Pursuant to the applicable Road Traffic Act, it is possible to temporarily deregister vehicles. Unfortunately, this only applies to owners of trucks with a total permissible weight exceeding 3.5 tons, tractors, special vehicles and buses. However, in the case of tractors and agricultural trailers, a full deregistration procedure is required.
In mid-April this year. KRIR (once again in recent years) applied (this time to the Ministry of Infrastructure) for the possibility of temporarily deregistering a tractor or agricultural trailer. Of course, this is about the constantly growing third-party liability insurance premium, which farmers could save on temporarily. The letter emphasized that a similar solution exists, for example, in Germany.
The Ministry of Infrastructure is not convinced by this idea
The Ministry of Infrastructure explains that the provisions of the Road Traffic Law do not provide for the possibility of temporarily deregistering a vehicle, but only for the possibility of temporarily withdrawing the vehicle from traffic, regulated in Art. 78a of this Act.
– The content of the application in question de facto shows that it concerns the extension of the catalog of vehicles to which the provisions of Art. 78a of the Road Traffic Law Act. I would like to explain that temporarily withdrawing a vehicle from traffic involves costs (i.e. fee for the decision to temporarily withdraw the vehicle from traffic, fees for the period of withdrawal from traffic), as well as additional obligations related to, among others: with the need to ensure that the vehicle withdrawn from traffic is parked outside a public road, residential zone and traffic zone (Article 78a(5)), or with the need for the vehicle owner to deposit the registration certificate and license plates with the authority (Article 78a(3) ). I would like to inform you that the regulation on the temporary withdrawal of vehicles from traffic specifies the amount of the fee related to the temporary withdrawal of vehicles from traffic, including, among others: for issuing a decision to temporarily withdraw the vehicle from traffic, which is PLN 80 – we read in the response.
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MI further notes:
– Taking into account that the main reason for the proposed extension of the possibility of temporarily withdrawing agricultural tractors and agricultural trailers from traffic is the rising premiums for compulsory civil liability insurance of vehicle owners, I present the position of the Ministry of Finance, received in letter No. FN6.701.68.2024 of July 1, 2024 ., in which the ministry informed that "(…) the applicable systemic regulations regarding compulsory third party liability insurance for motor vehicle owners should be pointed out. The general statutory obligation to conclude a contract of compulsory third-party liability insurance for owners of motor vehicles, resulting in a reduction, is conditioned by the specific social function of this insurance, which is to protect third parties against the effects of frequent, unfavorable events resulting from vehicle traffic. The continuous nature of the insurance company's liability and insurance coverage gives accident victims a guarantee of receiving due compensation. On the other hand, this insurance contract protects the possible perpetrator of a traffic accident against excessive financial burdens due to his civil liability and protects his assets against excessive depletion due to this liability.
Due to the above and based on EU regulations, in the light of the provisions of the Compulsory Insurance Act, a vehicle temporarily withdrawn from traffic is still a registered vehicle, and its owner is subject to compulsory insurance, however, during the period of withdrawal of the vehicle, it is not allowed to drive. This is due to, among others, from the fact that temporarily withdrawing a vehicle from traffic does not completely eliminate the risk of causing damage with such a vehicle. In relation to this group of vehicles, the provisions of the above-mentioned The acts contain detailed regulations regarding the determination of the insurance premium. Based on Article. 8 section 4-8 of the Act on Compulsory Insurance1, in the event of temporary withdrawal of the vehicle from traffic within the meaning of Art. 78a of the Act on the probability of an accident during the insurance period, the insurance company, at the request of the owner of the motor vehicle, is obliged to proportionally reduce the insurance premium for the period of temporary withdrawal of the vehicle from traffic. In such a case, the insurance premium, after taking into account the premium discounts available to the owner of a motor vehicle, is reduced by no less than 95%. The owner of a motor vehicle is obliged to immediately notify the insurance company about the cessation of the temporary withdrawal of the vehicle from traffic. If the owner of a motor vehicle fails to fulfill this obligation, the insurance company may increase the insurance premium accordingly, starting from the date on which the vehicle is temporarily withdrawn from service. It should be mentioned here that insurance companies, when determining the amount of the insurance premium, are obliged to make insurance risk assessment and setting it in an amount adequate to the risk associated with using the vehicle. This premium is intended to ensure at least the fulfillment of all obligations under insurance contracts and coverage of the costs of performing insurance activities. The adequacy of the amount of premiums, i.e. determining them in the amount allowing to cover liabilities under insurance contracts, is subject to constant supervision by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
The risk associated with using an agricultural tractor or agricultural trailer is, of course, different than in the case of passenger cars or trucks, and therefore the insurance premium for them is also lower. When determining its amount, the seasonality of agricultural activity is also taken into account. The insurance premium is calculated for the whole year – both for the spring and autumn period, when these vehicles are used with greater intensity and there is a much higher risk of damage, and for the winter period, when due to the nature of agricultural activity and weather conditions, they are used less often. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that a possible mass use of the suspension of the roadworthiness certificate in order to obtain a partial refund of the premium could result in an increase in the base rates for this insurance, so that the premium "after the refund" remains adequate to the level of insurance risk.
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Higher third party liability insurance for farmers. The decision was made
The costs outweigh the benefits
According to the letter sent by the President of the National Council of Chambers of Agriculture, the justification for the submitted application to expand the catalog of vehicles temporarily withdrawn from traffic to include agricultural tractors and trailers is "constantly increasing compulsory insurance (OC) premiums, which farmers could save periodically." According to the information submitted to the Ministry of Finance shows that the average premiums for third-party liability insurance contracts for agricultural tractors over the last few years have not shown an upward trend. In 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, the average premiums for third-party liability insurance contracts for agricultural tractors fluctuated around PLN 90 per vehicle per year. , so per month it is approximately PLN 7.5 per month. This value is even lower than recorded in historical periods, despite significantly increased inflation. Reducing the contribution by 95% would mean a possible saving of PLN 7.12 per month. withdrawal from traffic.
Data collected by the Information Center of the Insurance Guarantee Fund indicate that in the case of trailers and semi-trailers, the situation seems to be similar, and the average motor third party liability insurance premium for this type of vehicles ranges from PLN 80-90 per year.
Taking into account the relatively low value of the annual motor third-party liability insurance premium for the types of vehicles in question, only the economic justification of the proposed solution aimed at limiting the period of admission of these vehicles to traffic may raise doubts. It should be remembered that in accordance with Art. 78a section 3 of the Road Traffic Act, the decision to temporarily withdraw a vehicle from traffic is issued for a fee by the authority (…), which in the case of withdrawing a vehicle from traffic for a period of 2 months is PLN 80.
Bearing in mind the above information and the fact that the only justification for the changes proposed by the National Council of Agricultural Chambers are potential financial savings, a justified doubt arises as to the justification for introducing such changes, based on the above-mentioned argumentation. Moreover, apart from the issue of a possible increase in the organizational burden on the authorities responsible for examining applications for the temporary withdrawal of vehicles from traffic, it cannot be ruled out that in the absence of an appropriately formalized and properly controlled system for withdrawing and restoring vehicles to traffic, the risk of abuse and use of such a possibility for avoiding the obligation to insure or unjustifiably limiting insurance premiums, which in turn may have a negative impact on the system of compulsory civil liability insurance for motor vehicle owners.
Taking into account the above, it seems that the above-mentioned risks related to the proposed changes to the regulations may outweigh the potential benefits that would flow to farmers as a result of their introduction – says the Ministry of Infrastructure.
– Taking into account the above, there are currently no planned changes to the provisions of the Road Traffic Law in terms of extending the catalog of vehicles that may be temporarily withdrawn from traffic to include agricultural tractors and agricultural trailers – notes in a letter to KRIR MI.
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