‘One-in-five bikers unlicensed’ claim rubbished

A report claiming motorcyclists are ignorant of licence laws has been rubbished – for showing ignorance of licence laws. 

The survey, for an insurance company, claimed motorcyclists didn’t understand license restrictions and one in five weren’t qualified for the bike they rode.

But Post Office Motorcycle Insurance has apologised and admitted the research “doesn’t stack up”.

Researchers asked motorcyclists what type of licence they had and concluded many riding big bikes were only qualified for small ones. But the multiple choice answers ignored a class of licence held by thousands – making it impossible for those riders to answer correctly.

Options included a provisional licence for mopeds, a full ‘light motorcycle licence’ for up to 125cc and a full licence with ‘no restrictions’. Nowhere was there a choice of full licence for bikes of any capacity but restricted to 33bhp. If those riders chose ‘light motorcycle licence’ as the closest option, the survey would have incorrectly deemed them to be using a bigger bike illegally.

Thousands of riders with provisional licences for up to 125cc were also overlooked.

When MCN highlighted the omissions to the insurance company, a spokesman said: “Thank you for pointing it out and I can only apologise that it’s not as robust as we’d like it to be.”

The firm had claimed to have ‘revealed a lack of awareness over road laws and licence limitations’. 

When MCN suggested the company itself appeared to lack awareness, the spokesman admitted: “You’re right. This is obviously embarrassing and not what we have aimed for at all. We don’t like to have research that doesn’t stack up.”

He said: “The research company that ran the research for us says it is confident anyone who fell into the 33bhp category would have gone for the full-licence option and there would not have been an impact on the stats.

“They assure me the results are robust.”

He added: “This is something we’re going to have to take up with them because they should have pointed this out. We consulted with them on the questions.” 

The BMF’s Chris Hodder said: “There are obviously quite a lot of problems with the research.”

The study also led to a claim reported in the News of the World that motorcyclists have 6000 accidents a day. To read how this has been attacked, get MCN, on sale now.