National Fleet Database requirements

Important information for motor fleet and motor trade policyholders

To ensure compliance with the EU Motor Directive(s), the Road Traffic and Roads Bill (2021) has brought new obligations for Motor Fleet and Motor Trade policyholders. Under the legislation, all vehicles must be registered in the National Fleet Database (NFD).

What is it?

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI), Insurance Ireland and insurers have been working on a project to create a central insurance database, which is referred to as the “Irish Motor Insurance Database.” (IMID)

This central database is designed to help identify the insurance status of all vehicles and will be used by the MIBI, the Department of Transport and An Garda Síochána, as part of their role of enforcing insurance requirement in the Road Traffic Act.

The IMID is comprised of data from two separate databases, the Motor Third Party Liability (MTPL) database (which contains data on private motor & small commercial policies) and the NFD (which will contain data on fleet and motor trade policies).

Why do you need it?

This legislation will be enforced by An Garda Síochána on commencement and therefore, we advise that you start populating the NFD with the required information as soon as possible, in advance of the commencement of this legislation.

The purpose of these new rules is to ensure that all vehicles driven on Irish roads are insured at all times, by enabling the enforcement authorities to identify uninsured vehicles or drivers and thereby reduce the overall level of uninsured driving in Ireland.

What happens if you don’t do this?

These new legislative requirements in the Road Traffic Act will mean that fleet owners and motor traders who do not provide the required information will commit an offence, and will be liable, to a Class C fine of up to €2,500 on summary conviction in the District Court. In addition, a policyholder may have their vehicle seized by An Garda Síochána, if the vehicle is believed to be uninsured.

Where can you find more information?

A copy of the NFD user information and Q&A document can now be accessed on the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) website here.

What do you need to do now?

The next stage is to commence uploading fleet and motor trade vehicle registrations to the NFD.

In preparation for this, most fleet insurers have commenced uploading high-level fleet data to the NFD, including policy numbers, policyholder names and other high-level policy details.

What are the requirements when registering information?

Going forward, fleet and motor traders will be required to provide the registration numbers for each of the vehicles in their fleet within 14 days of a vehicle being added or removed from the fleet, provided that the vehicle(s) will remain in the fleet for more than 14 days. This means that temporary additions to the fleet will not have to be uploaded to the NFD (if vehicles are not intended to remain on cover in the fleet for more than 14 days).

How do fleet and motor trade policyholders upload data to the NFD?

The MIBI has created a website to allow vehicle registrations to be uploaded to the NFD by policyholders. Policyholders can register to get access to the NFD here.

Users must input their policy number and fleet Unique Identifier (UID) as part of the registration process. If they receive a registration error, they should check with their Broker/insurer to ensure that the UID and Policy Number are valid in accordance with what is on the insurer’s system. See Note below.

Note: Only one person can register on the NFD from each organisation (fleet or motor trader); however, once registered, this person can set up additional users who can update the list of vehicles on the NFD.

There is extensive help documentation and short videos available in the help section to assist users. Please also see NFD user guide and Q&A document, which is available on the MIBI website here.

Once registered, users can upload vehicle registrations individually on the NFD or they can use an Excel template (available from the help section) to upload a larger number of vehicles.

When should you start to upload data to the NFD?

The MIBI plan to start onboarding fleet and motor trade policyholders to the NFD as soon as possible. They need to start early due to the large numbers involved as the process has to be completed by the 31st of March 2023, when they plan to start sharing data with An Garda Síochána.

It is important that fleet owners and motor traders plan for this as early as possible so that they have a process in place to maintain their vehicles on the NFD. If not, then they risk their vehicles being stopped by the Gardai when they start to use the data.

Important Note:
It should be noted that the responsibility for notification of vehicles or information remains with you. We cannot accept responsibility for any item either incorrectly registered or not registered on the database, whether notified to us or not.

If you should require any further information concerning this notification, please get in touch with us on 0818 000 080 or make an enquiry here.