Motor traders and firms with a fleet of commercial vehicles must upload their vehicle details to the National Fleet Database by November 30 under newly enacted legislation.
Private vehicles with dedicated insurance policies, which make up the vast majority of vehicles on Irish roads, will be unaffected by this requirement.
An estimated 8% of the total road vehicle population use flexible, fleet style insurance policies which can be transferred within a specific fleet from one vehicle to another.
These are the vehicles whose registration numbers must be uploaded to the National Fleet Database, a legal requirement under the recently enacted Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023.
Often these flexible, motor insurance policies are used by garages and motor traders who sell vehicles, as well as fleets of trucks, buses, coaches, taxis, construction vehicles, hire cars, delivery vans, utility vehicles, transport and logistic providers, service vehicles as well as the vehicles operated by retailers, service providers, semi state operations and more.
The Motor Insurer's Bureau of Ireland said adding the vehicle registration details to the National Fleet Database is a simple and straightforward process.
Once motor traders or the fleet owners are registered then all they have to do is download a spreadsheet template from the database to their computers.
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The MIBI said most fleet owners or motor traders would already have their vehicle registration details to hand, so they can simply copy and paste them into the spreadsheet and then upload the completed version to the National Fleet Database.
The dedicated online database was launched last year to enable the collection of this information.
Currently details for over 62,000 fleet vehicles have been uploaded to the NFD – in the region of 25% of the estimated 250,000 vehicles covered by fleet and motor trade insurance policies operating in Ireland.
The vehicle data on the NFD will be combined with the same information for private vehicles and used by An Garda Síochána to identify vehicles which are being driven illegally without insurance.
Figures from the MIBI show that Ireland had the second highest level of uninsured driving in the EU in 2021 and the number rose further in 2022 growing to represent 1 in every 12 vehicles using Irish roads.
Fleet owners and motor traders who do not fulfil their legal obligation to upload their vehicle registrations to the database by November 30 may face legal sanctions.
These include having their vehicles identified as being uninsured by the gardaí, as well as additional penalties for non-compliance such as potentially facing prosecution in the District Court and being subjected to fines.
"We would encourage all fleet owners, motor traders or anyone with fleet style, flexible, motor insurance policies to upload their vehicle registration details to the NFD as soon as possible," said David Fitzgerald, CEO of the MIBI.
"While most of the public will not be impacted, there are an estimated 250,000 vehicles in this country covered by fleet style flexible insurance policies. This measure specifically applies to them."
Mr Fitzgerald said the use of the fleet vehicle details from the NFD is essential in the battle against uninsured driving.
"Uninsured driving is a problem in this country, with Ireland's level being possibly the worst in the EU. Approximately 1 in every 12 vehicles on our roads didn't have insurance last year," he added.
"This is not only against the law, it also makes our roads more dangerous."
