UK Window Cleaners Pay More For Car Insurance

Expect to pay more if you have the word 'car' in your job title.

Your job title could be costing you a fortune in car insurance (By Ben Griffin) - We've always known a person's job title can affect the price of their car insurance premium, but have you stopped to think just how much? Confused.com has, and the results are quite staggering. The insurance comparison firm suggests car salesmen pay more than 13 times than the average fully comprehensive car insurance cost of £736, that figure based on statistics obtained between March 2012 and March 2013.

The average annual premium for a car valeter was an eye-watering £4,817. In fact, and this is somewhat ironic, four of the most expensive average car insurance premiums in Confused.com's list applied to people with the word 'car' in their profession.

Window cleaners were quoted £4,607.12, professional footballers £4,038.10 and car dealers £2,883.85. The survey went on to look at occupations that had the lowest average annual premium. A bursar at a state school pays only £372.46 while a head of personnel and secretary PA only had to shell out £384.50 and £393.30, respectively.

It comes as no surprise to learn a police inspector trained in advanced driving should expect to pay just £402.86, coming fifth place in the lowest average annual premium list, while a principal officer of civil services pays £396.30.

Insurance premiums are calculated based on driver statistics and probabilities. Therefore changing your job title (or lying about it) may not result in a favourable outcome ─ and if an insurance company finds you lied, you may void your insurance and not get a payout if you're involved in an accident.

"There are still distinguishing factors that can affect the cost of your car premium," Confused.com head of insurance Gemma Stanbury explained. “These factors include the type of car you drive, the area you live in, your age, your profession and your own driving history.

"However this does not mean that every Bursar, Secretary and Police Inspector will be able to get a cheap deal. Each driver will be quoted on their own data - but your profession can significantly affect your insurance cost," she said.

Top five profeessions quoted the highest comprehensive car insurance premium: Occupation - Average Annual Premium:  

   
1    Car Salesman    9640.33
2    Car Valeter    4817.37
3    Window Cleaner    4607.12
4    Professional Footballer Apprentice    4038.1
5    Car Dealer    2883.85

Top five professions quoted the lowest comprehensive car insurance premium: Occupation -  Average Annual Premium:   

1    Bursar State School    372.46
2    Head of Personnel    384.5
3    Secretary PA    393.3
4    Principal Officer Civil Service    396.3
5    Police Inspector    302.86

Your job could cost you thousands in car insurance: Some professions pay through the nose, but choosing your job title carefully can minimise the premium. Insurance premiums vary by thousands of pounds depending on the driver's profession, according to research published today by Confused.com. The price comparison website has found that its average quote for car salesmen – £9640 – is thirteen times the average cost of £736. Other professions which are hit hard by insurers include car valeters (£4,817), window cleaners (£4,607) and professional football apprentices (£4,038).
 

Gemma Stanbury, head of car insurance at Confused.com, said: “Whilst over the last year we have seen a drop in average car insurance prices by 9.8 per cent, there are still distinguishing factors that can affect the cost of your car premium. These factors include the type of car you drive, the area you live in, your age, your profession and your own driving history. Confused.com suggests that whatever a driver's profession, telematics can reduce the premium for careful drivers. It has a smartphone app which uses GPS to measure acceleration and braking and check for speeding. Smooth drivers who stick to the limit pay less than those who drive harshly and speed.
 

Recent research for The Evening Standard by the rival price comparison site, GoCompare.com, has pointed to another solution. Choosing carefully from similar job titles can cut a driver's premium. However, Kelly draws a distinction between choosing a job title with care and being dishonest. He said: "Although giving extra thought to your job title could save you money, it’s important that you are as honest and as accurate as possible in all aspects of your insurance application. "Being dishonest with your title, like saying you’re a civil servant when you’re actually a television presenter, may result in your insurance being invalidated or even cancelled, which will cost you a lot more than what you would save by misleading your insurer.”

Saveloy & Chips

Saveloy sausage & chips.. more important than your car on fire.

Nonchalant window cleaner chomps saveloy and chips as flames consume his car: The dilemma of what to save in a fire was answered decisively by a sports fan when his car burst into flames – golf clubs. The high street in Epping was brought to a halt at lunchtime on Tuesday afternoon as astonished passers-by stopped to watch the drama. David Ayres, of Congreve Road in Waltham Abbey, was returning from a round of golf when the fire broke out in the engine of his Citroen Picasso. After unsuccessfully battling the flames with a small extinguisher, he bought a saveloy and chips from a nearby fryer and calmly ate them while waiting for the fire brigade to arrive.

"There was nothing else I could do. Someone had called the fire brigade so I went and got some chips while they were coming."

Smoke blocked the high street as officers from the nearby fire station brought the blaze under control, but the car was already wrecked. The 28-year-old window cleaner said: "I noticed smoke coming into the cabin and stopped, and when I checked under the car I saw a small fire. "I tried to put it out with an extinguisher someone gave me but it just seemed to make it worse. "I grabbed my golf clubs and got out of the way. "There was nothing else I could do. Someone had called the fire brigade so I went and got some chips while they were coming."

Window Cleaning Fall Update - Anchors Suspect

VERY LUCKY: The man, put in a neck brace on a rigid stretcher, was later found to have only minor injuries.

Landing on a parked car probably saved the life of an abseiler who fell five storeys while cleaning a high-rise building, says a paramedic who treated him at the scene. The Labour Department is investigating what caused the window cleaner to plummet from the eighth storey of the Corrections Department's 14-storey Mayfair House off Aurora Tce into a third-floor car park below. He was taken to Wellington Hospital with suspected back, leg and pelvis injuries, but was later found to have escaped with simply a dislocated toe.

Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington was one of the first to arrive yesterday after the man fell from his rope into car park No93 soon after midday at the site near The Terrace. She said she had seen people die in falls from shorter distances. "It's really been quite a fortunate day for him. "He's free-fallen ... and the way the building's positioned there's a row of car parks at the bottom, and he's struck one of the parked cars with his leg, which was enough to slow him down. "He's certainly been injured, but nowhere near as badly as he could have been."

Paramedics cut the man free from his abseiling harness, fitted a neck brace and stabilised him on a rigid stretcher to minimise potential spinal injuries. Mrs Worthington said the man was lucid and able to talk to paramedics after his fall. "He was being quite brave. I would have been performing far more than that in his situation. He had been anxious about what caused the accident and did not know what had gone wrong, she said. The man and his workmate told paramedics he had been using a safety rope as well as his primary abseiling rope, but both had failed.

Wellington industrial abseiler Karl Millanta said he did not know the circumstances of yesterday's accident, but if safety regulations were followed, it was "pretty much impossible" to fall while abseiling. Backup mechanisms were designed to stop abseilers falling more than 600 millimetres without locking up. Mr Millanta said he thought there should be tougher training standards for new abseilers. "There's two- or three-week courses, but the problem is, these new guys do the course, then don't go abseiling for another six months, so they forget everything."

Cleaner jokes after 6-floor plunge: A window cleaner who fell up to six storeys from a Wellington building and on to a car was last night "chatting and joking" in his hospital bed - his only injury a dislocated toe. The man fell from the Mayfair House building on The Terrace about noon yesterday, partly landing on the parked car. He clipped the right front of the car above the bumper.  His boss, Mike Roche, the co-owner and director of Window Cleaning and Contractors, told the Herald the man's leg hit the bumper. He said his staff member was "safe and well" and had been visited in hospital by his daughter. He was expected to be discharged last night after getting the all-clear from doctors, who were checking x-rays and scans. A hospital spokesman said medical staff were amazed at the man's recovery. "I think he's still coming to terms with how lucky he is. It's amazing."

Police at the scene yesterday spoke to several people, including the man's colleague and an office worker on one of the top floors who had waved to the window cleaner moments before he fell. The man's safety gear, including a helmet, helped to save his life, police said.  Earlier, Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington, who was at the scene, said the man had been "quite upset, as was his colleague who was with him at the time". St John medical director Tony Smith said it was a miracle the man was alive. "It's extraordinary for someone to fall from that height and survive. "We only see people fall and survive when something significant has broken their fall and in this case it was the car."

Dr Smith said the vehicle would have been an important factor in saving the worker's life. "The rope may not have completely given way, for example, and that could have helped ..." Dr Smith remembered a young man who fell from the fifth floor of an apartment building and was saved because he hit the awnings at each level. The Mayfair Building is 13 storeys high and houses several businesses, including a dental clinic and the Department of Corrections information centre. A Corrections spokeswoman said last night that no staff member had seen the fall, but workers rushed to help the man. A Labour Department investigation has started.

Mr Roche (pictured) said as well as that investigation, the company had launched its own inquiry using an independent investigator to find out what went wrong. "I don't know exactly what happened." But the fact the man emerged with only a dislocated toe, he said, showed there were systems in place that prevented a worse outcome.

Building's anchors not tested before cleaner fell: The high-rise building from which a window cleaner fell five storeys yesterday was not part of a Department of Labour review of the safety of roof anchors, the department said today. The anchors are used for wires holding the platforms of window cleaners and other workers. In February last year the department announced an independent engineer would oversee testing of the abseil anchors on some Wellington buildings. The investigation was started after claims that anchors on a 12-storey apartment block were unsafe and that one had pulled out.

In yesterday's incident a Window Cleaning and Contractors worker fell from the annex of Mayfair House on The Terrace, about midday. He escaped with just a dislocated toe when a parked car partially broke his fall. Investigations by the Department of Labour as well as the cleaning company into the incident have begun. A department spokeswoman told NZPA the Mayfair Building's roof anchors had been tested, but the annex where the cleaner was working was not part of last year's review. The incident is still under investigation and it cannot be determined that anchor bolt issues are involved, the spokeswoman said.

Window cleaner survives 14-storey fall: Heads are still shaking in Wellington over how a window cleaner survived a five story drop from a building on The Terrace. The incident happened around midday yesterday when the man was cleaning the Corrections Department's 14-storey Mayfair House. He plummeted into a third-floor car park from about half way down the building, escaping with just a dislocated toe. Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington says if a parked car didn't break his fall, things could've been much worse. "His lower legs have landed on the bonnet of the car, it would appear if that car wasn't parked in that particular position he would've impacted the concrete below."

Neil Thomson, associate professor at the University of Otago’s physics department, spelled out the unlikely escape from more serious injury or death. He said a person falling from 45 to 50 metres would reach a speed of 100km/h by the time they struck the ground. Coming to rest over 5 metres mean the person’s force of impact would have been approximately 10 g – twice as strong as slamming on the brakes in a Formula One car at full speed.

Breaking News: Car Breaks NZ Window Cleaner's Fall

EMERGENCY SCENE: The scene of the fall, from approximately five storeys up.

Abseiling window cleaner hurt in fall: A parked car broke the fall of an abseiling window cleaner who fell several stories from a building on the Terrace in Central Wellington today. The man, in his 30s, fell from approximately the 5th floor of a high rise office building from the rope where he was working at 12.18pm. He landed in Bolton St, adjacent to The Terrace. He received emergency treatment at the scene and was transferred to Wellington Hospital with leg and lower back injuries. Wellington Free Ambulance Team Manager Kate Worthington said the incident could have been much more serious if the man's fall was not broken by the parked car. "He is very lucky indeed." A police cordon around the area has now been lifted. Another workman was at the scene but was not injured.

FALL: Emergency services attending an incident on Bolton St in central Wellington, where it appears an abseiling workman has been injured.

An absailing window cleaner in Wellington hit a parked car after a five-storey plunge earlier today.

Car breaks Wellington window cleaner's fall: An abseiling window cleaner was seriously injured today after a falling at least five stories in central Wellington. The man fell from Mayfair House on The Terrace about midday. He was taken to Wellington Hospital in a serious but stable condition, Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington told NZPA. The man, in his 20s or 30s, had been harnessed onto the back of a 10-12 storey building. "At some point during his way down the building, around the sixth floor from the ground level, the harness has failed and he has subsequently fallen approximately five to six stories from there." He hit a parked car, which slowed him down before he hit the concrete, Mrs Worthington said.

He had lower leg and lower back injuries, which appeared to be from where he struck the car, she said. The man remained fully conscious and was talking after the fall. He was "quite upset, as was his colleague who was with him at the time", she said. The car sustained minor damage to its bonnet. The Department of Labour was investigating what happened and why, a spokesman said.

An abseiling window cleaner in New Zealand has been seriously injured falling at least five storeys onto a parked car that has helped brake his descent. The man, aged in his 20s or 30s, was harnessed onto a 10-12 storey building in central Wellington about midday (10am AEST). "At some point during his way down the building, around the sixth floor from the ground level, the harness has failed and he has subsequently fallen approximately five to six storeys from there," an ambulance spokeswoman said. She said he hit a parked car, which slowed him down before hitting the concrete. He suffered leg and back injuries, which appeared to be from where he struck the car, but remained fully conscious and was talking after the fall, she said. He was "quite upset, as was his colleague who was with him at the time", she said. He was taken to Wellington Hospital in a serious but stable condition. The car sustained minor damage to its bonnet.

A window cleaner is in serious condition after falling off a high rise office building on The Terrace in Wellington. Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington says the man was lucky to have had his fall broken by a parked car. She says he fell approximately five storeys onto a car and concrete below when his safety rope gave way. Ms Worthington says the man is now at Wellington Hospital.

Wellington window cleaner survives five-storey fall: An abseiling window cleaner was seriously injured today after a falling at least five stories in central Wellington. The man fell from a building on The Terrace about midday and was taken to Wellington Hospital in a serious but stable condition, Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington said. The man, in his 20s or 30s, had been harnessed onto the back of a 10-12 story building. "At some point during his way down the building, around the sixth floor from the ground level, the harness has failed and he has subsequently fallen approximately five to six stories from there." He hit a parked car, which slowed him down before he hit the concrete, Mrs Worthington said. He had lower leg and lower back injuries, which appeared to be from where he struck the car, Mrs Worthington said. The man remained fully conscious and was talking after the fall. He was "quite upset, as was his colleague who was with him at the time", she said. The car sustained minor damage to its bonnet.