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Show January - February 1974 Utah Farm Bureau Mews Page 5 Will lower speeds drop premium rates? Increased driving hazards may more than offset predicted drop in auto accidents due to lower speed limits, less fuel, and higher fuel prices. That is the forecast of M. E. Carroll, executive vice president of Farm Bureau Insurance and Finance Services. Requests by economists, insurance commissioners in some states, and other sources for lowering automobile insurance premiums by as much as 20 percent are being made far too early, Carroll explained. However, he added, the insurance TRACTOR TIPS FOR SAVING FUEL Make sure tractors are in good condition and properly tuned. Make full use of wheel weights to reduce slippage when pulling heavy loads, removing the weights when doing lighter work. Match machinery and tractor size carefully to obtain full efficiency. When pulling lighter loads, shift up to a higher gear and throttle back, maintaining the same ground speed and saving up to 25 percent in fuel consumption per acre. Adjust diesel fuel pumps so that excessive black smoke does not pour out of the stack. Black smoke means inefficiency and wasted fuel. companys board of directors is keeping a close watch on the situation. It has already reviewed the possibility of a rate reduction in auto insurance premiums and will give policy holders the benefit of any favorable experience. Both the board and Carroll feel that the claims experience needs further study and regular review. He pointed out several factors that-maactually increase insurance claims despite lower speeds and less fuel: 1. Vehicle size: Smaller cars may cause more frequent and severe losses, especially in collisions with larger cars. 2. More occupants per car: With the emphasis on car pools, and with higher numbers of people per car, the chances of injury in a given crash may actually increase. And more weight in the car will probably affect the handling and braking of a small car more than the load would change performance of a large car. added 3. Lower driving speeds: While slower speeds would normally be expected to reduce the number of deaths and injuries, they also increase the travel time and driver fatigue, thus increasing Farm Bureau members in the Delta, Utah, area, have a new manager at the Farmers Intermountain Delta Association branch. Neil P. Budge, a Utah native, has been named to that position. He replaced Rex L. Wood, who has been promoted to manager of the IFA seed division. As Delta branch manager. Budge will be responsible for the operations of the . feed mill and retail store, cattle feedlot, seed cleaning operations and alfalfa hay . y no-fa- ult then and new cars were unavailable, leading to more cautious driving. And a greater percentage of the population used mass transit. Probably the most important reason for not lowering premiums hastily, the insurance executive states, is that there is just not enough experience to predict for sure what will happen to claims. He quoted Jack Edwards, deputy Utah insurance commissioner: uYou can talk until youre blue in the face. But you have to base rates upon experience. It will take a year, Edwards predicted, for insurance companies to find out what their experience will be. Inflation is a vital factor in insurance rates, Carroll closed. With 1973s inflation rate around 7 percent and I974s predicted for about the same, higher operating costs for insurance companies would about cancel the possibility of a 15 percent cut in premiums, even if such a cut were justified by claim experience. Farm Bureau insurance rates did not increase in 1973 to offset inflation. profit-and-lo- ss YOUR COWS MAY NOT BE AFRAID OF THE DARK BUT THEY CAN GET MIGHTY UNCOMFORTABLE DURING A POWER FAILURE Store fuel in a protected or shaded area. This reduces loss through volatilization, a common fuel loss that most farmers do not consider. New manager runs Delta IFA plant the traffic density and time exposure to accidents. 4. Age of cars: Since older cars with less pollution control devices normally give better mileage than new vehicles, people are apparently shifting more to the use of older cars. But those vehicles are not designed and built to satisfy the recent vehicle safety standards. 5. Construction costs: Not only are car parts 50 percent more expensive now than in 1970, but repair labor rates have more than doubled. The same accident will result in a much higher repair bill today. 6JNo-fau- lt insurance: A state law insurance will not requiring reduce premiums, despite some reports that it will. It has no apparent effect on total amount of claims for any given accident. And because insurance is now required of all auto owners in Utah, some high-ris- k drivers Who werent covered before 1974 are now. Carroll said that some demands for lower insurance premiums are partly based on World War 11 experience. But he points out that the situation was vastly different then. Speed limits were hour versus today's 55. Only 26 million cars were on the roads, compared to about 100 million today. Most young male drivers were in service during the war. Tires were scarce 35 miles per Few dairymen today have the help or the wrists for milking their entire herd during a power failure. And you never know how long it'll last two hours or two days until it's over. Why gamble with the milking average you've built up so painstakingly. You can pay for a tractor-drive- n emergency alternator with the savings from one power outage, considering the possible drop in milk production through the rest of the lactation period. t Check with the Utah Farm Bureau Service Company today on availability of your size of alternator. Choose from a variety of sizes at member discount prices that are Ag-Tron- ic hard to beat. TRACTOR-DRIVE- ALTERNATORS N mill. The new manager worked for IFAs Spanish Fork branch while obtaining a B.S. degree in animal science at Brigham Young University. While at B.Y.U., he held a teaching assistantship and completed a research project in dairying under the supervision of Dr. Robert W. Gardner. F.O.B. your farm or ranch. Includes canvas cover for tractor-drive- n models available. Parts and service available in Salt Lake City. UTAH FARM BUREAU SERVICE COMPANY 629 East Fourth South Salt Lake City, Utah 521-36- Neil P. Budge 90 units. Largest |