Brokers who have advocated on behalf of UBI may have some good news on their hands:
Desjardins General Insurance Group (DGIG), the first carrier in Canada to offer a device-free telematics program through the Ajusto mobile app, has been a demonstrable success for consumers and intermediaries alike.
Last month, the Insurance Research Council (IRC) released a report revealing that 56% of drivers enrolled in a telematics program adjusted their driving habits because of the feedback provided by UBI data.
While the IRC did not assess whether those adjustments were safety-oriented, DGIG confirms that in Canada, motorists are more cautious when they participate in a telematics program.
“We conducted a survey with drivers who are not necessarily customers of Desjardins, just regular drivers with their own insurance, and two-thirds of respondents said that they drove more carefully because of telematics,” said Denis Côté, vice-president of marketing, Desjardins Insurance.
Côté says that these success metrics are particularly notable with UBI mobile apps, which provide instantaneous data on driving behavior immediately following a commute. Desjardins trialed its own app with the public before it officially launched, and Côté says that response was so positive that “they called us for policies just to get Ajusto.”
In fact, consumer demand has spread to parts of the country where Desjardins doesn’t even offer auto insurance coverage.
“We were contacted by CTV in Edmonton because our program isn’t available there, but they told us that people were using the Ajusto app as a teaching tool for kids,” Côté said. “We thought, what a nice surprise that people are using it, even if has no financial benefit for them, but they just want to become better drivers.”
Clients and student drivers are not the only ones enjoying the benefits of telematics, however. While it has not been possible to capture aggregate-level data just yet, the carrier’s claims team have seen promising results thus far.
“From discussions with our underwriting and actuarial team, we do know that there’s a trend of lower claims which help support the savings we give back to the customer,” Côté said. “It’s going to take a little while before we have numbers since the frequency of claims is so high, so you need a lot of data to be precise, but so far the trend looks good.”
