Parts of the country will be facing tougher crack downs on speeding and driving whilst not wearing their seat belt or using a mobile phone whilst driving. Latest technologies enable police cameras to record drivers up to a kilometre away, which is about half a mile.

There have been mixed reactions, as one would expect, however both the police and motoring organisations say that the move is the right approach to improve road safety and reduce the number of accidents.

Drivers caught on camera will have three penalty points added to their licence and face a fixed penalty fine of sixty pounds. Drivers may then also notice an increase in their insurance premiums, although not many insurers take much notice of those with three points on their license, get caught on more than one occasion and the cost of your insurance will see a sharp increase. Reach the maximum 12 points and you will automatically have a driving ban imposed.

Once you have your license back the chances of finding low cost insurance is pretty remote, with some insurance companies refusing to even offer you a quote. Those that are prepared to insure you will impose much higher premiums.

Whilst there is little you can do about the inflated prices for the first year of regaining your licence, being careful and going a whole year without further penalty points or making an insurance claim and the costs will start to fall, albeit slowly. As with any type of vehicle insurance driving safely and abiding by the driving laws is one of the easiest ways to take advantage of the low cost insurances being offered by all leading insurance companies.

Safety on and off the roads means that you pose a lower risk to insurers which they then pass to their customers by way of discounts. You should be wary however as inflated prices which are then reduced by half or more are usually subject to some very strict terms, conditions and restrictions. Look closely at the bottom of your TV screen the next time you see one of these 'fantastic' offers and you will see that unless you are among the minority who meet the qualifying criteria you will not be offered the discounts advertised!

That does not mean to say you won't be offered a competitive quote, on the contrary, there are some very good deals available which can be found online. The more ticks you can put in the quotation boxes the more the likelihood of being offered a cheap quote. The age and market value of the vehicle, the age of the driver, enhanced security measures, annual mileage, along with any driving convictions and where in the UK will all be taken into consideration when insurance companies provide you with a quotation.

Therefore if you want to take advantage of being offered large discounts the easiest way is to keep a clean driving license and as many years of claims free driving as you possibly can. If you do have an accumulated no claims discount it may be worth paying a little extra to protect it. This option enables you to make a specified number of claims on your car or van insurance before you will be subjected to paying higher premiums.