—– Original Message —–
From: Salvador Minguijon
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 7:27 AM
Subject: “Pay as you drive” Information.
Dear gentlemen:
I have upgraded the page Pay as you drive directory.
Finally, Norwich Union has released their project which will begin to be marketed at the end of this year or at the beginning of the next one. The marketing investigations say that approximately half of the English drivers will consider the possibility to subscribe a policy “Pay as you drive.”
In chronological order, the projects that have passed to the commercial phase are Axa-Carlink in Italy (Autometrica), Axa Insurance in Ireland (Traksure) and Hollard Insurance in Sudafrica. Maybe also Aryeh Insurance of Israel using the system Pazomat and I ignore if the project of Polis Direct in Holland, with their Kilometre Policy is in commercial phase.
These projects didn´t have big repercussions in the market, but it is also necessary to recognize that they were not very ambitious and neither they had been developed at the level that has reached the project of Norwich.
All the analysts agree on the thought that the success of Norwich would suppose a revolution in the sector. Most of them believe that the project will be successful, with the only difference in how and when it will take place. Many insurance companies have spend years developing their possible strategies of adaptation to these new conditions of the market.
While I was preparing this summary I was surprised by the position reached by Axa and the tremendous barrier that the language constitutes when it is followed to share knowledge.
Regarding AXA, it is maybe the company that more experiences have acquired in this project, not only it has been the world pioneer in marketing policies PAYD, but also because it bought the company Winthertur, which was distinguished to carry out an exhaustive surveillance of all related with this project. Similarly to what happens to Allianz Versicherung, Axa doesn’t seem to have any intention in fomenting the project PAYD, but if they consider it necessary and unavoidable they will be in first line of the market.
I observe that the publications that are not made in English, or they are ignored or they have a high probability of being misinterpreted, even for famous experts.
Some examples:
– I don’t have any knowledge of how far the projects of Aryeh neither of Polis are developed, because all the information that I find is in Hebrew or in Dutch. Is there any kind reader that would be able to inform us about this aspect?.
– It exists the false belief that the project Pay As You Drive is having a important success in Italy. Unfortunately it is not this way, the only project in commercial phase is the AXA-Carlink (it was the first one marketed in the entire world) one and it is not been developed specially well. The project Unibox offers discounts in the anti-theft and accident policy, in compensation, the insurance company can access to the information of use of the vehicle. In fact they are tests, in those the insurance company and the insured share expenses.
– It also exists the false belief that the first patent on the system Pay As You Drive was carried out by Progressive, when in fact the first patent is Spanish (ES2108613). In this site you can obtain the translation in English of the equivalent European patent (EP0700009) http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id836487525, as it wass only accessible in internet in Spanish and German.
Yours sincerely
Salvador Minguijon
Pay_as_you_drive 