Howden enters UK insurance market with telematics data services

The primary objective of this launch is to assist customers in reducing their motor insurance premiums, optimising loss ratios for brokers and insurers, and enhancing road safety.

Howden Drive has already been successfully deployed in Europe, where it has been utilised by over 250,000 policyholders since 2018.

By utilising a decade’s worth of driving and claims data from Europe and data from Ingenie in the UK, Howden Drive aims to help insurers improve their loss ratios and minimise risk in their portfolios. This is achieved through a customer application connected to a data beacon installed in the vehicle, which provides intervention communications to improve driving behaviour.

The collected data offers policyholders, including not just young drivers, a driving behaviour score that can reduce premiums upon policy renewal.

Penny Searles, chair of Howden Driving Data, acknowledged the evolving market dynamics that encourage insurers to explore telematics applications for reducing insurance premiums for mainstream policyholders.

She said: “With motor premiums currently at their highest and with the cost-of-living crisis biting. Customer appetite for reducing premiums has never been greater.”

Searles expressed optimism about the wider adoption of telematics data collection and application across policies, believing that Howden is well-positioned to support brokers and insurers while simultaneously improving road safety and reducing customer premiums.

Jon Law, managing director of Howden Driving Data, noted the customer demand for cost-saving solutions and expressed enthusiasm about introducing the Howden Drive service to insurers and brokers in the UK.

“The data collected from our devices and apps not only provides a behaviour score to lower premiums, but it also validates the dataset initially provided at quote for the entire life of the policy,” he added.