Insurance issue

[John Wakefield]

Friend of mine has received a threatening letter from DVLA telling him his BSA Winged Wheel is uninsured and if he does not get it insured he will receive a ?100 fine. He insured the bike in November but its not showing on ASKMID, although it is taxed. He has the insurance certificate but letter says DVLA cant accept that as proof of insurance but he has to contact his insurance company. He has done that and they say its a computor error and will get it sorted within next 7 days. So another case of the computor is right so you must be guilty, so not only post masters! Worth checking ASKMID to see if your bike(s) is insured.

[iansoady]

This prompted me to check my Tri-Greeves and it came up as insured but with a make and model "DUMP CODE MOTORCYCLE GROUP 001 ". No idea what this means but have contacted my insurer (RH)......

[John Wakefield]

Ian I think this is because the model number has not been recorded on the DVLA record rather than an error by insurer

[iansoady]

It's a bit of a puzzle - I've just checked my Norton and the make / model is the same but dump code C instead of 001. In both cases the make is correctly identified on the V5C but no type, variant or version.

[John Wakefield]

Just heard from GRA member Peter Smith, he has the same problem bike, actually insured and certificate of insurance received but showing as not insured on askMID. Peter insured his bike in November, the guy with Winged Wheel last October. So this looks to possibly be a problem during those months. Again check your bike on askMID.

[iansoady]

I got a very helpful reply from my insurer (RH) re the dump code issue: reproduced below.

"Unfortunately I can’t fix this issue. To explain why: the vehicle details that you see on ASKMID aren’t just based on the information we send them. They’re based on a selection from a directory of vehicles that the DVLA uses for their records. In the case that a particular vehicle doesn’t appear on this directory, we have to use a generic “dump code” instead. The issue here is that a lot of vintage motorcycles don’t have individual entries on this directory.


To highlight this, I’ll point out that the Norton ES2 (which we have listed as first manufactured or registered in 1952) also appears with a “dump code”. However the Honda XBR 500, which was first manufactured / registered in 1986, is listed as exactly what it is – a Honda XBR 500.


I’d emphasize that this does not affect your insurance in any way. The DVLA shows on ASKMID a code based on the registration of the vehicle, rather than the make and model provided by the insurer themselves, because it’s very often more exact. (Again – to give an example of why this is the case – an insurer might list a car as a “Volkswagen Polo” when in fact there are dozens of models of Polo, each of them slightly different. This code would specify the exact model of the car in question.) In the case that a vehicle doesn’t have an entry in the DVLA’s directory, however, this code would not show the vehicle details. This doesn’t mean that the DVLA doesn’t have the details provided by the insurer, nor does it mean that there’s a problem with your insurance cover.


While I realise that this isn’t the solution you were looking for, I hope it makes clear that your motorcycles are insured correctly. If the police were to check your registration details, they would see that your motorcycle is covered to be ridden on public roads; and if you were to be involved in an accident or claim, we would deal with it on your behalf."

[John Wakefield]

Thanks Ian, at least that's settled that aspect and confirms that the vehicles are insured. Its the issue of the cases where the vehicle is shown as uninsured that needs an explanation. Will be interesting to see if any more cases come to light.