Telematics insurance is currently aimed at the new drivers on the roads – making their driving safer and helping to reduce the prices they pay as a result. Black box insurance has grown in popularity over the last few years, slowly overcoming the stigma of having ‘big brother’ watching how you drive. However, there has been research to show that it’s not just new or young drivers that should utilise black box technology - older, more experienced drivers could benefit from telematics insurance.
How is telematics insurance making the roads safer?
A 2018 study shows that the rise in popularity of the black box among the young driver community has significantly reduced the accident rate for their age group. The study by LexisNexis Risk Solutions shows that causalities on the road for drivers aged between 17 and 19 have fallen by 35% since 2011. This proves that telematics does actually work – but shockingly, it is only currently available to around 5% of the population of drivers on the roads.
Can telematics help older drivers too?
Telematics is expanding and becoming available to a wider variety of drivers everyday. If telematics is rolled out to the entire population, could we see similar results as those that were seen within the population of young drivers across the UK’s roads in general? If the accident rate dropped by over 35% overall, it could mean an average of over 60,000 fewer casualties per year (based on Government statistics of an average 180,000 casualties per year*) 60,000 fewer people admitted to hospital for car accidents seems almost too good to be true, but the statistics show that this could well be achievable if more people chose a telematics insurance policy for their cars!
Telematics insurance aims to increase people’s awareness of how they drive, and, by doing so, create drivers who are more aware of safety on the road – and judging by the statistics, it’s working. With black box insurance on the increase, we could be seeing even wider benefits in the near future – and those benefits could extend beyond the young driver demographic.
The future of the black box seems bright, with the roads becoming safer as a result – that sounds like success to us!
*taken from Government road safety data for 2018, which can he found here.
