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Want lower insurance rates?

D

DisgruntledVirus

Lifer
Get one of these for your vehicle

So I work for one of the top 5 insurance companies in the US in P&C. When I got to work today, I get online to head to AT. Our homepages are locked to our companies internal homepage, and I see this electronic square box in a big graphic on the front page. It says "(company) expands telematics testing program". So I click on the link to see what this is all about, and here is an excerpt from the article (obviously can't link to it due to an internal website only available on the intranet).

?These devices can capture very specific information about the driving habits of individuals in a way that improves rating accuracy and underwriting, while significantly increasing both the frequency and quality of our interactions with customers. We also believe that telematics has tremendous potential for saving lives and reducing losses.?

This safety-enhancing potential serves as the central focus of (company name) investigation of telematics. More than 100 employees are currently testing devices in their vehicles, and preliminary results provide strong evidence to support (company name) direction. In one test, the percentage of safe-zone drivers (those with a significantly infrequent rate of urgent starts, stops or swerves) jumped from 24 percent to 75 percent.

?We?re encouraging our employees to be highly engaged not only in using telematics to improve their driving, but in using their experiences to help us improve telematics,? Warden said. ?We believe that current telematics technology has a great deal of promise, but we?re also interested in finding ways to improve it.?

While the bulk of the industry?s telematics discussion has so far centered on its ability to help reduce the cost of insurance, (company name) program is designed to also explore a wider range of the technology?s value-added possibilities, such as providing traffic pattern information, real-time driving analysis and ways to increase fuel efficiency.
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Basically what companies want to do now (on an opt-in basis, under the guise "You'll get lower rates if you use it!!!"), is put small computers with an rf chip in it in your car to monitor your driving. This then sends the information over some rf medium (like cell towers), to the company you have insurance with. Then they use this to rate your driving more accurately.

While I am 100% for rating people for the risk they are and safer driving, I am not a fan of this idea. It seems too big brother-ish to me.

edit: the second poll wording got edited for clarity
 
I've been really tempted to switch to progressive because they use this... it could save me a shitton of money on car insurance, especially since I only drive 1-3 miles on an average day.
 
I've been using this for couple of months...and my policy is due in May. I'll let you know if it will save me money or not.
 
Hmmm... I drive about 6 miles a day to go to and from work. I'd surely benefit from that type of service. Then again, I only pay $356 a year for my insurance, so I'm not sure it could get much cheaper. 😉
 
While I personally don't like these, I expect to see this become standard for all car insurance within a few years.

A couple of car rental companies have been putting these in their fleets for a while as well. Occasionally, there will be a "horror story" about some guy who drove his rental car over the posted limits, or some such...and got a HUGE bill from the rental car company, because somewhere in the fine print in the contract it says something like," If you break the speed laws or drive like a maniac, we reserve the right to charge you out the ass." :roll:

Of course, this being ATOT, none of us would ever do such a thing, nor would one of the OP's tattletales ever cost us money in increased premiums...but it's the principle of the thing! 😛
 
Originally posted by: JLee
How long before they put GPS tracking in them and start mailing you speeding tickets?
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ive always wondered why this is not common practice on toll roads. they clock you in when you enter, and they clock you out when you exit. just divide the distance of the booths by the duration and you have their speed.

actually, i have an idea why they dont do this but i will keep it to myself
 
I've got progressive insurance. Been using one of these for a year or two now. The driving info is not monitored 24/7, you need to remove the unit from your car and upload the info from your computer Every 6 months. The first couple times I did it my rates were about 15% lower according to the company. This most recent billing cycle, I was unable to upload the info and my rates still dropped a few bucks from the past month.

Not sure what to make of it.
 
If you drive carefully what do you have to hide?

</sarcasm>

I'd never get something like that. Occasionally when I'm on a road alone I like to gun the engine and drive aggressively for fun. Plus, this device can't account for sudden swerves, stops, etc. caused by avoiding OTHER drivers.
 
Progressive has this already I think, they take like 15% off your bill...

but hey, if it lowers the company's overall rates then let other suckers use it!
 
Sure... I'll just wire in an off switch for when I want to have fun 😛

jk

No I wouldn't want one of these things in my car.
 
Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Originally posted by: sdifox
DV, do you have some sort of percentage breakdown of insurance cost? Like admin, claims, etc.
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I can try to find it, but I don't know if I can find that easily.
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Not part of the disclosure package? I would have thought that is standard info...
 
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