'Pay-as-you-drive' insurance policies are about to take UK motorists by storm, according to one provider.

Although the concept of using a 'black box' in-car tracker to measure mileage has been around for a while, take-up has been slow and pioneer Norwich Union 'paused' its policy last year due to the cost of providing the service.

More Than still offers a similar policy for young drivers, Drive Time, but until now consumers have had limited alternatives.

However, new technology with the added bonus of theft-tracking means several insurers are now offering policies through Coverbox, giving consumers more choice.

Customers logging onto the site receive a selection of quotes from insurance companies offering the service, including The Co-operative, Allianz Insurance, Equity Red Star and Groupama Insurances.

Coverbox said insurance will ultimately be offered by six big insurance brand names, with the remaining two insurers to be confirmed shortly.

Sandy Dunn, chairman of Wunelli, the company behind Coverbox, said: "We believe both the consumer and the motor industry are now truly ready for pay-as-you-drive insurance.
"Others have tried before with older generation technology but our solution is new-generation, highly-capable and based on integrated security solutions specified and proven by the leading car manufacturers in Europe and Japan."

Coverbox calculates the cost of insurance based on the driving habits of the customer, then fits a box to their car that will calculate the actual mileage.

The customer then receives monthly bills based on their usage.

"In summary, it will work very much like a monthly utility bill - the key difference, though, is that low risk drivers who use their cars little and in off-peak periods are not penalised by the actions or accidents suffered by higher risk drivers driving at higher risk times," Mr Dunn added.

"We believe a significant number of Coverbox customers will save a great deal of money compared to the cost of 'traditional' car insurance premiums."

James Harrison, chief executive of comparison website Insurancewide.com, said: "Coverbox could be a good deal for younger drivers with low mileage. This kind of scheme didn't work for Norwich Union because the take-up was lower than expected, possibly because drivers were wary of the Big Brother type tracking device.

"However, Coverbox's impressive claim that its own device will recover 98 per cent of stolen vehicles will attract great interest and it may be far more successful. It's also flexible in that there's no age restriction and you can specify likely peak and off-peak mileage.

"For older drivers with average mileage, there are no clear advantages through Coverbox and drivers should compare its offer very carefully with other providers by scouring the market online. Comparing like-with-like is the absolute key to getting good value, it's not just about the lowest price."

Norwich Union said it currently has no plans to bring back its own popular pay-as-you-drive policy. Myfinances.co.uk/News

CHENNAI (INDIA): Although you may still get to buy cars at cheaper prices in 2009, the cash savings might see another use: motor insurance.

Costs of insuring vehicles are expected to increase from January, as the guidelines issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) allows insurers to change or charge deductibles, and also charge customers extra for providing them with add-ons.

Deductible is the amount you must pay toward a claim before your motor insurance begins to pay. For example, if you have a Rs 50,000 claim and your policy has a Rs 2,000 deductible, you will pay Rs 2,000 and your insurance company will pay the rest. "The deductibles are low when compared with the international market. After January 1, 2009, we expect that insurers will have the freedom to charge a higher deductible," Gaurav Garg, managing director, Tata AIG General Insurance, said.

But while higher deductibles mean lower premiums, that may not turn out to be the case. Why? Because a section of the industry feels that prices prevailing in the market are not enough. So, premium rates may also go up. "The regulator has allowed companies to hike deductibles. But do not rule out a hike in premium also. The consumer may have to pay higher deductibles as well as a higher premium, "an official, who did not wish to be quoted, at a general insurer said.

The insurance regulator has also allowed insurers the freedom to give add-on covers (at an extra cost) which could be in form of 'loss of use', 'replacement car' and 'extended warranty'. With the easing of regulations, the insurer will be able to offer add-on covers along with the basic motor insurance product. This will lead to customisation that will further lead to the customers getting more from their motor insurance cover. Keeping an eye on the leeway to get the 'additional premium' for add-on products, companies such as ICICI Lombard are looking at inclusion of add-on covers offering value propositions to the customers.

"We are evaluating various product options that can be offered as add-ons. Zero depreciation products have been well accepted internationally. Others that could be introduced could be loss of use, replacement car and extended warranty," Eswaranatarajan N, head-Motor Insurance of ICICI Lombard, said.

For instance, customers could be asked to shell out more for availing 'Loss of Use' cover. This would essentially mean that the customer will be compensated for the inability to use a commercial automobile due to accident/damage to the vehicle caused and the same leading to the loss of money which is derived from the damaged vehicle under normal circumstances.

For example, an individual owns a taxi by which he earns Rs 500 a day. The taxi meets with an accident and is under repair for a week. In such a situation the loss of use would be Rs 3,500. The insurer would compensate this loss for a fee. And what would be the additional cost? Insurers are tight-lipped. "In a detariffed scenario, insurers would continue to adopt a risk based pricing approach for the own damage premium as well as add-on products," Eswaranatarajan said. TOI

A 56-year-old taxi driver was waiting for an accident to happen, And when it did, in December 2005, he sprung into action.

A car accidentally rear-ended his vehicle, leaving only a light scratch on the taxi.

But the taxi driver, identified only by his surname Park, pretended to be badly injured and got himself admitted to an orthopedic clinic.

He received around 9.2 million won ($6,713) from the other party’s insurance company for 60 days of hospitalization costs.

It later transpired that he actually was out driving his cab for 44 days of the two-month period, not in the hospital. Park was paid 37 million won from insurers for a total of 200 days of hospitalization, although he worked for all those days.

According to the nation’s financial watchdog, insurance fraud by taxi drivers is a widespread problem across the country. The Financial Supervisory Service yesterday announced the midterm results of its nationwide probe into insurance fraud by cab-owning drivers.

It said that 1,624 out of 37,000 cab drivers were found out to have committed the crime at least once. In total, cabbies conned insurers of 5.1 billion won, the FSS said.

The FSS said more illegalities will be disclosed later as a probe into more cab-owning drivers, numbering 107,000, gets under way.

“We began to look into insurance fraud, in particular cases involving taxi drivers, because they were said to be serious,” said Lee Sang-deok, a director at the FSS Insurance Investigation Office.

The FSS said it was able to confirm the illegalities with records of state fuel subsidies given to cab drivers.

Currently, local taxi drivers using diesel or liquefied petroleum gas-fueled vehicles receive discounts from the government when they refill their tanks at gas stations.

The offenders in the fraud schemes used gas stations on the days they were supposed to be in the hospital.
By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Reporter [joe@joongang.co.kr]
Joongangdaily.joins.com

By CHRISTINE ROBINSON
Star-Tribune staff writer

Due to high insurance costs, plans for a Tipsy Taxi in Casper may stumble, despite an increase in drunken driving.

From 9 p.m. to 10 a.m. last New Year's Eve, as many as 40 people at a time were waiting for a taxi from Casper Cabs, according to its owner.

Many of those people grew tired of waiting, and some probably drove themselves home.

In 2004, the Natrona County District Attorney's office prosecuted about 24 DUIs per month. This year, the average is closer to 67 per month, and Casper Cabs owner Tom Elliott wanted to do something about it.

That was until he sat, with pen in hand, and was told the updated cost of insurance to lease two CATC buses from the city.

The final total amounted to about $50 per day per vehicle, which he said was "prohibitively high."

"Do you know how many people I've got to haul around for $3,000?" Elliott said. "Plus, I will need to do discounted rides and haul people around for free who can't pay."

The Casper City Council is still scheduled to approve his request tonight, which would be to lease the buses for a $1 through the DUI Prevention Program. The leases would cover Dec. 17 through Jan. 17 and help prevent some of those drunken holiday drivers. Eventually, he hoped to buy the buses.

Now, he isn't sure what he will do. He can't afford the new insurance costs.

"The reason for the buses is you simply can't move people quick enough on the holiday period," Elliott said. "Three people at a time doesn't cut it, but with buses we can run those around at a reduced cost and get people home."

The program mimicked the Tipsy Taxi in Aspen, Colo. For 20 years, its Web site boasts, Tipsy Taxi has operated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The kicker: it's free. Not because of taxpayer dollars, but from foundations and private donations.

While Elliott would still have had to charge a minimal fee, he hoped to eventually form a program similar to Aspen's.

"At this time, I don't have any backing, and so people will have to pay for the bus, but I will be approaching bar owners to see if we could subsidize," Elliott said, before being told of the heightened insurance prices. "And we won't ever refuse anyone because they don't have any money."

Just to make things a little easier, Elliott installed phones in several of Casper's largest bars that call Casper Cabs directly. Instead of finding the number, or asking a bartender to order one, partygoers would simply have used the Casper Cabs phone and waited for the bus to come by.

Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel told the council the idea was one of the best to have come from the Alcohol Task Force to help prevent drunken driving.

Elliott also hoped to use the buses during the day to run an airport shuttle from the Casper/Natrona County International Airport to some of the larger hotels.

"We are bringing people into the airport regularly from every country in the world," Elliott said. "They arrive here and walk outside, and they expect a line of taxis and in Casper there's nothing."

With the bus he would have charged roughly half of what he currently asks for in his cars.

Plus, Elliott said, the last plane lands around 10:30 p.m., right when the Tipsy Taxi would have begun to operate.

"So one service meshes perfect with the other one," he said. "It's my intention to uplift the face of Casper. First impressions are important."

He hoped to have the Tipsy Taxi service up and running by Friday. The difference, he believed, would have been noticeable.

"This kind of activity will certainly save lives -- you never know who and you never know when," he said. "Looking at the statistics it could save lives, and it might be yours."

But instead, he is left with no more financial resources. He's put in as much money as he can, he said, and doesn't have any more to give.

"Is there a Santa Claus?"

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com
casperstartribune.net

Cabbies who weave in and out of traffic, slam on their brakes or sideswipe bicyclists better think twice - Big Brother will soon be watching.

The city plans to mount digital cameras on a handful of taxis to see if they help detect reckless driving.

When there's an accident, the cameras would provide valuable information about who is to blame.

"This technology is being used effectively throughout the for-hire vehicle industry, and it is saving them considerable amounts of money on their insurance costs," Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus told the Daily News.

"More importantly, we believe this pilot program has very real potential to help us deter accidents and save lives."

One company has signed up to put the digital system in as many as 20 yellow taxis.

The country's largest luxury car chauffeur company has already installed a surveillance system called DriveCam throughout its high-priced fleet of Mercedes Benzes, Rolls-Royces and other top-flight cars.

"It's an amazing piece of technology," said David Seelinger, owner of EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation. "It's been a tremendous benefit to us financially."

Annual payout costs for accidents have dropped more than $500,000 as the cameras often prove Empire's drivers weren't to blame, Seelinger said.

The company also has used the technology to identify drivers who needed more training, Seelinger said.

Some yellow cabs and livery cars have cameras pointed toward the interior to deter crime or give police clues for investigations.

Cameras on the outside of cabs is something new - and struck the wrong chord with Bhairavi Desai, president of the Taxi Worker's Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group.

"I thought in America the law was you're innocent until proven guilty," Desai said. "This would absolutely be an invasion of privacy. It's intrusive."

David Pollack, director of the Committee for Taxi Safety, said any program should be voluntary because owners could have trouble affording the cameras. Still, he believed the technology could lead to lower insurance costs.

There were 9,736 accidents involving a yellow cab or livery car in the city in 2006, the latest year available, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said. That's about 2,400 fewer than in 2003.

The TLC couldn't say when the pilot program would begin or how many cabs would be involved.
New York Daily News