You may have read in our recent Press Release that young drivers can often find much cheaper car insurance by opting for telematics (black box) based policies. For example, a Wise Driving Black Box policy would cost an eighteen-year-old driver only £1506, compared to the cheapest non-telematics policy which would set them back £2490.
While this is a significant saving, nearly half (43%) of drivers asked during a recent Redtail/YouGov survey stated that they were unaware of any potential savings that telematics-based car insurance could offer. Perhaps more concerning was the discovery that 10% of drivers believed switching to a telematics policy would stand to save nothing.
With such potential for savings, why isn’t more being done to publicise telematics and the potential savings that come with it?
Furthermore, would the exemption of IPT for telematics-based policies not be a significant asset in promoting the use of telematics? With a potential additional saving of £180 a year, on average, by removing IPT from telematics car insurance, surely this exemption would help not just the insured but also the insurer make a saving for each telematics-based policy sold.
It’s not just young or new drivers who would stand to save from the IPT exemption on telematics car insurance, older drivers could make savings too. Many car insurance providers are now starting to broaden their telematics offerings to the older driver in more creative ways that was has been traditionally seen. For example, Redtail Telematics’ customer By Miles offers pay-as-you-drive policies where customers pay per mile and only use distance driven – that means no driver scoring or curfews as has been the case with the young/new driver offerings of old.
If you then consider the other potential benefits of using telematics, such as stolen vehicle recovery, battery health monitoring, efficient driving analysis and many others, surely the IPT exemption just makes sense if we want to promote and encourage the importance and use of telematics in car insurance.
What’s your view on this? Do you agree that it’s a good idea? Maybe you have some major concerns that you feel should be considered before the suggestion is taken seriously? Let us know!