Hastings Smartmiles car insurance

oj.bulmer

My policy with Hastings Smartmiles recently started and I am a bit concerned about the driver rating there. My last insurance company was insurethebox and while they provided feedback on my driving, it was general, in terms of just three ratings (red, yellow, green etc). But Hastings seem to churn a lot more data and their ratings are a lot sensitive. I did not remember to have sped over the limit consistently or applied brakes harshly but overnight my rating for brake fell from 100 to 92. Next week suddenly the speed rating reduced from 100 to 90.

While I am trying to be a lot more gentle with braking now using gear changes to reduce speed, I was concerned about how smartmiles handle the data of speed on roads where speed limit changes... for instance say 40 to 70 or 70 to 40. There is a possibility that I may be a couple of mph higher than 40 just before the marker in former case as I am accelerating or just after the marker in latter case as I am decelerating. On unfamiliar roads during weekend leisure trips, it is more likely to happen and I may be over few mph in that case. This may happen very rarely but it impacts the rating immediately. Also, there can be a false alarm where my speed before the speed marker is legal but the position of my car as reported by GPS box may be (inaccurately) beyond the marker, or the speed measured by the GPS box itself may be inaccurate. Lastly, when going from horizontal road to steep uphill or going down the hill to emerge on horizontal road, even if I stick to legal limit, since GPS only records horizontal direction, there may be false alarm of abrupt acceleration and decceleration.

I am concerned that despite being a safe driver who conforms to laws, if there is a computer taking decisions about my drivign style based on such data, my rating would deteriorate over time.

Worse, in case if I failed to spot the change of speed from national limit to say 30, I would have driven significantly over 30 before realising my mistake when I spot streetlights or speed sign etc and it would warrant a speed warning. This thought keeps pushing me to keep looking at road signs, my speedometer and spede limit on my GPS navigation app rather than actually on the roads and mirrors! It will also discourage me to keep to the speed limit, pushing me to drive slowly, frustrating the people behind.

Any thoughts?

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi O.J

Thanks for the post, I just wanted to let you know that in the beginning of the data collection, the readings will fluctuate and do take a little time to 'normalise'. If you want to discuss any part of the dashboard or data though, just give us a call or email. The details are here http://!!!!!!!/1GerRye

Many thanks,

Joe