Telematics Box Tips

 

Teen One is almost through her first quarter for her telematics  box insurance with "More Than"

Having watched an episode of Rip Off Britain recently, where  the telematics box was given a rather negative review, I thought it might be useful to pass on some tips we have learned through the past few months.

 

Firstly, if you don't know what a telematics box is, its a little black box which is fitted professionally into your car, and monitors certain aspects of your driving, the areas which are considered to be high risk for accidents.

This information is fed back to your insurers who "reward" or "penalise" you.

Rewards are both money in hand and a discount on the following years premium.

It makes perfect sense to me to only pay for your own mistakes, and gain from your good driving, rather than be judged on the merits ( or otherwise) of the other new and young drivers out there.

 

When the box was first fitted it was still the summer holidays and Teen One wasn't going too far in the car....she scored the 10/10 for all areas, which are

Usage

Speed

Smoothness

 

Once the rush hour commute commenced her Usage and Smoothness went down dramatically, a few times it was minus something!

This ultimately affected her scores, meaning her discount went down from 33% for next years premium to 25% and her money back reward for this quarter went from £29 to £19.

We rang More Than who enlightened us on some of the areas that are mark downs.

Usage

 

They don't want drivers doing lots of little journeys, the more times you go out, the more your chances of being in an accident go up.

Timing....don't drive between the hours of 11pm and 5am

Journey's length...don't drive over an hour without a break.

 

We were mystified as to why Teen One had been marked down for usage as she only went to Uni and back, never drove further than 25 miles in one go and didn't go out at night.

What we have learned is, whenever the car engine is turned on, that counts as a journey.

So one morning she happened to stall, stop to collect a friend, forgot to shut the window after shutting off the engine so had to turn it on again, so all those things added up to her having made, apparently, 5 journeys ( including going and coming back from Uni)

So, whilst stalling the car is something we all do by accident from time to time, ensure you have shut all windows, not left something in the house and shut off the engine etc.

The next time she was marked down for usage was driving for over an hour....but she only drove the usual 25miles, the roads had been extra busy so she was just stuck in queues for a while, not actually driving, a shame the box doesn't feed back how much of the hour was spent actually moving!

She scored 3 for that journey.

Yesterday there was an accident on the motorway and she sent a text to say she would be late as the traffic wasn't moving...I suggested she shut off the engine until the traffic starting moving again...when she got home and checked her score, she got 10! Even though it had been almost two hours commute.

So, if you are stuck in a jam, turn off the engine, or if the traffic is heavier and you are approaching the hour, turn off the engine briefly when you have the opportunity...but only once or you will be penalised for "too many journeys!"

 

Speed

 

This speaks for itself....always keep to the speed limit!

Know your roads and speeds.

Teen One was marked down for speeding and had no idea why...then realised she was doing 25 in a road she thought was 30mph but was actually 20mph

 

Smoothness

 

Teen One lost her perfect score, again when the rush hour commute started.

Part of the reason was excessive braking, all that stop starting in a queue being the culprit, so, go a bit slower so you aren't approaching the car ahead so soon, this dramatically reduces the number of times the brakes are applied.

Something Rip Off Britain did which was helpful, was to put raw eggs on the bonnet (held in glued on egg cups.)

When the driver applied brakes smoothly, turned corners carefully etc, the eggs gently moved in whatever direction the car moved.

When the driver braked hard or went round corners sharply....well you can imagine the mess the eggs made as they shot out of the cups!

So, imagine you have raw eggs on the bonnet and you will be surprised how much more carefully you drive!

However....if you need to do an emergency brake, forget those eggs!

 

So overall we feel the telematics box does make careful safe drivers, and whilst it doesn't cover every aspect of driving, it covers some essentials.

I hope its of help to someone, I know we wish we had known some of these things beforehand!

However, Teen One remains one of their best drivers, according to the advisor, so that's good news!

 

 

On to today, Flora really has been accepted by Benjy....this is his favourite day time hideaway, he loves this bush and if he cant be seen foraging around the garden he can always be found here...but today Flora was there,  whilst he sat opposite!

It must be love if he has given up his comfy seat!

 

The morning was spent at Parent and Toddlers as usual.

Back home I had a call to say my Monday Recycled Teenager had been rushed to theatre after collapsing and bleeding excessively on her way to endoscopy.

She has been told for some time her medical history means they wont give her a general anaesthetic so it sounds like this was a matter of life or death.

We are eagerly awaiting further news.