A combination of these factors creates your driving score for a trip: Smoothness, Speed, Distracted Driving and Usage ratings. Each of these is considered to be a sub-score.

The Smoothness sub-score combines harsh braking, fast acceleration and how cautiously you approach corners. Looking ahead and trying to anticipate what’s coming is a good habit to get into. For example, slowing down and braking in advance when approaching speed bumps or traffic will help improve your smoothness score – your fuel economy will benefit too!

The Speed sub-score measures how well you respect the speed limit. Obeying the speed limit is obvious due to the legal implications. We also encourage you to practice ‘Safe Speed’. Safe Speed is about judging the road conditions. For example, is traffic heavy? Are schools nearby? Is your visibility reduced due to bad weather? All things to consider when making every day driving decisions.

There are two levels of Distracted Driving considered in your trip rating.

1) Handheld calls

2) Direct screen usage.

These levels count negatively towards your score but are rated separately since the distraction level varies. Please note that if one of your passengers is using the insured phones during a trip, it would still be considered a distraction to the driver and therefore counted negatively.

Hands-free – through headphones, or a vehicle’s system, is tolerated and will not affect your score.

The Usage sub-score measures how and when you use your car. This includes trip volume and trip duration. If lots of trips are made in one day, or long drives (over 1 hour) occur, these scenarios will likely cause fatigue in the driver and therefore create a higher risk of having an accident.

Night time driving: If you drive at night, these factors plus any event that happens at night will impact your score negatively. If you are driving poorly, the driving factors stated above will be calculated more harshly at night time. Accidents are more likely to happen when driving late at night/early morning hours, so if you do use your vehicle between 11pm and 5am, extra care will need to be taken to maintain a good score. For example, if you speed during a day trip and during a night trip, you might notice that the speed sub-score will be lower on the night trip.