Startup car insurer By Miles recently completed a pay-per-mile trial with UK drivers that lasted three months. 99% of customers that test drove a By Miles policy and its companion driving app said the experience was the same or better than they were used to with their current car insurer.
Between May and July this year, 101 trial participants kept the company’s matchbox-sized telematics device plugged into their car and used the By Miles smartphone app, with 87% of them using the app once a week or more. Drivers on the trial clocked up 19,307 journeys over the trial period, travelling almost 150,000 miles – equal to nearly six times around the circumference of the earth. James Blackham, CEO and co-founder, has outlined the key facts and figures from the trial in a blog post and accompanying infographic on the company’s website.
Blackham said:
“Every mile that someone drives is incremental risk to the insurer. The driving and claims data from our beta trial has shown that our low mileage drivers are significantly lower risk – which is not being fairly reflected by current car insurance pricing.”
The insurtech startup has created a new kind of pay-as-you-use insurance policy that charges by the miles driven, along with a smartphone app that will make owning a car simpler and more cost-effective for lower mileage drivers. Customers pay a monthly subscription fee to cover their car when it’s parked, then simply pay a tailored per-mile rate on top for each journey they make. Drivers living in city centres that travel under the UK average of 8,000 miles a year are most likely to benefit from the scheme.
Callum Rimmer, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at By Miles, said:
“This trial has been vital in helping us test the way our policies work, and it’s enabled us to improve the app and technology that powers it all behind the scenes. We’ve learned so much from user feedback in the process, making us more confident than ever that we’re building a product that not only fits within the current insurance market, but that is actually wanted and needed by UK drivers.”
By Miles is planning to launch in late 2017.