With apologies to Lord Tennyson, it appears that insurers might be putting telematics slightly ahead of other fancies in Spring 2013. Part of the evidence is a mysterious ad campaign. Are you feeling the pull?
Rumblings In The Wind
We have been noting the progress of telematics-based insurance offerings in various geographies, such as the US, UK, Europe. However, with the notable exception of Industrial Alliance’s Mobiliz programme, there has been a paucity of action in Canada since Aviva’s Autograph programme was withdrawn in 2010.
According to our sources, that is about to change. We are hearing that at least 10 insurers are conducting serious feasibility analyses on telematics-based initiatives and that there could be three to five insurers launching programs this year.
A Discount Guage and a Countdown Cloc
k
The first might be as soon as this month. There is an ad campaign that is being run on television, radio, the internet, and social media for ‘Ajusto’, with the tag line ‘On May 13, Take Control with Ajusto.’ The Visual on Ajusto.com offers something that looks like a tachometer with its needle swinging between 0% and 25%. Underneath, there is a countdown clock to May 13th.
There has been discussion on LinkedIn groups and in a vendor newsletter that the sponsoring company is Desjardins Insurance, and that Ajusto will be the next usage-based insurance (UBI) offering, but Desjardins has been silent on the issue, and the @AjustoProgram twitter handle has only suggested everyone wait until May 13.
What Do You Think?
Is Telematics finally going to get some additional momentum in Canada? We’d like you opinions. There is a very short survey on Insurance-Canada.ca at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DZ7T5JK. If you’d like to expand further on the topic, feel free to leave a comment below.
After that, please feel free to return your fancies lightly to other thoughts.
