CITY AUTO
JAPANESE CAR SPECIALIST

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TIVE
Programs help to reduce

supply of money from fund

LAST WEEK, we applied
the basic economic principle
of supply and demand to
ICBC premiums.

te c : AUTO TOPIC
by Ker Hardie

——

fn its simplest form, the princi-
ple works like this: when auto in-
surance claims. drive up the de-
mand for money from the
Autoplan fund, the supply of
moncy in the fund must increase,
and that means higher premiums
for motorists. .

If we adopt the goal of keeping
premiums steady or even lowering
them, then there has to be a drop
in the demand or the supply or
both,

Last summer, ICBC embarked
on a number of programs to
manage the supply of money com-
ing out of the fund to settle
claims. Among the steps taken
was more stringent cost controls
on the claim settlement process,
includiag the program directed at
a small number of uncooperative
legal firms mentioned a few weeks
ago. -

Another involved having more
claims investigation and analysis
done by ICBC personnel, relying
on their expertise instead of hiring
outside resources. There were also

4&4 The ‘no crash, no cash’

campaign .

. Was one of the more

widely publicized. 9

refinements made to the way
ICBC managed and = monitored
work done by various contractors
brought in to work on claims.

Controls on claims settlements
included a program to better
define mild. and moderate
whiplash claims and to more
clearly establish fair ranges of
compensation.

Of course, the “‘no crash, no
cash”? campaign to not accept
whiplash claims from collisions
involving tittle or no damage was
one of the more widely publicized,
as was ICBC’s ‘‘tip line’ for
fraudulent and exaggerated
claims.

The main focus of these pro-
grams was to ensure that the
outflow of money from the fund
was carefully managed. While
they have proven to be successful

at reducing claims. settlement.

costs, the claims themselves con-
tinue to roll in.

‘‘Supply-side management”? can
only do so much toward achieving

Anti-roll bars stabilize
vehicle while cornering

From page 20

utilize the brakes to rapidly
minimize the excessive wheel spin.
Traction ‘control is available on
more and more cars as the cust of
the technology goes down.

@ Unitized body — a type of
vehicle structure which is made
-from many smaller components
_and panefs, and does not rely on a
separate frame for strength. Once
welded together, the components
form a: ‘unit’? on which other
.vehicle parts are assembled.

* Most cars use the unitized body
. Structure ‘today, .which is lighter
‘but not ‘necessarily stronger than
‘the body-on-frame type structure,
“which: employs a separate frame
that is attached to the body.
-'y “Trucks and some full-sized cars

(Chevrolet Caprice, Buick, Road-

master, Cadillac Fleetwood, Ford
Crown Victoria) utilize the
rame-on-body instead of the
unitized body.
© Stabilizer bar — more correctly
called an anti-roll bar. A part of
the suspension component which
is designed to reduce bady roll
during cornering.

the lower premiums all motorists
want to see, The time is right for
more work on the ‘‘demand side’’
— the events that create claims i in
the ficst place.

Within the next two weeks, you
will be hearing about new pro-
grams to reduce claims by preven-
ting accident and crime-reiated
losses. ICBC is poised to an-
nounce a series of measures that
have not been tried before —
here, or perhaps anywhere else.

Next week take
Nissan’s Sentra
for a test drive

Basically, it isa steel bar. which | i

has been bent to a certain shape

and attached: to -the pair of:

wheels, either at the front or rear,
or both.

Virtually all cars have an anti-

roll bar in the front suspension, .

and many cars have them on the
rear. Jt can also be purchased as
an after-market item. A larger di-
ameter bar is stiffer and ‘therefore
has more impact on improving the
cornering characteristics.

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