Insurance discounts ‘will drive dash cam take up’

One in five motor insurance customers were using a dash cam in 2019, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData’s 2019 UK Consumer Insurance Survey, and Insurtech Inzura’s white-labeled dash cam offering has the potential to increase uptake considerably – reducing premiums for policyholders.

Daniel Pearce, Senior Analyst at GlobalData comments: “Inzura’s DashCam will work as a telematics device gathering various metrics about an individual’s driving habits. It will also include automatic video first notification of loss (FNOL) capabilities. This will benefit policyholders, who will no longer need to obtain video files and manually upload them to an insurer’s portal. Insurers will also benefit, as the system will make it increasingly difficult for fraudulent claims to be filed.”

Traditionally, telematics and dash cam-based policies have been targeted towards the younger demographic whose insurance premiums are considerably higher than the market average. However, GlobalData’s 2019 UK Consumer Insurance Survey found that uptake of telematics devices could be considerably higher. If telematics policies were able to save policyholders 10 per cent on their standard premium then a further 11 per cent of individuals who do not currently have such a device would convert.

The potential uptake increases even more dramatically if policyholders are able to save 30 per cent on their premiums, with 43 per cent of individuals being happy to switch to a telematics-style policy.

Pearce concludes: “Inzura DashCam’s automated FNOL capabilities will help simplify the use of dash cams in telematics policies and should boost uptake as a result. This higher uptake should ultimately to lead to further premium reductions.

“However, despite the good news this is something of a ‘Catch 22’ situation, because discounts on policies will be far easier to offer if more people take out the policies, as an increase needs to occur for the benefits to continue to be seen.”