Progressive: 900,000+ Drivers with Telematics-based Insurance

This week U.S. insurer Progressive announced to serve more than 900,000 drivers with its Usage Based Insurance program called Snapshot. the system based on a telematics module that is self-installed by the driver on the Onbord Diagnostic (OBD) port of the car.

Progressive currently has a total of 8.9 million personal auto policies in force.

the insurer has seen a strong growth in the number of Snapshot products in use: these were slightly over 250,000 in August 2011, then almost 500,000 in April this year to culminate to more than 900,000 today.

Progressive said that 70 percent of drivers who have signed up for its Snapshot UBI program pay less for their insurance and, on average, customers have saved $150 per year.

In analyzing five billion driving miles progressive found that “drivers with the highest-risk driving behavior have loss costs that are approximately 2.5 times the costs of drivers with the lowest-risk behavior.“

Through this research the insurer also found that “adding key driving behaviors—like actual miles driven, braking, and time of day of driving—can predict the likelihood of a claim far better than traditional insurance rating variables alone, like a driver’s demographic profile, age, and the year, make and model of the insured vehicle.“