Black box - driver rating

[oldbanger]

I've had to get a black box because my named driver is under 21. They've not even been in the car yet lol!

I've been quite interested in the scoring system. The system is rating me down quite a bit for driving around 6pm and admonishing me for driving late at night when I could be prone to fatigue. It's not even dark!

Driving at 9pm is even worse!

edited to add - just realised it's probably marking me down for driving in rush hour, but doesn't tailor the message accordingly

I might experiment by driving round some of the local accident hotspots at busy times

Edited by oldbanger on Tuesday 14th March 23:20

[oldbanger]

chopper602 said:

No.1 son has a Directline black box plugged into the OBD port in the car, fair enough it's brought his insurance down by 25% for his first year of driving (Test on Monday !), but I really can't fathom out the scoring that is available on line. It scores down for 'driving on roads with higher than normal risk of an accident' but there is no where to find out which road it is. After 8pm it scores you down and I've been able to find out what time it considers 'late'.
I drove, at the weekend, to a local town, 5 miles away. I took the same route there and back and did the same speeds. It scored me down going one way too fast and driving on roads with higher risk, but not the other way - on the same road and same speed! AARRRGGHH
I doubt very much it'll be getting renewed . . .

Yes I have the same kit. It doesn't like the Birmingham ring road, at all, but actually this isn't too bad for accidents according to the latest DfT data. I got red rated for driving through sleepy Hatton village at 7:30 pm the other day too - though this was for driving too late in the day.

I am still tempted to drive in circles around Small Heath during rush hour to see if it goes pop or something. I would be tempted to also go a little too fast, but that's never going to happen round there unless I mount the pavements

Talking about that, having learnt to drive in inner city London, I never ever saw such crazy driving until I came to the West Midlands. Nobody stops for red lights until the traffic is in full flow in the opposing direction. I also regularly see drivers mount the pavement, drive on the wrong side of the road or cross the central reservation to jump traffic queues.

Edited by oldbanger on Thursday 16th March 13:40

[oldbanger]

AREA said:

Personally I think they are a great idea. My 17 year old daughter has one in her car - this was a condition of her first year's insurance being free (!) and no curfew restrictions or anything like that.

I look at her journey details online every day. If she's scored below 100% we talk about it to understand what was going on so she can learn and improve. She welcomes that.

Hmrph I have just about managed 70% average so far due to my "crazy" commuting habits in and out of Birmingham, plus the high risk rural evening driving I do.

It's also scored me down for pulling onto a dual carriageway from a small side road (not slip road) - for accelerating from a standing start. No Sh*t Sherlock, it not like you can afford to glide out at 5mph like some serene canal boat when the average speed is 40-50ish, you have to match the speed of traffic flow no matter how big a gap there is.

[oldbanger]

I personally think with a lot of these, the interpretation side is still a massive work in progress. I think the aims are very laudible though.

In crash investigation, there's a lot of debate on what scores mean what. The GPS side of things is fairly accurate but as with all these things, it's reliant on GPS signal and everything "snaps" to a line meaning it can get confused if roads are very close.

[oldbanger]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Oh ffs!! Are you the target audience? Are you 17-20? Young drivers are high risk. Young drivers driving at night are a higher risk. Fact backed up by stats. The multi million pound injury serious claims are nearly always youngsters coming back at 3am from a night out with their mates in the car.

The black box is not compulsory. If you're a "normal" risk driver you probably don't pay that much for insurance anyway, so why have a black box? If you're a young driver whose lifestyle doesn't suit a black box, don't have one. Just pay the higher premium. If you're a young driver that would financially benefit, then get one.

Jesus, it's not rocket surgery! It's giving people a choice. Why the hostility?

It would be interesting to understand how risk has been identified though and whether it's really encouraging safe driving behaviour. I understand the scoring of high risk roads and peak accident times (rush hour), even if I might nit pick over accuracy.

But why is evening driving so dangerous? Are they equating it with an increased potential for drink driving perhaps?

[oldbanger]

eCall is going to be compulsory in all new vehicles from March 2018. It's an EU regulation but I don't think Brexit will make any difference to it being rolled out in the UK.

[oldbanger]

eCall compatible telematics boxes will be mandatory in all new vehicles by the end of the year, factory fitted.

eCall is a tracking system which will alert the police if you have an accident, with your exact location. Well it'll alert eCall who will contact the police, as I doubt police forces will have the technology to receive the data direct. It's not a full telematics system - it only kicks in if there's an accident.

Whether it gets implemented is really going to be down to logistics really, not through lack of interest from the government.

It will undoubtedly benefit insurers to avoid paying out for fake accidents and know that they know about every real one, but to be honest I don't think the insurance industry are the driving force here.

Edited by oldbanger on Thursday 16th March 23:37

[oldbanger]

Mine is effectively operating with a curfew. Journeys around the local villages in the evening are graded down to 50%, even if I get 5/5 for smoothness and speed. One local village is scoring lower than Birmingham ring road for high risk roads. I actually get better scores driving through genuine accident hotspots in rush hour. Even if it's registering brake and acceleration alerts

I had to call the telematics people today as I got a message asking me why I haven't activated the device yet. So I asked them about the scoring system. They said it was nothing to do with them and transferred me to the insurers, who told me they have no say and the only thing that goes to them is the final score at renewal time.

I did some research into scoring systems for use as indicators, in a previous career, so this kind of stuff fascinates me

Edited by oldbanger on Thursday 16th March 23:43

[oldbanger]

Back to the scoring system for driving with a telematics box. Last week I drove to the next village at 9pm, rated top marks for driving style and sensible speed, but scored 51% overall due to driving on dangerous/complex roads (a country lane) and late at night.

My OH used the car on Tuesday and drove into the city to get groceries around 10am. According to the telematics box, he was speeding and again driving on complex roads (county lane). Score 77%.

Go figure.

Edited by oldbanger on Thursday 23 March 09:28