Insurance Driver montioring

[davidjpowell]

Interesting thread on Pistonheads that I thought would get some interest on here.

Bell Insurance (part of Admiral Group) have made it compulsory to have a monitoring system put in a drivers car.

After 6 months on some types of policies the driving can be examined and the cost of the policy revised upwards or downwards.

If you travel at more than 10mph above the speed limit, there is a thought (I'm not sure where this has come from) that they will charge you £80 (collected by DD), if you exceed 100mph they cancel the policy.

Is this the road ahead - where speed limits fail, insurance companies succeed..

 

[LudoCLS]

so we all know now, which insurance company is better to avoid...
things like this will not help them atract new customers...

 

[NISFAN]

Interesting thread on Pistonheads that I thought would get some interest on here.

Bell Insurance (part of Admiral Group) have made it compulsory to have a monitoring system put in a drivers car.

After 6 months on some types of policies the driving can be examined and the cost of the policy revised upwards or downwards.

If you travel at more than 10mph above the speed limit, there is a thought (I'm not sure where this has come from) that they will charge you £80 (collected by DD), if you exceed 100mph they cancel the policy.

Is this the road ahead - where speed limits fail, insurance companies succeed..

What a poor way to judge a drivers competency. Some old skatty brained biddy that never breaks the speed limit could mount a curb and kill a pedestrian.

 

[BigSilverEstate]

Do they disclose the fact there is a 6 month review and the factors they would take into account in adjusting the premium? Fair game if it is transparent and there is a saving on the premium for those who are happy to drive slowly. From your post it sounds as though it is not a transparent process however.

 

[Paul/]

From their FAQ-

Q. What do you mean by ‘safe driving’?
A. Safe driving includes factors like driving within the speed limit and avoiding risky manoeuvres such as harsh acceleration, braking and swerving. We appreciate that sometimes these are unavoidable, however repeated or excessive speeding or harsh manoeuvres will affect your driving score. Your driving score will be compared with other Bell safe driver scheme customers to determine the safest drivers.

Q. How do you know who was driving?
A. We do not ask you to tell us who is driving the insured vehicle at any particular time. Your driving score will be calculated on overall use of the car, so you will need to make all named drivers aware that they can influence your driving score.

Q. Can I remove the unit?
A. No, once you take out the Safe Driver Scheme and the unit has been installed, it stays in the car for the duration of the policy.

Q. Will I have a curfew with the policy?
A. No, you can drive at any time of the day or night with no curfew – however frequently driving at risky times, such as after midnight, may reduce your driving score.

Q. Why will you cancel my policy if the vehicle is measured travelling at or over 100mph?
A. Driving at or over 100mph would result in an instant ban if you were caught by the police, and we believe that as this is a safe driver’s policy anyone driving at such an illegally high speed is not suitable for such a product.

Q. What data does the unit collect?
A. The unit collects information about when the car is used, how far it travels and its location, as well as data on your driving behaviour including speed, acceleration and braking.

Q. How is this data used?
A. This information is used to analyse your driving behaviour, determine how safe a driver you are, and to verify your policy information such as address and mileage.

Q. Can the data collected be used to defend me if I’m involved in an accident?
A. If the data helps to indicate that you were not at fault for an accident, we will try to use it to defend you.

Q. Does the unit know where I am?
A. Yes, the unit does send location data, but this is not fed through in real-time - we cannot tell where the car is unless the theft tracking feature is activated.

 

[BigSilverEstate]

Fair play then, I can't see any grounds for a conspiracy theory

 

[Paul/]

A. Safe driving includes factors like driving within the speed limit and avoiding risky manoeuvres such as harsh acceleration, braking and swerving. We appreciate that sometimes these are unavoidable, however repeated or excessive speeding or harsh manoeuvres will affect your driving score. Your driving score will be compared with other Bell safe driver scheme customers to determine the safest drivers.

So enthusiastic driving and normal use of a performance car will be penalised.
And from the sounds of it, as will anyone with worse data than whatever % they decide is their safest driving customers.

In their defence, this scheme is probably intended for those who are deemed high-risk but who wish to get a cheaper deal by proving otherwise.

 

[m2287]

There was a thread on this recently... I asked what would happen if you were on a track day and had one of these black boxes... Now that a company have made them compulsory, might be interesting to find out?!

 

[Colin_b]

From their FAQ-

Q. Why will you cancel my policy if the vehicle is measured travelling at or over 100mph?
A. Driving at or over 100mph would result in an instant ban if you were caught by the police, and we believe that as this is a safe driver’s policy anyone driving at such an illegally high speed is not suitable for such a product.

I don't believe the police have the power to 'instantly ban'. Sloppy wording.

 

[NISFAN]

There was a thread on this recently... I asked what would happen if you were on a track day and had one of these black boxes... Now that a company have made them compulsory, might be interesting to find out?!

Nissan GTR had a top speed limit that auto disabled when at certain tracks

I guess they could use software to filter out known track locations? But more likely not....even being interested in going fast is a crime

 

[Paul/]

Q. What data does the unit collect?
A. The unit collects information about when the car is used, how far it travels and its location, as well as data on your driving behaviour including speed, acceleration and braking.

Q. How is this data used?
A. This information is used to analyse your driving behaviour, determine how safe a driver you are, and to verify your policy information such as address and mileage.

Q. Does the unit know where I am?
A. Yes, the unit does send location data, but this is not fed through in real-time - we cannot tell where the car is unless the theft tracking feature is activated.

So this sounds like statistical number crunching rather than detailed analysis, they probably won't go to the trouble of correlating speed and location to check speeding... UNLESS THERE IS A CLAIM. Same for monitoring how long vehicle is at declared address.

 

[m2287]

Nissan GTR had a top speed limit that auto disabled when at certain tracks

I guess they could use software to filter out known track locations? But more likely not....even being interested in going fast is a crime

Yea people were of the opinion that the insurer would automatically use their gps to recognise that you were on a track. I didn't agree and got shot down lol! I might give them a call tomorrow and get the official line on it.

 

[JOB-BLACK-RAT]

No the police dont, and it's really at speeds in excess of 97mph you go to court and can get banned too.

Its not a bad idea the 'black box', every police vehicle has one. What I would call into account is the calibration of the device.

Your doing 95 on your speedo and it says 100, and bingo! no insurance and I doubt other firms would cover you after that?!

Just look at the speed indiacted on your SatNav, not always bang on is it.

Going to cause some issues I think.

 

[BigSilverEstate]

So enthusiastic driving and normal use of a performance car will be penalised.
And from the sounds of it, as will anyone with worse data than whatever % they decide is their safest driving customers.

In their defence, this scheme is probably intended for those who are deemed high-risk but who wish to get a cheaper deal by proving otherwise.

I think you can safely assume they are not targeting drivers of performance cars or 'enthusiastic' drivers. There are a lot of very conservative drivers out there who would benefit from this so why not allow them to do so. I think even wondering about the implications for track days clearly means you are not in the target demographic for this insurance policy...

 

[Paul/]

Assuming the scheme is to give the insurer the confidence to offer a more affordable policy to an otherwise uninsurable risk driver, it seems like a good idea.

But if your stats when crunched are worse than the top X% of all their drivers, then even if you'd driven completely safely and always within the limit, it sounds like they could still rate you as not a safe driver.

 

[Paul/]

What I would call into account is the calibration of the device.

Your doing 95 on your speedo and it says 100, and bingo! no insurance and I doubt other firms would cover you after that?!

I expect the boys at Hoi Sin Industries will have a box of tricks out by the end of the month to plug in and sanitise the data. Hello Victor520!

 

[Dieselman]

Bell Insurance (part of Admiral Group) have made it compulsory to have a monitoring system put in a drivers car.

No they haven't, it's only for those drivers insuring under the Safe Driver scheme.


Sorry guys, time to put your hats away.

 

[NISFAN]

No the police dont, and it's really at speeds in excess of 97mph you go to court and can get banned too.

Its not a bad idea the 'black box', every police vehicle has one. What I would call into account is the calibration of the device.

Your doing 95 on your speedo and it says 100, and bingo! no insurance and I doubt other firms would cover you after that?!

Just look at the speed indiacted on your SatNav, not always bang on is it.

Going to cause some issues I think.

Surely GPS is considerably more accurate than your speedo? Or do you mean your speedo needs calibrating?

 

[NISFAN]

So what happens if everyone removes the device puts them all into a donor car and pays a guy to drive around really slowly?

 

[Dieselman]

No the police dont, and it's really at speeds in excess of 97mph you go to court and can get banned too.

Its not a bad idea the 'black box', every police vehicle has one. What I would call into account is the calibration of the device.

Your doing 95 on your speedo and it says 100, and bingo! no insurance and I doubt other firms would cover you after that?!

Just look at the speed indiacted on your SatNav, not always bang on is it.

Going to cause some issues I think.

Surely GPS is considerably more accurate than your speedo? Or do you mean your speedo needs calibrating?