Insurer is expanding its program to individuals who want to save on their policies.
The Snapshot usage based insurance program at Progressive Corp. has already proven to be highly popular as hundreds of thousands of drivers have agreed to allow the company to track their driving behaviors in order to gain the opportunity to save on their coverage, and now this same chance to save is being offered to non customers.
Snapshot auto insurance is now available to anyone who would like to track their behaviors behind the wheel.
Progressive is allowing these drivers to test the usage based insurance tracking for thirty days so that they can see the impact that it would have on their premiums based on the way they drive. Then, should the motorist decide to become a customer of the insurer, those discounts would be applied to their policies.
The company is the fourth largest auto insurance provider in the United States. It has already shared that since the beginning of the program, about 70 percent of those who have used Snapshot have earned some form of a discount.
The usage based insurance device works on any vehicle manufactured after 1996.
It tracks various forms of behaviors such as how many miles the car is driven, the times of day in which the vehicle is used, how often the driver must brake hard, and others. Progressive is offering this opportunity to drivers in 35 of the 42 states where it sells auto insurance. It is offered in all of the states where its Snapshot program is already available.
The insurer has benefitted from this program by being able to predict risk much more effectively and by being able to better understand the way that vehicles are being used by their customers. So far, it has been able to analyze the behaviors over 5 billion miles. They have stated that this data is twice as effective and accurate than any other factor currently used for predicting risk.
That said, in this auto insurance marketplace with such high competition, this move by Progressive is considered to be a very competitive one. The company says that it is simply offering consumers the chance to objectively compare the difference that the Snapshot usage based insurance will make in comparison with the rate charged by their current insurer.