Skip to main content

More than half of UK drivers expect to switch to telematics-based insurance

Fifty-seven per cent of drivers believe they will switch to a telematics or ‘black box’ insurance policy in the next five years, according to a new study from Gocompare.com, an insurance comparison website. The study into the relationship between driving habits and insurance found that a wide cross-section of motorists is open to the idea of telematics-based car insurance. In fact, 59 per cent of over 55s said they may switch to one of these policies in the next five years and 19 per cent of all drivers wer
April 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Fifty-seven per cent of drivers believe they will switch to a telematics or ‘black box’ insurance policy in the next five years, according to a new study from Gocompare.com, an insurance comparison website. The study into the relationship between driving habits and insurance found that a wide cross-section of motorists is open to the idea of telematics-based car insurance. In fact, 59 per cent of over 55s said they may switch to one of these policies in the next five years and 19 per cent of all drivers were happy to consider it at their next renewal.

However, the research also identified the issues which have held back the sector until now, including low levels of awareness, the lack of big name insurers and evidence of real savings in terms of premiums and fuel costs. The survey highlighted the strong underlying support for car insurance premiums based primarily on the way you drive, not on age and gender, with careful drivers rewarded with cheaper premiums. Gocompare.com's research also outlined the steps the industry still needs to take to make "black box" car insurance policies more attractive to consumers.

Related Content

  • ITS World Congress debates perceptions of enforcement
    December 4, 2012
    The technical programme of this year’s ITS World Congress in Vienna includes a special session on the image of enforcement. ITS International examines the scale of the problem and what can be done about it. Debate on the merits and difficulties of enforcing speed limits appears centred on a conflict of principles. Put very simply, local communities, people living close to busy or hazardous roads, want to see traffic speeds calmed. Drivers on those roads, on the whole, want their principle of freedom to be m
  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r
  • US speed limit increases ‘cause 33,000 deaths in 20 years’
    April 14, 2016
    A new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study, which looked at the impact of speed limit increases in 41 states over a 20-year period starting in 1993, shows that increases in speed limits over two decades have cost 33,000 lives in the US In 2013 alone. The increases resulted in 1,900 additional deaths, essentially cancelling out the number of lives saved by frontal airbags that year. "Although fatality rates fell during the study period, they would have been much lower if not for states' dec
  • Australia's ground breaking average speed enforcement
    February 1, 2012
    The speed enforcement system on the Hume Highway in Australia combines both spot and point-to-point solutions. Here, Redflex's Peter Whyte discusses its implementation. The Australian State of Victoria has achieved notable success in reducing casualty rates since launching a three-pronged road accident prevention initiative in the late-1980s.