banshi

Whats the the rationale for the the new tracking system the insurers are trialing? According to the Beeb, it's a pilot scheme to provide reduced premiums for low mileage/low risk users.

Excuse the cynicism but more likely an excuse to simply raise the others!

Supposedly motorway use constitutes a higher risk than local journeys. Aren't motorways generally amongst the safest of roads?? And as I recall the "Belt up" campaign said that most accidents happen at low speed within a few miles of home

sillysi

It's a sort of pay-as-you-go insurance deal. If you use your car a lot then you pay more than someone who only drives to the shops and back every day. I wonder if it logs your speed and if so will they refuse to insure people who drive over the limit?

Dave T-S

It doesn't log speed.

sillysi

I only caught the end of the news item, what does it actually log/do?

Dave T-S

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/bus...00/1831181.stm

Dirty Wrong'un

if it's a kind of pay-as-you-go insurance shouldn't the more 'safe' miles you do act as a NCD, resulting in a reduction for people driving long distances safely???

Gus

FreeT

but it does log time travelled and records where you go so could easilly calculate average speed. Is it not an infringment on your human rights to be tracked wherever you go, like speed cameras that take your picture from the front. Logic being you and your passenger might not be meant to b otogether - nufge nudge wink wink.

dosenöffner

"Does not log speed."

Yet...

I have seen this kind of thing trialed before. When you go for a MOT the check how often you have been over the speed limit. You don't get your car back until you pay any fines.

1984 - Big Brother is watching you.

alistair

Does not log speed - but does log journey time and distance.......

average speed is not too much of a problem then !

Robyn

If i remember a while back when they where trying to get us to wear seat belts they said in adverts that most accidents happen within a couple of mile of home.

so its only the first few miles that matter, or has it all changed now we wear seat belts

Dracoro

Hang on.... how does this lower mileage=safer driver equation work then?
This is surely the same as saying more experienced drivers (i.e. those who do a lot of miles in all sorts of conditions further developing their driving skills etc.) are poorer drivers than low mileage drivers (who probably don't get the opportunity to improve driving standards as much).
If there is a NCD per n miles, would someone doing 50,000 miles a year not crashing get 10 times the NCD that someone doing 5,000? This is all about money - the insurance companies aren't in it to prove who the good/safe drivers are, just how they can maximise profits. We must bear this in mind.

dosenöffner

The simple solution to safer driving is to leave you car parked two miles away from your home each night, thus eliminating the "Danger Zone".

banshi

Or .......drive like a loon for the last few miles and ensure you avoid those all those idiots having low speed collisions

If it's successful,how long before companies demand that one's fitted e.g. trackers?

Smell Chuck


[Edited by banshi - 2/20/2002 6:42:36 PM]

Trout...

Dave T-S,

it depends which system is used. One uses GPS and one uses Logica's SMS network. The GPS system is quite capable of recording speed - especially when the car has just had an accident!

It is being trialled in a number of markets with the most likely targets being Fleet Insurers who want to get a better control on company cars (there's a surprise) and probably low mileage users who think they will get better rates.

In terms of the overall impact on the Insurance market the low mileage types already have several schemes to capture them and so the optimisation of rates is likely to be significant. For Fleets it is likely that the loss ratios will improve therefore enable overall rates to drop. So the net effect will be more profit for Insurers in the short term, but actually long term rates will be more likely to come down/not increase as quickly for drivers like us (complicated stuff to do with the Insurance Cycle - we are currently rising to the top of the cycle which is why rates are rising so quickly - although we are near the top).

Trout