Being one of the most popular and most sought after insurances in the world, car insurance is definitely one of the most talked about insurance policies as well. Be it the Us, Europe or Asia, it is mandatory by law, for people driving cars on public roads to own car insurance.

The oldest documented proof of vehicular insurance can be traced back to the time when the west had started opening its doors to the Chinese. During the times when new colonies were being established along the Chinese coastal areas. A lot of transportation was done along the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from these areas through ships. These ships, containing cargo, would go haywire once in a while. In order to safeguard their ships against untoward incidents, the traders of those times rolled out insurance policies, thus giving air to the concept of vehicular insurance. The concept spread its wings in the coming years and today, the most important form of vehicular insurance is car insurance, as we know it today.

Most of the cargo that was shipped in these cargo ships belonged to wealthy traders of England and it is the clan of these traders only who rolled out insurance policies to safeguard their ships against potential maritime dangers.

During the time when various car insurance policies were being drafted, policy makers from all over the world felt that driving a car was not a luxury, since the car owner not only put himself at risk when driving on roads (which are public properties by law), but also third parties who are using the roads for their own reasons. Thus, the policy makers from all over the world started pushing forward laws to make car insurance mandatory for car owners.

Policy makers from all over the world (especially those from the US) were bent on the fact that owning a vehicle and driving it on public property (roads are, by law, property of the public) is not a right, but a luxury and therefore, it became all the more important for car owners to get their vehicles insured. Car insurance was also deemed elementary to safeguard the interests of third parties who might get incur losses during an accident on the road.

While the first law, making car insurance mandatory in 1927 in Massachusetts, real ground work had already been started in this field in the early 19th century. A number of car insurance policies were written and the first policy giving a full liability cover was written in 1895 in England. Soon, three years later, America saw its first such policy, penned down by Dr. Truman in 1898. Policies offering a full liability cover are the most popular and preferred of all car insurance policies because of the fact that they not only insure the vehicle, they also reimburse the vehicle owner for any damage that he might have caused to others.

Share This