@only__j This is becoming more popular now with companies. The telematics devices or apps will monitor and then rate for the parameters they have advised that they look for to calculate that portion of the discount. Most will track it for 6-12 months then you have your discount applied permanently and the device or app is no longer used.
I have been advised in numerous meetings with several companies that in order to get government approval, they are only allowed to collect and rate for the specific outlined factors and that is it. They are not supposed to look at anything else or rate for anything other than those factors. I definitely think they could easily see other info internally but would be under heavy penalties if that was ever proven to be used outside what they were permitted to use.
I get both sides of it, when I did the program I felt most of the time “someone is watching” feeling but I did end up altering my driving in the long term , less heavy acceleration, more careful to avoid hard braking scenarios when possible etc.
The official explanation from the Reps was that in studies they found that just 3 moths of monitoring changed drivers habits permanently somewhat and improved chances of avoiding future claims that were caused more by unsafe driving than anything else.
As a manager at an insurance brokerage I have access to reports with the data to support the company views on this. It does show improvement but I always offer rates for both companies with and without the program and I find that people who feel strongly that they are good and safe drivers will sign up much more frequently than the majority of clients who are a little more wary.
I do think it’s a slippery slope, but then again, I’ve been doing this for 16 years and you would not believe the number of people who purposely mislead or misrepresented information on insurance. This is a pretty solid method for companies to get a true reflection of driving habits and the Actuaries that set the rates are able to factor in more accurately proper pricing without having to take fraudulent information into account as much.
