British telematics company, The Floow, has been given a brand new contract for an insurance company, but this one isn’t local. In-fact it’s not even national, as the northern company is now officially partnered with RSA’s Scandinavia-based Codan Insurance, to offer customers a chance to lower their premiums by being tracked on a day to day basis.
However, unlike a lot of insurers, Codan’s new telematics packages won’t make use of specific hardware and software to track people’s actions, but a smartphone application. Much like standard telematics packages however, the smartphone application will keep an eye on all of the usual metrics, like location, speed, acceleration, braking and cornering among other driving habits, to allow Codan to build up a much more accurate risk assessment of a customer and therefore, make it easier to price their premium accordingly.
This will then all be analysed by The Floow’s internal systems, which will in turn spit out a driver score for each individual customer. If they have a good score, Codan will offer as much 20 per cent off their insurance price, which can even be achieved before people switch to the telematics on a try before you buy scheme.
Aldo Montefore, chief executive and co-founder of The Floow, said in a statement (via YorkwshirePost): “We are delighted to be the chosen telematics and analytics experts to support the launch of this exciting and unique initiative in Norway – allowing road users the opportunity to see first-hand the economic, environmental and safety benefits that come from a better understanding of driver behaviour. During the trial, customers will be in a position to understand the full capability of the application – including potential reductions on their insurance premiums. Throughout the trial we are also welcoming feedback from customers, which enables our team to continue to develop and improve the technology.”
Cordon was similarly happy with the move, with the parent company, RSA’s head of telematics, Paul Middle stating how pleased he was for the partnership to go ahead and how excited he was by the idea of offering a chance to try the telematics system out before the buy into the insurance package, thereby letting them feel out whether they like the idea of being tracked or not. It is the first scheme of its kind in Norway he said, which should give Cordon a distinct advantage over its competition
Indeed, although telematics have exploded in countries like the US and the UK, there are many parts of the world which have yet to catch on quite so much. In Australia for example, where even the biggest insurers have said that their customers have no want for telematics enabled schemes. However, they have been urged by industry analysts to adopt the technology anyway, pointing out that if they don’t, someone else will and that will simply mean they get pushed out of the market by more competitive premium pricing.
