As a young driver, car insurance rates can often run to thousands of pounds per year - more than the price of your first car in many cases. On top of that, you've got petrol prices and road tax, plus the cost of servicing and repairs, none of which come cheap.
Simply put, running a car these days costs a lot of money, and for some reason it's the drivers who can least afford it (i.e. the young ones) who get stuck with the biggest bills.
However, these mounting costs needn't stop you getting behind the wheel, so long as you play your cards right. There's a number of steps you can take to cut the cost of driving on British roads, such as trading in your car for a more economical model, changing car insurance company or just driving fewer miles.
However, if cost-cutting isn't working for you, maybe you should consider maximising your potential earnings instead? £1,000 seems a lot for young driver car insurance when you're only earning £8,000 a year, but at £20,000 it becomes much more affordable.
To that end, the cheap car insurance team here at Hoot Car Insurance Services have put together a series of careers guides, to demonstrate how much someone with your qualifications could be earning in one of the many vehicle-related professions on offer.
For instance, if your interests run to detective work and mechanical engineering, maybe you should consider finding work as road traffic accident investigator. You could be earning £30,000 a year before you know it.
So what exactly does a road traffic accident investigator
do?
Also called collision investigators, road traffic accident
(RTA) investigators study crash sites on behalf of the police,
law firms and car
insurance companies to determine exactly what happened,
and what caused it to happen.
They collect information from witnesses, from the police and from the site itself, and use it to reconstruct the accident using sophisticated computer modelling. From this, reports and other evidence are produced for submission in court cases and at tribunals.
As you would expect, investigators work irregular hours that are largely dependant on the times at which accidents take place.
Those who are employed by the police usually operate in a shift pattern, and are 'on-call' during working hours to attend any new crashes that occur. The rest, most of whom are either self-employed or on a retainer, work on a job-to-job basis and get paid by the hour.
RTA investigators divide their time between collecting evidence in the field (which is often wet, muddy and generally inhospitable) and then writing it up, usually in an office environment.
Am I the ideal candidate?
If your favourite TV programs are CSI and Top Gear, you could
be!
First and foremost, you'll need a mind that's as sharp and enquiring as Hercule Poirot's. After all, this is detective work, and if you miss important details at a crash scene or misinterpret them at a later date, it could easily ruin your employer's chances in court (although your job as an investigator is to report the truth - not win cases for the car insurance firms that pay your wages).
You'll also have to be comfortable working alone for most of the time. Besides having nobody to talk to, this also means taking full responsibility for the evidence you produce.
Despite being something of a loner, however, you'll need excellent people skills when it comes to interviewing witnesses, liaising with the police and others - otherwise you could miss out on vital information or spoil important business relationships.
Lastly, an aptitude for maths and physics would be a real bonus. Reconstructing crash scenes requires a large amount of number-crunching, and the computer can only do so much of it for you.
What qualifications do I need?
The vast majority of accident investigators hold a diploma
in Road Traffic Investigation, or have a similar professional
accreditation. Without one, it's very hard to find freelance
work with legal bodies or motor
insurance companies.
The police force may take on unqualified investigators, but they will be expected to study for and pass the relevant exams whilst in post (and may not be allowed to work independently until they have done so).
Will it make me a millionaire?
With the right contacts and expertise, accident investigators
can make a very handsome salary. You might not become a millionaire
overnight, but get into this profession and your days of worrying
about the next cheap
car insurance payment will soon be over.
Police-employed investigators are paid in line with regular constables, anything from £20,000 to £30,000 per annum. Working freelance, the money-making opportunities are even greater (albeit less reliable), with hourly rates ranging from £30 to as much as £100 in some cases.
Further info
There are several colleges that offer a course for aspiring
investigators, but one of the better known is Ai Training
Services Ltd, which operates out of (and is accredited by)
DeMontfort University in Leicester. Graduates will have all
the qualifications and experience necessary to begin practising
on a freelance basis.
Young
driver car insurance from Hoot
With all their experience at crash sites, accident investigators
know only too well the importance of having a good motor
insurance policy.
A good young driver car insurance policy keeps you well protected without costing half your salary - and that's exactly the type we sell here at Hoot Car Insurance Services.
By doing away with advertising, renting shops on the high street, and a number of other unnecessary expenses, our overheads are much lower even than most online car insurance firms. That saving we pass back to you, in the form of incredibly >cheap car insurance.
So, for young driver car insurance at a price you'll barely believe, click below.