a start off, they didn’t stop your head pitching forwards during a crash thanks to all that momentum with the end result that the driver whacked his/her head on the steering wheel. You also had the problem of sliding up and out of the seat belt. Then there was the belt itself. At high speeds, that meant all the momentum and force was caught and stopped by a band across your tummy. With a heavy metal buckle right in the middle where the force would be greatest. At best, this would make you puke. At worst, it would cause nasty internal injuries. Don’t even think about what would happen if the person wearing the lap belt was a pregnant woman. Something had to be done.
The something was done by Volvo, who hired Nils Bohlin to try to improve the design. This was 1958 and Volvo had decided that one of their key design principles was going to be safety, safety, safety, rather than merely concentrating on power and speed (one of the CEO’s relatives had been killed in a car crash). Bohlin was the perfect choice. After all, he’d had to think about stresses on the human body at speed, restraints and sort of thing when developing ejector seats. Ejector seats had four-pointer restraints but Bohlin knew that this wasn’t going to work in a family car. He wanted a design that could be put on with one hand. As he had four stepchildren and one child, he probably knew all too well that getting multiple straps onto a wriggly child was pretty tricky! On top of that, he had consumer attitudes to contend with. As he said, “The pilots I worked with in the aerospace industry were willing to put on almost anything to keep them safe in case of a crash, but regular people in cars don’t want to be uncomfortable even for a minute.” The restraints had to be comfortable.
It took him a year of testing, going back to the drawing board, retesting, tinkering and general improving until he came up with the three-point system we are all familiar with today: a belt running from shoulder to hip that attaches to a fixed point at hip level on the opposite side from the shoulder-height anchor points. It was simple. It could be done up with one hand. It was comfortable for men and women (this was the 1950s when the ideal female figure was very, very curvy…). This spread the force of impact across the ribcage and abdomen, which reduced the risk of internal injury dramatically and made slipping out over the top less likely.
His new design was patented in the US in 1959 and you can see it here. However, even though Bohlin and Volvo held the patent, Volvo was public-spirited enough to allow other manufacturers to use this life-saving design for free, putting people ahead of profits (and giving their company image and reputation one heck of a boost).
Nils Bohlin demonstrates his invention to the public.
It took a while for the new invention to catch on. After all, people just weren’t used to wearing seat belts on buses or the like. They weren’t planning on crashing (who does?) so why on earth did they need to wear a seat belt. Seat belt use wasn’t mandatory (and belts were only installed in the driver and front passenger seats at first), so a fair bit of PR work was needed to educate the public. At first, seat belts were just nice accessories in a car. However, a demo using eggs in rolling cart, one with a seatbelt and one without, got the message across, along with a bunch of other stunts presented in a world tour. In 1969 in the US, seatbelts (in the front seats at least) became compulsory. Today, in all developed economies, seat belt use is mandatory front and back. On top of that, even the centre rear seat lap belt that most of us grew up with is being phased out, with more and more cars offering three-point seat belts for all five (or seven) seats.
The design has been tweaked a fair bit over the years, with pretensioners being added by Mercedes Benz in the 1980s, Audi adding height adjustments and those bra-strap style length adjusters being replaced by retracting inertia reels. However, the basic design is still the same as Nils Bohlin’s original design. Since its invention, it has saved over a million lives, and the US safety stats figure that seat belt use saves over 11,000 million lives every year.
Bohlin also invented the buckle design that is used on his seat belt, and he also worked on the Side Impact Protection System that has been another Volvo special that has since spread to other marques.
Bohlin became head of Volvo’s safety design team, and received numerous awards throughout his lifetime, including being inducted into the Health and Safety Hall of Fame and the Automotive Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 2002 upon his death.
Despite his invention, seat belt laws and more, some people still don’t seem to get the point and insist on not wearing their seat belts. Come on, folks! To quote Winnie-the-Pooh’s Eeyore, “the funny thing about accidents is that you never have them until you’re having them.” Buckle up!
“My greatest pleasure comes when I meet people who tell me that a seat belt saved their life or the life of a loved one. Many inventions make life better for people. I have been fortunate to work in the area of safety engineering, where innovation doesn’t just improve our lives; it actually can save lives.”—Nils Bohlin
Level 2, 9 Help Street