Insurance company Aviva has turned to smartphone technology to get a more accurate portrait of its car insurance customers' behaviour when driving and potentially reduce their premiums.
The firm's new app, called RateMyDrive, monitors motorists' driving styles over a distance of 200 miles, taking into account metrics including acceleration, braking and cornering. From the collected data, Aviva will develop an individual score', which helps determine the motorist's insurance premium.
Aviva says that safer drivers could benefit from a reduction of up to 20 per cent on their insurance premiums. Those who do not make the grade, however, need not fear a rise in premiums, as the company says it will not penalise other drivers.
"We believe this innovative use of smartphone technology will benefit all safe drivers, regardless of age or gender," said Steve Treloar, retail director at Aviva.
"Unlike traditional black box' telematics solutions, Aviva RateMyDrive app only needs a small amount of data ... to create an individual driver profile. And because the app is free to download and uses the customer's own smartphone, there is no need for motorists to have a black box installed in their car," Treloar added.
The app has undergone several months internal testing by Aviva staff. The company is now appealing for drivers with Android smartphones to trial the service.
"We need a wide range of motorists to test the proposition and help us develop the final product and customer experience before we bring it fully to market. We will ask those helping us to shape this new proposition to tell us what they think of the app and what improvements could be made to benefit the customer," Treloar said.
Aviva is looking for 5,000 Android smartphone users to test the app. Anyone wishing to take part in the trial can find more information at www.aviva.co.uk/ratemydrive.
