Home › Blog › Are cameras fined for compulsory motor liability insurance today?
Fines from cameras for lack of compulsory motor insurance are not a new initiative. This topic has been discussed for quite a long time and now it seems that the implementation of the idea is already close. The idea itself is that fines from cameras for the absence of compulsory motor insurance should be issued if the car is caught on a video camera on the road. But there is a caveat - recording a violation twice within 10 days. This is explained by the fact that the law provides for a ten-day window for driving without a policy after purchasing a car. In fact, the initiative has not yet been implemented. Cameras on the roads have been in place for a long time and record other types of violations; fines for driving without a license have also been introduced. But until this time, there were difficulties with sanctioning drivers without insurance policies, whose presence on the roads was recorded on video.
According to Art. 12.37 part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the amount of the fine is 800 rubles . It is believed that it can be reduced to 400 if payment is made on time - within 20 days after the decision is issued to the car owner.
Are cameras fined for compulsory motor liability insurance today?
No. As of May 25, 2021, the innovation has not yet appeared - we are monitoring the situation daily and will update the article in a timely manner when this happens. But today, cameras record driving without insurance, and instead of fines, drivers receive notifications that they do not have a policy.
The “proofs” to confirm this are simple: You will not find genuine information on the Internet about cases of fines from traffic police cameras for the lack of compulsory motor liability insurance. By genuine information we mean the presence of photos or scans of decisions issued automatically, with a specific indication that the fine was issued specifically for driving without a policy.
Update as of August 20, 2021: CCTV cameras have begun to record violations, but fines have not yet been introduced. Instead of “chain letters”, drivers receive notifications about the lack of insurance and the need to purchase it. More than 5 thousand such notifications have been sent out. At the end of testing, fines will be sent out, but it is not announced when this will happen.
"Duck" about the beginning of autofixation
Meanwhile, at the end of September 2021, information began to actively spread across the network that cameras had begun checking drivers for driving without compulsory motor liability insurance. In particular, a certain screenshot of a fine for driving without a policy from a user, sent via WhatsApp messenger, is provided.
This is what the penalty looks like:
This fine was probably issued against the motorist, but by mistake. Or the mobile phone screenshot is nothing more than a fake. The third option is that the fine is shown by a fraudulent program, which is designed to offer to pay it using the scammers’ details. Why this conclusion?
The thing is that as of the date of the screenshot, there was no official statement about the start of auto-fixation of this violation. The traffic police stated, as we mentioned above, that the cameras have learned to recognize drivers without compulsory motor insurance, but fines have not yet been issued.
But the main thing is that there is simply no such amount of fine for the lack of an insurance contract. 500 rubles are issued if the driver is not included in the current policy. The screenshot indicates that the punishment for driving by a driver without a policy. And such a fine today is 800 rubles (400 with a discount).
But the beginning was made a long time ago!
Meanwhile, information about new fines from cameras for compulsory motor liability insurance is far from new - the beginning was made back in 2021, when this initiative was first launched by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate together with the RSA:
- first, one popular news publication reported that the cameras were planned to be equipped with the ability to begin fining for the lack of an insurance policy as early as January 1, 2021,
- then the Internet circulated news about the beginning of fixation of compulsory motor liability insurance from the beginning of 2021,
- then similarly from the beginning of 2021,
- But in 2021, heated discussions began about an allegedly new law on fines from cameras for compulsory motor liability insurance; the future start dates were announced:
- September 1, then moved to October 1,
- after November 1st,
- Now cameras have “learned” to recognize that a driver does not have compulsory motor liability insurance, and drivers have begun to receive information about this in their mailboxes. But these are still not fines.
Do cameras detect the absence of compulsory motor liability insurance?
When in 2021, representatives of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, together with RAMI, took the initiative to introduce the ability to check the presence of car insurance using cameras, many media outlets reported that this innovation would be introduced in January 2021. When this did not happen, the same media reported that the start date for this review was moved to January 2021.
Official sources later said that the start of the project is scheduled for March 1, 2021. By then, the agencies intended to "cleanse" the database of outdated information to avoid imposing illegal fines. By the end of March, cameras had not yet begun tracking drivers driving vehicles without third-party insurance.
According to representatives of road services, the main difficulty lies in the creation and implementation of two databases into the system:
- traffic police database;
- Database of valid RAMI insurances.
When will commit go live?
Very soon!
The main problem and difficulty, according to the traffic police, is setting up and integrating databases of two important components for legislators to have such an opportunity:
- traffic police database of car numbers,
- RSA database for existing insurance policies.
We will talk about how this will work below, but here we will only note that without combining or integrating these two databases, the cameras will not work in terms of checking compulsory motor liability insurance.
Meanwhile, despite the abundance of constant postponements of the beginning of recording by cameras of the absence of a policy, the official response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, current as of May 25, 2021, is simple:
Until the completion of the specified work [on merging databases – approx. ed.] law enforcement activities are not carried out automatically for the specified elements of an administrative offense. It will be started as soon as the information systems are technically ready.
This is all you need to know about when the registration of lack of insurance for drivers will begin. That is, a specific date is not named. But let’s make a reservation once again that we are monitoring current information and will update the article when this changes.
Where will these cameras be located?
Initially, it was planned to launch an experiment to check whether drivers have compulsory motor liability insurance with cameras in Moscow. At the same time, we are not talking about all fixation complexes or even their specific types, but about individual cameras on individual sections of roads.
Obviously, these specific areas and addresses are not reported, otherwise drivers without compulsory motor liability insurance simply will not drive there.
Question answer
In the last section we will look at popular questions and answers to them.
Do cameras record the absence of an MTPL policy for a transit vehicle?
Yes, cameras will detect the presence of a policy for vehicles that are being transported to another region for the purpose of registration. Within the framework of the law, there is insurance for the duration of the journey (20 days).
What should I do if I receive a fine if I have a form?
It happens that policies are issued with an error. The received protocol should be appealed. If you have a policy, it is easy to defend your rights.
In conclusion, it can be noted that compulsory motor liability insurance is currently only checked in Moscow. At the same time, motorists have not yet received fines, since the system cannot obtain information about the absence or presence of a form from the RSA database.
It is not yet known how long the shortcomings will be eliminated. In any case, the innovation has come into force and in the near future, photo and video cameras will be installed throughout the Russian Federation, which will easily record the absence of an MTPL form and send a fine to the owner.
Which cameras issue fines?
As of May 25, 2021, it is known that only Avtodoria will issue fines for the lack of compulsory motor liability insurance. This is what they look like on the roads:
But this is also part of the experiment. The main thing is to have a database of cars without insurance. Everything else is a matter of technique. After all, auto-fixing cameras only read car numbers, and the rest is done by a program that can be updated, replaced, or modified.
Thus, in the future, possibly other types of cameras besides Avtodoriya, including Kriss of various modifications, Strelki and others, will be fined for driving without compulsory motor liability insurance.
How to avoid fines in the future
The main way to avoid fines for lack of compulsory motor liability insurance is to register it with one of the insurance companies. It is advisable to do this as soon as possible after purchasing the car. The policy can be either paper or electronic - information about both is entered into the PCA.
However, many drivers risk receiving a fine even if they have an issued MTPL policy. Most often this happens when there are errors or irrelevant data in the RCA database - for example, incorrectly specified numbers. Therefore, always report changes in data to the insurance company in a timely manner, check the information in the database yourself and report errors. Please note that correction may take up to 3-5 business days.
You may also receive a fine if you purchase a counterfeit MTPL policy. To avoid this situation, buy a policy only from insurers or trusted agents. If you want to apply for compulsory motor liability insurance via the Internet, do it only on the official website of the insurance company.
How are they fined?
To check whether a driver has an insurance contract on the road automatically, the camera must:
- first read the license plate number of the car,
- send information to some program for verification,
- the program must be connected to a database, which, in turn, draws information from the traffic police and RSA databases and compares the license plate number and the insurance contract,
- If the driver does not have a contract, the program issues a fine, which is then rechecked.
If the driver gets caught several times
In this case, the developers of fines from cameras for driving without compulsory motor insurance promised no more than 1 fine per day. But whether to believe this information or not is a second matter. By analogy, Avtodoriya is now fined for speeding as many times as the car passes under the cameras - even if the fact of speeding was the same. If you drive under 3, for example, pairs of Avtodorii, then 3 “letters of happiness” will come.
Thus, even for the lack of MTPL insurance, fines can be issued by all cameras under which the driver passes.
How should fines be issued from cameras for the absence of compulsory motor insurance in 2021?
It was planned that the collection of information about cars would be carried out by the same video recording systems that “watch” the speed of crossing solid lines on the road, etc.
At night, the information had to be processed automatically and the license plates of cars that were not found in the RSA database submitted for additional verification.
After this, the inspector had to manually check all the information and issue fines for vehicles not in the database.
IMPORTANT: Initially, the system was supposed to work in test mode, when drivers would only receive notifications about the need to obtain insurance. However, the question immediately arose about compensation for postal expenses - after all, in the capital alone, over 200 thousand cars, according to estimates, do not have compulsory motor liability insurance, but are actively used.
What's the fine?
As of 2021, it is 800 rubles under Part 2 of Article 12.37 of the Administrative Code.
Meanwhile, in a number of sources you will find information about 500 rubles precisely in the context of the new possibility of recording drivers without compulsory motor liability insurance on cameras. This is not true - 500 rubles for lack of insurance is imposed in two cases:
- if you are not included in the policy or drive outside the period of use (not to be confused with expired insurance),
- if you forgot the MTPL policy itself at home, but you have an insurance contract.
The cameras will check exactly the presence of an insurance contract, and for its absence there will be a fine of exactly 800 rubles.
At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2021, there was a lot of talk about increasing this fine to 5,000 rubles. And at the end of autumn 2021, information appeared that the fine would increase to 8,000 from November 20, plus evacuation would be provided. But all the news indicated is fake.
Where will cameras checking OSAGO be installed?
First, cameras that record violations of the law in the field of insurance will be installed in Moscow. But the innovation will not affect all complexes. Even certain types of systems will be affected. Separate fixing test samples will appear on the roads.
Traffic police officers will not notify where exactly the systems will start working. Otherwise, drivers will avoid driving on such roads unless they have an insurance policy.
