Insurance fitting 'black box' to record mileage?

[Craigwww]

Hello

A friend of mine has just been informed that her insurance company will be visiting her and fitting a 'Clear Box' to her car to record her mileage. The policy that she has just taken out is a limit of 6000 miles with the option of purchasing additional blocks of miles at a later date.

Anyone had this or know anything about it?

[jon-]

Did she lie about her annual mileage?

[Jonboy_t]

Never heard of them actually fitting one, although I did hear rumours that it was on the cards for a while.

It may be becuase she has stated that she will only have very limited use, perhaps the insurance company think it won't tie up given previous policies/job role involving more than 6k commute per year/other anomolies on application?

[lowdrag]

Big brother is surely watching you! I have limited mileage but no "black box" to record it, and since the same company insure my classics we work on a "suck it and see" basis and catch up at the end of the year if I overstep the mark. Mileage for all cars has to be declared, that's all, but it would be so easy to disconnect the speedo and cheat.

[Accelebrate]

I was offered a similar scheme from Norwich Union as a young driver a few years ago, Driving between the hours of 11pm - 7am was charged at £1 a mile, they drilled a hole in your dash to install a 'panic button' and the basic policy price was more than a 'normal' policy. Absolutely bonkers, and not something they offer anymore I believe.

[Nick M]

Craigwww said:

A friend of mine has just been informed that her insurance company will be visiting her and fitting a 'Clear Box' to her car to record her mileage.

I think if it were me, they would be my former insurance company....

[Hitch78]

It is clearly a feature of the policy she has bought as there is an option to purchase more volume.

Someone was doing it for young drivers a couple of years back - don't drive at certain times and your policy is lower.

[GKP]

Accelebrate said:

I was offered a similar scheme from Norwich Union as a young driver a few years ago, Driving between the hours of 11pm - 7am was charged at £1 a mile, they drilled a hole in your dash to install a 'panic button' and the basic policy price was more than a 'normal' policy. Absolutely bonkers, and not something they offer anymore I believe.

A company called i-kube (.co.uk) do a simialr thing nowadays.

[Mermaid]

lowdrag said:

Big brother is surely watching you!....

It is inevitable so the insurance company can determine where you drive to, at what times etc. And of course the Government will send you a speeding ticket each time you exceed the speed limit

Surely an MOT certificate would be sufficient evidence of mileage?

[Grey Ghost]

My TVR policy has limited annual miles on it and the firm just want a photo of the mileage at each renewal. They will also check the mileage via a 3rd party (repairing garage etc) if any claims are sought.

Surely this is more cost effective than fitting some sort of device?

I would not let any insurer fit a device as detailed by the OP to my car as they are likely to damage it in some way during the installation.

[Jonny671]

Nick M said:

Craigwww said:

A friend of mine has just been informed that her insurance company will be visiting her and fitting a 'Clear Box' to her car to record her mileage.

I think if it were me, they would be my former insurance company....

Bloody right.

I bet they can track where you are too with it..

[kambites]

Jonny671 said:

I bet they can track where you are too with it..

If you're worried about someone knowing where you are, I'd be far more concerned about having a tracker in your car than an insurance box thingamie.

[Jonny671]

kambites said:

Jonny671 said:

I bet they can track where you are too with it..

If you're worried about someone knowing where you are, I'd be far more concerned about having a tracker in your car than an insurance box thingamie.

They definitely can track you, obviously.. But I bet its in the small print of this box thing about GPS or the like.

And where would it go? How would it connect to the vehicle?

[Olivera]

Grey Ghost said:

My TVR policy has limited annual miles on it and the firm just want a photo of the mileage at each renewal. They will also check the mileage via a 3rd party (repairing garage etc) if any claims are sought.

Surely this is more cost effective than fitting some sort of device?

I would not let any insurer fit a device as detailed by the OP to my car as they are likely to damage it in some way during the installation.

How does this method account for uninsured miles driven off the public highway on private ground, on a rolling road, on track or test days?

[kambites]

Jonny671 said:

kambites said:

Jonny671 said:

I bet they can track where you are too with it..

If you're worried about someone knowing where you are, I'd be far more concerned about having a tracker in your car than an insurance box thingamie.

They definitely can track you, obviously.. But I bet its in the small print of this box thing about GPS or the like.

And where would it go? How would it connect to the vehicle?

I very much doubt this box can transmit. I would imagine it's a GPS receiver which records mileage (and possibly other things such as speed and location) and stores them on some kind of internal drive which they can then offload every year. Yes, it may be possible to work out where you've been in the past, but I wouldn't imagine they can work out where you are now.

Besides, if you carry a mobile phone with you, "they" can work out where you are within a couple of square miles.

[B'stard Child]

Olivera said:

Grey Ghost said:

My TVR policy has limited annual miles on it and the firm just want a photo of the mileage at each renewal. They will also check the mileage via a 3rd party (repairing garage etc) if any claims are sought.

Surely this is more cost effective than fitting some sort of device?

I would not let any insurer fit a device as detailed by the OP to my car as they are likely to damage it in some way during the installation.

How does this method account for uninsured miles driven off the public highway on private ground, on a rolling road, on track or test days?

If it helps I declare my track day miles on my limited mileage classic policy after each event by email to my broker and they keep note (it only causes me to get close to my annual mileage limit on years when I take the car to Le Mans for the Classic - other years I never get close to my milage limit but I agreed to do it for all events where I was using the car and the risk was not covered under the policy (trackdays sprints autotest etc)

[H_Kan]

No way I'd go in for something like this.

[Mermaid]

H_Kan said:

No way I'd go in for something like this.

May end up being an MOT requirement

[Nick M]

Mermaid said:

H_Kan said:

No way I'd go in for something like this.

May end up being an MOT requirement

I suspect that's still a *long* way off though, not least because of the cost of rolling out the scheme and fitting the boxes to every vehicle in the UK.

It would easily run into tens of billions of pounds, which we might be better off spending on something slightly more useful at the moment...

[Engineer1]

Besides it is quicker and easier to demand they are fitted as standard to all new UK registered cars from a fixed date, then fiddle the system to ensure the general population move towards those vehicles.