UK ICMIF member Co-op Insurance has today introduced a new policy for young drivers, which is set to save them an average of more than £1000¹ in insurance premiums as a reward for safe driving.
The ‘Graduated Young Driver’ policy will offer drivers who have been on Co-op’s Young Driver telematics policy for two years with a high Safe Driving Score (SDS)² the chance to be ‘unboxed’.
Co-op Insurance says qualifying drivers who have proven to be a consistently safe driver will have their black box switched off and will save around an additional £322 just by ‘graduating’ from a monitored to an unmonitored policy in their third year³.
In addition, these graduated drivers will continue to benefit from discounted rates, not available to other customers, for up to eight years. This will reflect that they have consistently demonstrated good driving behaviours, such as sticking to speed limits and braking smoothly. These discounts will be in addition to any no claims discounts (NCD) they may have acquired.
Co-op Insurance was a pioneer of telematics nearly a decade ago and has developed the graduated product in response to the positive impact its telematics policy has had on driving behaviour over the years.
Since the launch of its telematics policy, Co-op has given back over GBP 13 million to young driver customers for good driving and wants to bridge the gap between monitored and unmonitored policies so that young drivers can continue to drive safely and be rewarded even without a telematics device.
Young drivers have a casualty rate three times higher than all other drivers in England⁴, says Co-op Insurance and the organisation hopes that the product will make a difference in encouraging young drivers to take responsibility in improving their driving and making roads safer.
In the next year Co-op Insurance expects around 2,500 young motorists to ‘graduate’ to the new product which it says is the first of its kind in the UK young driver market.
Nick Ansley, Head of Motor Insurance at Co-op said:
“Safer driving means safer roads and safer communities, which is high on our agenda at the Co-op.
“We’ve seen just how impactful black box devices are on the driving behaviour of young people. From our data, we can see that it’s a great way of improving the safety of young drivers on the roads and we believe that responsible driving should be rewarded.
“Through our new Graduated Young Driver product, we want to show drivers who have proven track record of good driving that we trust them to continue driving safely, not only through ‘unboxing’ them, but through a premium that reflects their quality of driving.”
Read more here.
¹ Average saving is £1,119 for a customer taking out direct car insurance at aged 17 compared to a customer taking out the Young Driver policy followed by Graduated Young Driver policy over a five-year period.
² Safer Driver Score (SDS) is calculated through data picked up on the telematics black box device and is judged on:
– your speed
– how you take corners
– how hard you brake and accelerate
– the time of day you drive
³ Average amount customer will save moving from Co-op’s Young Driver policy to Graduated Young Driver policy.
⁴ Department for Transport young car drivers road safety factsheet (2016).
