The high cost of car insurance for young drivers has been a thorny issue for a very long time. Northern Ireland-based Autoline Insurance Group is not claiming its new, telematics-based Road Safety Reward App is a panacea, but it is hoping it will ultimately make insurance more affordable for younger drivers.
The target age group for the app is 17-25 year olds who are given a score based on their driving patterns. Those who score well can get as much as 40 per cent off the cost of their premiums. However, discounts will be reduced if their driving deteriorates. Continuing good behaviour is rewarded with increased discounts.
"Autoline was started in Newry 35 years ago so we have a lot of experience of the insurance industry and are the first in our sector in Europe to launch a telematics phone app," says operations director Julie Gibbons.
“We began taking an interest in the possibilities of usage-based insurance about two years ago. It uses telematics to monitor how people really drive in terms of speed, braking patterns and aggression. Telematics was originally developed for fleet-management purposes and the data was gathered via a black box fitted in the vehicle. These boxes are expensive to buy and install so the cost is usually passed on to the client. Obviously this system wasn’t suitable for young drivers already paying huge premiums.”
While cost was a key issue for Autoline, so too was the fact that black boxes are fixed in a specific vehicle. Autoline decided that getting industry and consumer buy-in for its road safety app idea required a system that was both cheaper and mobile. The smartphone was identified as the ideal platform and the company teamed up with insurance telematics specialists My Drive Solutions, to develop an app that would do the same thing as a black box but at significantly less cost.
The Road Safety Reward App is free to download but qualification for the discounts is linked to taking out a policy with Autoline. The app was launched in Northern Ireland in June of last year and the company now has eight insurers on board. Autoline is planning to roll out the system in the 26 counties over the next few months.
“We have benefited from the development and launch of the Road Safety Reward App on two levels. Our business volumes have increased at home while the app has also gained us international attention as an innovator in our industry,” Gibbons says.
– OLIVE KEOGH
