Skip to main content

Young Driver scheme improving road safety

The Co-operative Insurance company in the UK says that new data shows that the introduction of telematics technology is leading to better driving behaviour from Britain's young road users. Intelligence gathered from the company’s 'smartbox' scheme shows that 35% are consistently showing 'excellent' driving while less than 5% demonstrate 'poor' driving habits. The Young Driver scheme, launched just over a year ago, measures driving behaviours including speed, braking and cornering. It then scores these from
June 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Data from the Young Driver 'smartbox' shows that 82% of 17 to 25 year-olds achieved the top score for sticking to speed limits, although only 13% scored top marks for braking and accelerating.
The 6010 Co-operative Insurance company in the UK says that new data shows that the introduction of 1681 Telematics Technology is leading to better driving behaviour from Britain's young road users. Intelligence gathered from the company’s 'smartbox' scheme shows that 35% are consistently showing 'excellent' driving while less than 5% demonstrate 'poor' driving habits.

The Young Driver scheme, launched just over a year ago, measures driving behaviours including speed, braking and cornering. It then scores these from one (poor) to five (excellent) and rewards discounts on insurance premiums to those who score consistently well.

David Neave, director of general insurance for The Co-operative, said: “The data shows that the vast majority of our customers are responding well to a ‘carrot’ rather than ‘stick’ approach, improving their driving skills because they are rewarded for doing so. Our scheme is only in its infancy, but it is clear that if telematics was taken up on a larger scale it could be a major step forward in improving road safety.”

Related Content

  • November 22, 2013
    Greater London tops the Aviva safe driver table
    It may have one the heaviest traffic volumes in the UK but Greater London tops the safe driving table according to analysis from insurance provider Aviva’s Drive App, which uses smartphone technology to record a motorist’s driving style, covering their acceleration, braking and cornering. Data from over 3.5 million miles driven by users of the app reveals the areas with the safest drivers. Greater London, including areas such as Islington, Chelsea and Croydon takes the top spot in Aviva’s table - which i
  • November 28, 2013
    User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
  • July 17, 2012
    Growth of telematics-based pay as you drive car insurance systems
    Car insurance made cheaper by telematics has returned to news headlines in the UK this year. Will it really take off this time and can vehicle tracking provide an effective tool for enforcing or encouraging insurance compliance? Jon Masters reports Will 2012 go down as the year that telematics-based car insurance took off? In the UK at least, a groundswell of new policies, with premiums priced on the basis of tracked and analysed driving style, suggests a turning point has been reached. Some would argue t
  • November 7, 2013
    Bit by bit insurers agree data protocol
    Telematics technology may be a game changer for the automobile insurance industry but it comes with some caveats as Colin Sowman discovers. James Bielak, (P&C) program manager at the US office of ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), has an unenviable job: to devise a standard form of communicating vehicle data between telematics providers and insurance companies. To that end he has gathered together a group composed of insurers, telematics providers and other intere