The Discovery company is usually associated with medical aid, but they have recently entered the short-term insurance market with Vitality Drive – Car Insurance from Discovery Insure.
Discovery’s Vitality Drive program is unique in that it uses a DQ-Track telemetrics system that was developed through collaboration with Ctrack. The Ctrack telematics system allows Discovery to measure the way that a client drives: good driving will be rewarded as the cost of insurance will decrease; but bad driving causes the insurance cost to rise. This reward system encourages drivers to change their bad driving habits into good ones and decreases the risk of accidents happening. Better driving means fewer accidents, allowing both the consumer and the company to benefit from the Ctrack technology.
All drivers using the system have the opportunity to review their driving habits and see where improvements can be made to reduce the cost of their insurance. A scientific gauge of driver behavior is measured using proprietary algorithms from Discovery, alongside telematics technology from the Ctrack system.
Why Ctrack?
When they conceptualized Vitality Drive, Discovery choose to partner with Ctrack. The technology for the Vitality Drive plan was developed and manufactured in the Ctrack production facility in Durban. Ctrack is a proudly South African company that aims to continue to develop telematics technology and change the conceptualizations of vehicle insurance.
The accurate driver information and data provided by Ctrack’s GPS/GPRS and RF technologies allow the Discovery team to analyse driver’s behavior and adjust the insurance policy accordingly.
What kind of driver information is recorded?
With Vitality Drive, the following aspects of driver behavior are recorded:
- Harsh cornering
- Braking
- Acceleration
- Location
- Time of day or night spent behind the wheel
- Speed
What are the benefits of Vitality Drive?
If you drive well, you can be entitled to the following benefits with Vitality Drive:
- 40% in fuel rewards when you fill up at any countrywide Bp service station.
- Savings of up to 15% at the local travel partners of Vitality: kulula.com, British Airways, Southern Sun, and Europcar. These savings can be added to your existing Discovery Vitality savings if you are already a member. This means you can save up to 50%.
- With Discovery Card shopping partners you can get up to 15% cash back and add this to your existing savings if you are already a Discovery Vitality Card.
- You can also get a range of passenger safety features and top technologies to keep you and your family safe and protected on the road.
Other telematics benefits
This type of technology not only records driver behavior, but can also provide other useful information such as:
- State of the art vehicle tracking systems
- A SARS accepted logbook
- Automated emergency response (integrating with the emergency response service from Discovery Health).
- GPS positioning information. This is reflected by longitude and latitude, date and time as recorded at various intervals.
- Direction information
- The current status of the vehicle (parked, idling, driving, ignition off, etc.)
How do I get started?
- Join Vitality Drive (you must be a Discovery Insure member)
- Install the DQ-track unit, installed by SmartService at no extra cost.
- Start earning DQ points by driving safely. The DQ system will also ensure that your vehicle is roadworthy and will conduct online safety assessments.
- You can swipe you Vitality Drive card when filling up at BP to earn fuel rewards.
The driving debate settled
Men or women drivers: who are the worst? Perhaps telematics technology figures can provide factual evidence on the different driving behaviors of men and women! Research has suggested that women tend to be in more accidents at slower speeds when cars are close together, whereas men are more likely to have a head-on collision.
It has also been found that men often drive more aggressively and faster than women do, but women are more easily distracted when behind the wheel. The points for driving behavior that are allocated every month buy Vitality Drive may settle the score for good in different households around South Africa.