Assessment of risk and insurance of commercial motorcycles in Tanzania: the case study of Dar es Salaam city

The study reports results of assessment of risk and insurance of commercial motorcycles in Dar es Salaam city. The study was guided by the theory of risk-based management which is dependent on the scientific assessment of probabilities, it surveyed the main types of risk facing commercial motorcyclists and examined their main causes and strategies used to mitigate them. The main objective of the study was to assess the influence of these selected attributes on eagerness to take insurance as one of the strategies to manage their risks. The key statistical findings were that most of the respondents were the real owners of the motorcycles who had over two years experience and were working as a full time job. Major risks facing commercial motorcyclist were user related for example over speeding, lack of protective gear, drunk driving, bad riding behavior, young rider’s inexperience and non-observance of traffic rules. Other risks observed were poor road networks and poor law enforcement. A descriptive research design was employed to address the above objective by collecting data from a sample of 85 respondents using a highly structured questionnaire. Discriminates analysis and cross tabulation statistics were used to group commercial motorcyclists according to their risk perceptions. The hypotheses raised in the study were tested using independent samples t-test. On hypothesis testing, many factors considered had a positive influence on eagerness to take insurance namely young riders inexperience, poor road networks, choice of commercial activity, number of siblings, maintenance of motor cycle, level of road accident risks and causes of accident.