Tag Archives: drivers

insurance for women

Romeo, the London Shard Hotel’s adventurous fox

romeo_1Last month we launched a new insurance service for Club members and to get things off to a flying start we added a hotel competition to encourage them to register with us for an insurance quote.

The hotel we chose was the newly opened luxury Shangri-La which is part of the iconic London Shard.

Imagine my surprise to read that we won’t be the first fox-y customers to stay there.

Apparently a fox was found roaming the upper levels of The Shard during its construction and named Romeo. Seemingly he survived by eating scraps of food left by builders before being captured, cared for by vets and then released back into Bermonsea with the strict instructions not to climb high buildings again…

Goodness knows how he got there – not in the lift we’re told.

Anyway, to celebrate his foxy antics one of the gifts on sale in The Shard giftshop is now a cuddly fox toy, called Romeo of course.

To win a stay at the Hotel Shard

shardhotelIf any female would like to enter our competition to win a stay in London’s luxury Shangri-La Shard Hotel, a prize worth £1500 including £500 spending money, all you have to do is REGISTER for an insurance quote with us before the end of April. The more quotes you register (car, motorcycle and home) the more entries and so on…

NB: You don’t have to be a Club member to be eligible (and in fact non members will receive a one-off gift membership as part of any insurance quote during 2015) but, as you might expect of us, Club members will always get the best deal from FOXY Lady Insurance.

women

What is a ‘smart’ motorway?

smart-motorwaysYou would imagine that a supposedly FOXY Lady (as in shrewd and canny) driver like me would know what a Smart motorway was?

So if news from the Highways Agency hadn’t reached me until very recently then perhaps other women drivers don’t know what they are either? In which case I’d better write down what I’ve recently found out, to share with others with a view to the future.

What are Smart Motorways?

“Smart” motorways use a range of new technology to vary speed limits in response to driving conditions. These make the hard shoulder available to traffic. This could be permanently or at particularly busy times of the day. Managed by the Highways Agency’s regional control centres they use CCTV so that Highways Agency traffic officers can get to any hard shoulder incidents as a matter of urgency or help to keep traffic moving.

Where are they?

The first Smart Motorways (ie all lanes running) scheme opened on 14th April 2014 between Junction 23 and 25 of the M25.

A second phase between Junction 25 and 27 is scheduled to open before the end of the year.

In this scheme, the hard shoulder is removed and becomes a lane available to traffic, i.e. all lanes are running lanes.  Signs and signals are used to display information to the road user when a lane is closed because it is needed for emergency access to an accident or if there is an obstruction in the lane such as a broken down vehicle, accident or debris etc.

New smart motorway schemes include:
•M1 J32 to J35a
•M1 J28 to 31
•M3 J2 to J4a
•M25 J5 to J6/7 (under construction)
•M25 J23 to 27 (under construction)
•M1 J39 to42
•M6 J10a to J13
•M62 J18 to J20 and the J23-25 section

Emergency Refuge Areas are at maximum 2.5km intervals; CCTV coverage is 100% and lanes can quickly be closed using overhead signs (the Red X) in the event of any incidents.

The Agency’s web page on Smart motorways contains more information:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/our-road-network/managing-our-roads/improving-our-network/smart-motorways/

By all means share your experience of these with us via our @FOXYtweets Twitter feed.

FOXY, women

New FOXY Lady Drivers Club video

I’ve been meaning to use video for a while but I’ve kept on putting it off for fear of this becoming an expensive head and shoulders sort of interview, us trying to pack too much in one or not knowing how we might ‘animate’ our FOXY Lady….

Excuses, excuses I know; so I never got round to it.

But we were tempted to have a go by the new hbtoo website because of their style and similar philosophy to ours ie an expert, different and low cost service – so here is our starter attempt.


Click this link if the above video doesn’t display

… and now we’ve had a go, we’ll probably have a few more in future; explaining our female take in a similar style when it comes to buying cars, garages and insurance services. It’s all about knowing where the best deals are, which ones are genuinely female friendly and what other women drivers think too.

So watch this space.

FOXY

women drivers

Female car owners give new meaning to ‘motorhome’

FMOS CAR BOOT 30.jpgAccording to RAC research women increasingly see their car as a social life support system.

Female motorists are seemingly prepared for any social occasion – thanks to their cars, which are increasingly being treated like a ‘handbag on wheels’.

Apparently more than 35% of women admit to having a variety of shoes, clothes and make-up handily stashed in their cars equating to:

+ 4.5m pairs of footwear
+ more than 5m items of clothing 
+ 1m-plus complete sets of makeup

at any one time in the UK.

Although Jimmy Choos and Hunter Wellies may litter some cars, the most popular types of shoe on board are for general use, with work, ‘going out’, sports, sandals or flip flops and flats for driving topping the bill.

And the emotional attachment goes even further with upwards of a third of women (37%) saying they view their vehicle as an extension of their home.

As many as 3.5m female drivers say they regularly apply make-up in the car and nearly half of women (49% compared to 30% of men) have shopping bags and baskets in their boot.

The car is also a ‘life support system’ for women with nearly two thirds (63%) regularly eating while in their car as opposed to a half of men (49%).

Women and men are equally likely to work in their car (11% men vs 10% women), a quarter of each gender often has conversations with a loved-one from their vehicle and there is little in it between the sexes when it comes to changing a baby’s nappy on the backseat (women 6%; men 4%).

Laura Truman of RAC Insurance said: “There are more women than ever driving on the UK’s roads and it is clear that they see their cars as something more than getting them from A to B.

“In this fast-moving world women have to be ready for any occasion and usually want to look their best. Keeping a few pairs of shoes and a lippy in the car means you can go from school run to work and then on to an evening networking or social event without a second thought. However, while this might be super handy for these sorts of days, we really do strongly advise both women and men to keep any personal belongings out of sight and stored in the boot or glove compartment. At no time is this more important than when it comes to valuable mobile technology as this is clearly the kind of thing that thieves will target. The best advice is to avoid leaving anything valuable in the car and if you have to, make sure it is out of sight. Leaving valuables in sight could potentially invalidate a claim for personal possessions so we urge everyone to be extra vigilant. Leaving them on view might attract unwanted attention and result in an unscheduled shopping trip!”

guestblogThis is a Guest Blog supplied by the RAC. The survey in question involved 2,100 motorists and was conducted on rac.co.uk from April-June 2013. With around seven million customers, RAC provides services for private and business motorists including roadside assistance, insurance, vehicle inspections and checks, legal services or up-to-the-minute traffic and travel information.

women drivers

Tania cleans up in car wash competition

washupwinnerWorking mum Tania couldn’t believe her luck, when she picked up a free Ford Fiesta as part of a national competition run by the IMO Car Wash Group.

The mother of two, and part-time student from Cornwall, entered the IMO Car Wash competition through the Mumsnet website just before Christmas. Tania’s family car was showing its age and she needed a new set of wheels for her and her two young children, Aidan aged six and Cerys aged two.

“I don’t usually enter competitions,” explained Tania, “but when I came across this competition I thought I would go for it – I never expected to win.”

Lucky Tania picked up her shiny car from IMO’s Plymouth site and, to ensure that the Ford Fiesta stays as fresh as possible, she also received a year’s worth of car washes. In addition, IMO, who wash 10 million vehicles in the UK every year, also gave four runners-up a year’s worth of car cleaning.

The Ford Fiesta had recently taken part in a study into IMO’s unique Foamsoft Mitter technology, by the Paint Research Association. Dispelling the myth that hand-washing is the safest way to clean a car, the research found that all cars are finely scratched through the process of everyday driving. However, the PRA found that washing a vehicle with the IMO Foamsoft Mitters caused no measurable abrasion to a car’s paint, making it the kindest way to clean a car.

“We are delighted to hand the Fiesta over to such a worthy winner,” explained Mike Smith, Executive Chairman of the IMO Car Wash Group, “We hope Tania and her family will enjoy years of happy motoring with the car.”

With 284 sites across the UK, the IMO Car Wash Group is the UK’s leading car wash company and can wash a vehicle in less than three minutes, with prices starting at just £2.99.