Since 2011, young driver casualties have decreased by more than a third due to telematics insurance.1As the number of telematics policies has grown, the number of young driver crashes has fallen.
I’ve seen first hand the difference telematics has made to young driver road safety and, in response, their insurance costs.
But while young driver crashes have fallen by 35%, the rest of the population has only seen a 16% drop.
There are 1.1 million drivers aged 17 to 19, with 1 million telematics policies live today. That leaves 32 million drivers who aren’t seeing the safety and financial benefits of box insurance.
Financial services data provider LexisNexis estimates that 60,000 casualties would be saved in that same time if telematics insurance spread from young drivers to other age groups. Currently, one out of four people is involved in a road traffic incident. One in 100 of those incidents is fatal.
It’s not enough to stay focused on young drivers. The dramatic improvement in safety for one of the most at-risk age groups could be replicated for other road users.
Until now, the cost of telematics technology has been too high to offer for people who don’t have the high premium of a young driver.
With the Ticker box we’ve developed, the cost of providing telematics insurance is lower than it’s ever been. That makes it possible for us to start offering our insurance beyond young drivers.
We’ve made the process of getting the box in the vehicle easier. We post out a box, the customer sticks it to their windscreen and then pairs it with the Ticker app.
No engineer appointment to arrange, no wires, no hassle. The box connects to the Ticker app to send us driving data, but it also offers the driver visibility and control of their insurance.
Yes, telematics insurance is still about good driving, but we’re not about to nag a 40-year-old van driver about how they brake. The way we approach box insurance is to make the rules and rewards clear from the start.
The customer knows that if they drive well, they’ll get a renewal quote that reflects that. But they also know we’ll ask dangerous drivers to find insurance elsewhere, always with plenty of notice and the opportunity to leave us voluntarily.
This customisation is across the board. Any new customer group involves a new set of needs, which we reflect in our add-on products, underwriting, pricing – everything.
It’s not about re-badging young driver insurance. We’re making box insurance that works for everyone.
1The Social Benefits of Telematics – LexisNexis, April 2019
