Usage-Based Auto Insurance Product Offers Incentives & Discounts for Quality Driving

WESTFIELD CENTER, OH (March 1, 2023) — Insurance carrier Westfield introduced MissionSafe®, a new safe driving rewards program that gives eligible personal auto insurance customers feedback on their driving and provides incentives to encourage safer driving habits. The new usage-based insurance (UBI) program, enabled by a smartphone application, uses telematics technology to analyze driving behavior, determine risk, and calculate opportunities for premium discounts.

MissionSafe customers earn an automatic 10 percent premium discount upon enrollment, then can earn up to a 40 percent discount at renewal, with an average expected savings of 20 percent. In addition to potential premium discounts and safety benefits, particularly around young drivers and distracted driving, users also can earn rewards for safe driving including gift cards and charitable donations.

“Saving money motivates drivers. With MissionSafe, the safer that customers drive, the more rewards and the greater the discount they can earn,” says Steve Butler, personal lines product management and underwriting practices leader for Westfield. “Considering government data shows consumers have experienced a 13 percent increase in auto insurance inflation from October 2021 to October 2022 (as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), adding MissionSafe to an eligible Westfield personal auto policy is a timely way for drivers to gain a potential premium discount.”

Noting that consumers express key concerns about privacy and the complexity of UBI, Butler says that MissionSafe only studies data needed to develop safety recommendations and potential premium discounts: physical location, vehicle speed, acceleration, and braking using GPS, as well as time information, phone usage, and data from the phone’s sensors. MissionSafe also uses best-in-class security practices, and, per the Privacy Promise, Westfield does not sell or share customer data.

“MissionSafe comes at a time when auto insurance consumers are more and more willing to try usage-based insurance,” Butler adds, pointing out that a J.D. Power 2022 auto insurance study reported record high adoption of UBI with 16 percent of auto insurance customers participating in such programs, twice as many as in 2016. “With significant premium increases industrywide for auto insurance, usage-based insurance is appealing for a range of consumers.”

With the goal of enhancing driver safety at the forefront, Westfield’s MissionSafe program analyzes driving data, then computes an overall driving score out of 100 based on a series of criteria: phone use while the vehicle is in motion; speeding; hard acceleration; hard braking; and harsh cornering. The MissionSafe phone app displays the user’s overall score for a two-week period and provides a rating for each vehicle trip.

MissionSafe uses the overall driving score to calculate eligibility for renewal insurance discounts, but does not impose a premium surcharge based on a low driving score. Even with the lowest driving score possible, the policy premium would remain the same base rating that Westfield would have quoted if the customer had not participated in MissionSafe.

Westfield offers complete and competitive personal auto insurance policies with coverages including liability, collision, comprehensive, medical payments, personal injury protection, roadside assistance, uninsured/underinsured motorists, and loan/lease gap coverage. MissionSafe can be added to all eligible personal auto policies to provide customers the opportunity to engage in safer driving habits, and become eligible for policy premium discounts and program rewards.

Available through independent agents, MissionSafe is available in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Sources:

Usage-Based Auto Insurance Takes Center Stage as Satisfaction Flatlines, J.D. Power Finds. J.D. Power. June 13, 2022. https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2022-us-auto-insurance-study.

Website: https://www.westfieldinsurance.com/insurance/personal-insurance/vehicle-products/auto/missionsafe

Playbook: https://www.wfield0.com/hubfs/2022%20MissionSafe/PL-141%20MissionSafe%20Playbook.pdf

Customer Flyer: https://www.wfield0.com/hubfs/2022%20MissionSafe/PL-147%20Start%20Your%20Engines%20One%20Sheet.pdf

Motor vehicle insurance in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Index: 564.507 in October 2021 and 637.103 in October 2022.) Accessed November 11, 2022. Filename: US Dept of Labor BLS motor vehicle insurance index 2020-2022.xlsx created via https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SETE?output_view=data.