For years, an Australian insurer has required policy-holders to install a device that measures how safely they drive, but newly funded research will investigate whether feedback and financial incentives have a measurable impact on the way young people behave behind the wheel.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mark Stevenson, from Melbourne University, will lead the research into the practices of QBE-owned Insurance Box, which offers incentives for good drivers and keeps tabs on all policy-holders via a small telematics device that beams data back to the insurer, as well as letting drivers view it with a smartphone app.
The research will be funded by a $530,000 grant from the Australian Research Council and will take place over the next four years.
"Young drivers comprise 13 per cent of the population, yet they account for 22 per cent of driver deaths in Australia," Professor Stevenson said.
"The introduction of in-vehicle telematics is a technology that holds considerable promise with respect to reductions in road trauma."
The Insurance Box device takes measurements relating to speed relative to speed zone, crashes and near-miss events, and uses it to rate drivers.
The study will first determine what kind of insurance incentive is best to offer to drivers, and will then examine the driving of 200 randomly selected Insurance Box policy-holders to see if feedback and incentives cause them to drive more safely.
"Until now, there has been no comprehensive assessment of this new strategy and certainly no randomised trial using in-vehicle telematics as the framework upon which to set incentive-based insurance," Professor Stevenson said.
