Does Black box motor insurance hit shift workers like nurses? 25 September 2022 at 3:07PM in Insurance & life assurance 5 replies 113 views

easy

A young friend of ours (22 y.o,  2nd year of driving) is a newly qualified nurse, starting her first job in a major hospital.
She's looking for decent price motor insurance renewal,  and says the best price she can get is £780 (8 year old Toyota Aygo) without a black box.

I suggested she might as well accept a black box,  but she believes this will end up more expensive because she will often be driving late at night or very early hours because of her shift patterns.  
Is she right?  Surely as she declares her occupation this would be taken into account ? 

p.s. didn't know whether to post in Insurance or Motoring forums -  Pls move if in wrong place.

daveyjp

Check the small print of the policy.  A freind had to cancel mid policy as it had a clause which stated no driving between 11pm and 6am, which didn't fit her new job shift pattern.

chrisw

Get some quotes with a black box and see what difference it makes. Unless it's significantly cheaper I would go without the black box just to avoid any hassles, not just with night driving. Only she knows what significant is, but I would pay up to about £200 to avoid it. Hopefully it will only be for a year anyway as the difference will get less.

rigolith

Some of those boxes don't work well with small engines. You might need to floor it to pull out into a roundabout, or to get up a hill. Some boxes don't like that.

tacpot12

It should hit her insurance. Driving at night is definitely more risky. Being a nurse doesn't reduce this risk at all.

DullGreyGuy

easy said:

I suggested she might as well accept a black box,  but she believes this will end up more expensive because she will often be driving late at night or very early hours because of her shift patterns.  
Is she right?  Surely as she declares her occupation this would be taken into account ? 

Potentially, but ultimately it depends on the actual insurers pricing model.

Not all nurses work night shifts, the nurse at our GP surgery works 10am-4pm mon-fri and is never early and will go home on the dot of 4pm. She and your friend will both be rated as a nurse but your friend is driving at a time of day that is generally considered more risky. If you go with a non-blackbox solution then the two are priced the same, all other factors being equal, but a blackbox allows the insurer to know when the two of them are driving so can offer cheaper prices to the GP nurse and higher prices to the night shift hospital nurse.