Shiny Side Up online

[The Spin Doctor]

It was a late night for me last night. Once again, I was engaged as a guest speaker on the 2022 Shiny Side Up Online Talk event in New Zealand. Just after midday their time, around 1:30 am here in Blighty. I managed to do the presentation without yawning once! Adrenaline, I guess.

Last night, I was sharing the stage with some top antipodean names, including Avalon Biddle who won a Aussie bike racing championship last year, if I remember right, plus Australian researcher Dr Chris Hurren who is behind the MotoCAP scheme of product testing and rating motorcycle jackets and trousers - the scheme has just branched out into testing helmets, incidentally - and no less a personality than multiple world champion Carl Fogarty.

Once again, all I can say is that I wish we had something along the lines of Shiny Side Up in the UK. It's a nationwide initiative backed by the county's Accident Compensation Corporation, or ACC for short.

The ACC scheme provides accident insurance cover for accidental injuries to New Zealand citizens and residents and to temporary visitors to New Zealand, and importantly it's the sole and compulsory provider of accident insurance.

Most ACC claims involve physical injuries caused by accidents. However, the scheme also covers some physical conditions, such as result from long-term exposure at work to substances like asbestos and even some mental conditions such as nervous shock.

Importantly, there's no requirement to show that some other person was at fault and caused your injury when making a claim, so the ACC is sometimes described as “a no-fault scheme”. Whether you fell over at home, twisted your knee playing sport, or were injured in a car accident when another driver failed to give way to you, you’ll be covered by the ACC.

ACC is primarily funded through a combination of levies and government contributions. Income collected from each source goes into predetermined accounts based on the source. Costs relating to an injury are paid from one of these accounts based on the type and cause of the injury.

The Motor Vehicle account is funded by a levy on petrol (though oddly not on diesel or LPG) and through motor vehicle licence fees. I believe the motorcycle levy currently stands at NZ$ 25 but as the ACC point out:

"Motorcycles account for a disproportionately high percentage of the cost and severity of motor vehicle injuries in New Zealand each year. Although motorcycles only make up less than 3% of the total number of motor vehicles on the road, crash statistics from the Ministry of Transport show that motorcyclists are 21 times more likely to be killed or severely injured in a crash than a person driving a car. Motorcyclists account for 16% of the Motor Vehicle Account’s severe injuries.

"Funding motorcyclists’ accidents is extremely expensive due to the severity of the injuries sustained. Cross-subsidisation within the Motor Vehicle Account means that other vehicle owners’ levies make a significant contribution to funding motorcyclists’ injuries.

"We do this because if the true cost of motorcycle injuries was reflected in motorcycle levies then owning a motorcycle may become prohibitively expensive."

That's the official rational.

Thanks to the ACC handling injury claims - and rather surprisingly to us here in the UK - motorcycle insurance isn't compulsory in New Zealand but as Ride Forever say:

"[insurance] has many benefits. You’ll be covered not just for accidents but for theft and certain types of damage too."

So, what's Ride Forever?

The scheme is an offshoot of the ACC initiative, established in 2009 and aimed at giving riders sound information and access to training.

The trigger behind setting it up was a post 1990s boom in motorcycling. With more people riding, many of them ‘born again’ and lacking recent experience, crashes, injuries and fatalities were rising fast.

Ride Forever came about because there was a realisation that conventional safety messaging and programmes just would not resonate with the majority of riders. As the website puts it:

"Motorcyclists knew their passion involved risk and accepted it."

Ride Forever aims to engage with riders and find solutions they would take up and endorse.

Which is where I, and all the other presenters who've worked with Shiny Side Up come in.

Back in 2018 and 2019 when I was actually in NZ, SSU went on the road - we visited a dozen different venues in just over four weeks the first time round and I think the total was fifteen events the second time around - five big day-long shows at weekends, and ten evening 'talk' events. Just about all of them were well attended.

New Zealand as you probably know have been treating COVID rather more seriously than the UK's 'let's get everyone to catch it' approach, and so last year's outdoor events were curtailed after just one event, and this year all the in=person events were cancelled.

And so the online event came about in 2021 and now last night.

I don't know how many viewers there were online last night - the stream went out live on FB and YT - but despite the technical issues which caused the sound to go in and out, and then for the stream to be put on hold whilst they sorted it out, I stayed online for 45 mins after my presentation ended, and the comment stream on FB was buzzing with questions for me and other presenters, and with feedback on items that had been covered, and with general chat.

If that's an indication of engagement, I'd say the online event engaged.

[Horse]

From what I've seen, they are behind the European curve in their adoption of electric vehicles. Partly this is because new vehicles are expensive to import and they get a lot of used cars in from Japan.

However, if ACC funding is from petrol alone, they may need a rethink.

[Horse]

Do you have links for the YT broadcast recordings?

[The Spin Doctor]

Hopefully the audio glitches have been fixed.

[The Spin Doctor]

From what I've seen, they are behind the European curve in their adoption of electric vehicles. Partly this is because new vehicles are expensive to import and they get a lot of used cars in from Japan.

However, if ACC funding is from petrol alone, they may need a rethink.

Absolutely right... way behind! And they still think a V8 Yank Tank is a good option.

I can understand a reluctance to look at EVs when you're using a AWD Ute up on the farm in the mountains but Auckland and Wellington are pretty big cities where EVs would make sense.