Innovative insurance companies

Sunday Night Videos - Yahoo!7 TV

That Sunday night magazine program with the obvious name ("Sunday Night") actually had an interesting story yesterday on Vancouver's success with using "bait cars" to dramatically reduce car theft in the city.

The police and insurance companies work together to put highly favoured "bait cars" on the street; when they are stolen, a command centre monitors where it is and can disable the engine when the police are close enough to nab the driver.

Excellent idea.

There must be more innovative ways insurance companies can reduce claims or costs.

There was a lot of comment recently about the relatively low number of houses that were insured in the Victorian countryside, but what innovative means could be used to encourage taking up insurance? Gangs of masked men from the insurance companies wielding flaming torches appearing at random in front of houses they know are uninsured, maybe?

I guess the insurance companies could buy cheap houses, slap a fresh coat of paint on them, burn them down and then have the pretend owners bemoaning in the media how they didn't have insurance. Maybe a bit of an expensive exercise, though.

I'm sure there's a good idea lurking somewhere in the back of my mind, but it's not coming out yet.