16 March 2011

Co-operative launch cheaper insurance for young drivers

Cooperative Insurance launch young drivers policies with premiums that are dependent on driving behaviour - is it a gimmick or genuine market development?

The Co-operative Insurance Company have today launched a policy that monitors the insured person's driving style and amends their premium accordingly. Using an in-car black box the company will assess 17-25 year-old drivers on their braking and acceleration, cornering, general speed and whether they drive during the day or at night and could result in savings of as much as £300 as a result.

Every three months the company will recalculate the drivers premium using this data, and careful drivers could see their premiums fall by up to 11 per cent.

However, the converse also applies and those who drive poorly could also see their costs rise. Speeding, erratic driving or using the car mainly at night could see premiums rise by up to 15 per cent.

As the black box is attached to the car it will not take into account who the driver is, so a poor driver in the family could result in the young drivers premium being affected when they are not responsible.

By logging onto an online ‘Driving Dashboard' to see how their car is being driven, they can also see what can be done to cut premiums further. Speed, cornering, braking and acceleration and time of driving is ranked on a traffic light scale, red for bad and green for good.

"Our hope is that people will use the Driving Dashboard to monitor their driving and will improve over time as a result.” said Grant Mitchell from the Co-operative.

The company estimates that 82 percent of drivers will be quoted at a lower rate than their renewal price, and 45 percent will enjoy the full discount over a year of driving as their driving behaviour becomes clear.

Individual quotations can be obtained with a few minutes from the Co-operative Young Drivers Car Insurance website

The insurance industry has struggled to get the market to accept tracker devices, and the adoption by the Co-operative can only be good news for the industry.

Mark Bower, Managing Director of MoneyMaxim, who specialise in young drivers car insurance said ‘This does look like a really positive step, although until premiums become apparent its difficult to assess the competitive nature of the proposition. We have seen a couple of companies claim reductions over historic premiums only to find that they are still more expensive than the cheapest companies in the market.'

‘The idea though that young drivers can see the impact the way they drive has on their premiums can only be good – and the data will no doubt lead to a few interesting family discussions! It also may curb some more exuberant driving if its known that it will leave an evidence trail behind.'

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