Usage-based auto insurance gaining ground

Auto insurance carriers today are looking for better ways to individualize a person’s insurance rates.
More and more, the way they are doing this is through telematics, where your personal driving style determines your insurance rate. You plug a device in your car, and it measures things like fast acceleration, hard braking, drifting in and out of one’s lane, and the amount of driving in the middle of the night.
The factors that each carrier measures might be different, but all carriers’ goals are the same: to set a rate for a particular driver based on the level of risk that is derived from that data.
Earning a better premium is only one part of the equation, though. The other advantage of switching to a usage-based car insurance product is that it can make a driver more aware of his/her driving habits and provide an incentive to become a better driver.
Some telematics products can provide specific feedback as to how an individual could improve his/her driving and potentially earn a better rate.
Here at Cook, Downing & Underwood Insurance in Glasgow, Ky., we represent several carriers who offer a usage-based auto insurance product. Some carriers have had a telematics product for several years, while others have, more recently, rolled out their own such product.
With auto insurance rates on the rise due to a variety of factors, including distracted driving liability claims, depressed gasoline prices leading to more drivers on roads, and increasing auto repair costs, a usage-based insurance product can be an interesting way to gain more control over one’s insurance rate and become a better driver, in the process.