WO2012110977A1

WO2012110977A1 - A method of managing a driver rewards programme and a system therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2012110977A1
Application number: PCT/IB2012/050709
Authority: WO
Inventors: Adrian Gore; Alan Pollard
Original assignee: Discovery Holdings Ltd
Current assignee: Discovery Holdings Ltd
Priority date: 2011-02-16
Filing date: 2012-02-16
Publication date: 2012-08-23
Anticipated expiration: 2013-08-16
Also published as: ZA201201152B

Abstract

A system and method of managing a driver rewards program includes receiving data including information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of many program areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviors and storing the data in a database. Points are awarded to the driver for the compliance in the at least one program area. Fuel data is received including the amount of fuel purchased in a past period, the points and the fuel purchased amount are used to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund. The excess waiver fund amount is stored in a memory and on receipt of a claim from the insured person. An amount from the fund is allocated towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and the excess waiver fund amount is reduced accordingly.

Description

A METHOD OF MANAGING A DRIVER REWARDS PROGRAMME AND

A SYSTEM THEREFOR

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of managing a driver rewards programme and a system therefor.

Drivers of motor vehicles are not motivated in any meaningful way to improve their driver behaviours thereby aiming toward safer driving.

The present invention seeks to address this. SUMMARY

According to one example embodiment there is provided a method of managing a driver rewards programme, the method including: receiving data including information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of a plurality of programme areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviours and storing the data in a database; awarding points to the driver wherein the points awarded are related to the compliance of the driver in the at least one programme area; receiving fuel related data including the amount of fuel purchased in a past period; using the points awarded and the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund; storing the amount of the excess waiver fund in a memory; and on receipt of a claim from the insured person, accessing the memory to determine the amount of the excess waiver fund, allocating an amount from the fund towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and reducing the amount of the excess waiver fund accordingly.

The points awarded may be used to determine a driver status, wherein the driver status is used together with the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to the excess waiver fund. The plurality of programme areas may include at least some of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance or all of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance.

The programme area of vehicle maintenance may include one or more of servicing the vehicle, checking the vehicle and checking the vehicles tyres.

The programme area of driver education may include one or more of a driving course, a driver assessment, a periodic driver quiz and a carbon footprint calculation.

The programme area of vehicle insurance claims may include the number of claim free periods.

The programme area of driving performance may include monitoring the manner in which a motor vehicle is driven.

In one example, the monitoring of the manner in which the motor vehicle is driven includes: obtaining data from a device associated with a motor vehicle; and analysing the data to determine the manner in which the motor vehicle has been driven for a past period.

According to another example embodiment there is provided a system for managing a driver rewards programme, the system including: a receiving module for receiving data including information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of a plurality of programme areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviours and for further receiving fuel related data including the amount of fuel purchased in a past period and storing the data in a database; a calculation module to award points to the driver wherein the points awarded are related to the compliance of the driver in the at least one programme area; a rewards module to use the points awarded and the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund; an excess module to on receipt of a claim from the insured person, access the memory to determine the amount of the excess waiver fund, allocating an amount from the fund towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and reducing the amount of the excess waiver fund accordingly.

The calculation module may use the points awarded to determine a driver status, wherein the driver status is used to determine the reward for the driver.

The system may further include: the receiving module obtains driver data from a device associated with a motor vehicle; and an analysing module analyses the data to determine the manner in which the motor vehicle has been driven for a past period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates an example system environment in which an example embodiment is implemented; Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example system to implement the methodologies described herein; and

Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment method.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Various insurance schemes are known to insure motor vehicles in the event of an accident or against theft, for example.

These insurance schemes typically have the owner of the motor vehicle as the insured person. The insured person pays a premium to the insurer to insure the motor vehicle against an insured event such as an accident or against theft, for example.

The quantum of the premium is usually determined using a number of factors such as the value of the motor vehicle and in certain cases the driver's age.

The above factors are also used to determine an excess which is a first amount paid by the insured person in the event of a claim before the insurer pays towards the claim.

However, these insurance schemes do not take into account driver behaviour nor vehicle mechanical condition in any meaningful way.

A system and method for addressing this is described below.

Referring to Figure 1, a motor vehicle 10 has a telemetry device 12 associated therewith. The telemetry device 12 is used to monitor a number of aspects of the use of the motor vehicle.

For example, the device monitors the speed at which the vehicle is travelling and can therefore calculate average speed and maximum and minimum speeds, for example.

Where the device includes GPS functionality, for example, the device is able to determine if speed limits on a particular road have been exceeded.

The device is also able to determine braking habits of the driver either using the GPS functionality or by using an accelerometer or having one or more sensors connected to the vehicle or to a deceleration detection device, for example.

The device is also typically able to detect the distance travelled and if the driver has driven the vehicle for a long time period without a break.

In addition, the times of the day that the vehicle is being driven can be captured as night time driving is statistically more dangerous than day time driving, especially weekend late night driving.

In addition to the above, the device will have the ability to detect the driver's use of the vehicle including braking, indicating and accelerating to name a few examples. Thus it could be determined when the vehicle turns without indicating, for example.

In any event, the data from the device is transmitted to a server 14 over a communication network 16.

It will be appreciated that this could be accomplished in a number of ways. For example, the data could be transmitted via a communication network 16 as illustrated in the accompanying drawing. This communication network could be any suitable kind of communication network such as a mobile communication network, a wireless communication network, a satellite communication network or a combination of these to name but a few examples.

Alternatively, the device 12 could be connected to another intermediate device which downloads the data and transmits the data via the communication network 16 to the server 14. One example of this could be connecting the device 12 to a USB port of a computer and downloading the data to the computer, which data is then transmitted over the Internet to the server 14.

In one example embodiment, the data is transmitted over a mobile phone network using the short message service (SMS) protocol.

It will be appreciated that the data could be transmitted at any suitable time to the server. For example, the data could be transmitted in real time or near real time or could be transmitted periodically such as daily, weekly or monthly to name a few examples.

Referring to Figure 2, an information processing system includes a server 14 that includes a number of modules to implement the present invention.

In one example embodiment, the modules described below may be implemented by a machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform any of the methods described above.

In another example embodiment the modules may be implemented using firmware programmed specifically to execute the method described herein.

It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention are not limited to such architecture, and could equally well find application in a distributed, or peer-to-peer, architecture system. Thus the modules illustrated could be located on one or more servers operated by one or more institutions.

It will also be appreciated that in any of these cases the modules form a physical apparatus with physical modules specifically for executing the steps of the method described herein.

In the illustrated example embodiment, the server 14 includes a receiving module 20 to receive the data and to write the data to a memory 18.

The memory 18 is typically in the form of a database 18 associated with the server 14.

Once the server 14 receives the data it will analyse the data to determine the manner in which the motor vehicle has been driven for a past predetermined period.

To do this the server includes an analysing module 22 which access the memory 18 and retrieves the data stored therein.

The retrieved data is then used to calculate a number of factors depending on the requirements of the insurers.

For example, the data received from the device may include one or more of speed related data, time of day or night data indicating what time the vehicle is driven, duration information data relating to the duration of time that the vehicle is driven without the driver thereof taking a break and distance information data including the distance that the vehicle travels over a period of time such as a month.

The speed related data may include one or more of the average speed that the vehicle is driven and the number of times that the vehicle exceeds a speed limit on a road on which the vehicle is travelling. ln one example embodiment points are awarded to each of a number of sub-categories. Thus, points are awarded to the sub-category of speed which points are then used to determine an overall score. It will be appreciated that the scoring could be arranged that a higher score is a successful score or that a lower score is a successful score. In the illustrated embodiments described herein a higher score will be deemed a better score than a lower score.

Thus using the example of speed, the driver is awarded an amount of points if they never exceed the speed limit. Every infraction of the speed limit would result in a loss of points.

Similarly, for example, no night driving would result in a maximum score whilst a large amount of night driving would result a zero or even a minus score.

The method may further include motivating the driver to improve in other driver related behaviours.

In one example embodiment, this is implemented as follows.

The receiving module 20 receives compliance data containing information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of a plurality of programme areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviour.

The compliance data is stored in the database 18.

The analysing module 22 analyses the compliance data to determine driver behaviour.

The calculation module 24 awards points to the driver wherein the points awarded are related to the compliance of the driver in one or more of the programme areas. An example of this is described below. Finally, the points awarded are used by a rewards module 26 to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund which will also be described in more detail below.

The plurality of programme areas includes at least some of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims, premium payments, policy updates and driving performance.

In one example embodiment, the plurality of programme areas includes all of the abovementioned programme areas.

The programme area of vehicle maintenance includes one or more of servicing the vehicle, checking the vehicle and checking the vehicles tyres.

Describing these programme areas in more detail, servicing the vehicle means that the driver has taken the vehicle to a mechanical workshop for a periodic service to ensure that the vehicle is in good working order. Typically in such services oil and other lubricants are changed, brake pads are changed if required and any other mechanical faults that have arisen in the past period are fixed.

The programme area of checking the vehicle entails taking the vehicle to an authorised centre were a number of checks on the different parts of the vehicle are conducted to ensure that the vehicle is in good working order. If anything is found to be not correct, the driver will be instructed to take the vehicle to a workshop for fixing and may be awarded further points for this step.

New vehicles may be exempt from the service check for the first year and the insured person will be awarded these points on submission of proof that the vehicle is within its first year since its first registration. Checking the vehicle tyres entails either having the tyres checked as part of the above-mentioned checking of the vehicle or alternatively, taking the vehicle to a specialist tyre centre to have the tyres checked.

In one example embodiment, an interface is created between the server 14 and checking centre via a communications network 28 so that the checking centre can confirm the results of the check.

In addition to the tyre check the steering, windscreen wipers, lights, seatbelts, hooter and shock absorbers can be checked at this time.

Bonus Points can be awarded for all of these being in an acceptable condition.

In all of these cases, the party doing the checking or servicing will capture data relating to the vehicle and/or driver and periodically transmit this data to the receiving module 20.

The programme area of driver education includes one or more of a driving course, a driver assessment, a periodic driver quiz and a carbon footprint calculation.

Driving courses are attended by drivers to improve their driving skills and particularly to learn so-called defensive driving skills.

A driver assessment is conducted in one example embodiment by an assessor taking the driver in the vehicle onto the road and assessing the driving skills and habits of the driver.

Weaknesses in the skills or habits of the driver may be pointed out and the driver given the opportunity to correct these in the coming weeks or months before returning for an updated assessment.

In one example, the driver is given an assessment score. In another example, the driver assessment is an online questionnaire designed to highlight certain risks relating to a driver.

In this example, the questionnaire includes two sections namely. 'Driving habits' and 'State of Vehicle'. For example a question of whether one uses a cellular telephone to send messages while driving will be asked. At the end of the questionnaire (approximately 20 questions) the driver will receive feedback explaining their risk and suggesting ways to mitigate their risks.

Based on the answers received a calculation will be performed to consider the driver's risk relative to an average driver. The results can be illustrated to the driver on two risk bars. One illustrates how risky the driver's habits are, and one illustrates risks relating to the state of the drivers vehicle.

A third risk bar may also be included illustrating a combined risk score.

In addition, the questionnaire may include educational information to address specific areas such as how to drive in wet weather or what to do in the event of an accident. The format will be a paragraph followed by a question relating to the paragraph

In this example, the driver will typically use a user interface device in the form of a computer with a screen on which is displayed a template for the driver to capture answers to questions put to them.

The answers are captured and transmitted to the server 4.

Alternatively, the server 14 accesses driver information stored in the database 18 and obtains the driver's e-mail address.

An e-mail is then sent to the retrieved e-mail address. When the driver opens the e-mail a template is displayed to them asking them the relevant questions with options to select various scores. A driver will send the e-mail back to the server 14 via a communications network and the receiving module 20. These will be received and written to the database.

The programme area of premium payments relates to the quantum and frequency with which the premium payments are made and if they are made on time or not and the programme area of policy updates relates to whether or not the insured person is updating their policy to accurately reflect what is being insured by the insured person.

The programme area of vehicle insurance claims includes the number of claim free periods, for example years, on a motor vehicle insurance policy. No fault claims where the driver was not at fault typically will not be calculated as a claim for this.

The programme area of driving score includes monitoring the manner in which the motor vehicle is driven as has been described above.

An example of how the calculation module 24 then awards points is as follows:

Driver Category Points Frequency

No Star (no telematics device)

2

o *

o

w

D)

C ** 100 Monthly

*** 350

**_** 800

Annual Service 50

Multi Point Check 50 Annual

^■o re

o Multi point check bonus points 100

Q-

13 U S

LU 3 TO Defensive driving course Every 3

It will be appreciated that the actual number of points allocated may change and other categories may be introduced.

In one example embodiment the number of points is used to determine a driver status. An example driver status is as follows:

It will be appreciated that the way in which the points are allocated and driver status determined could be varied. However, in an example embodiment the status will be determined periodically, for example every month.

At the beginning of every calendar month the driver's points are zeroed and drivers will then be awarded points for having done a multi point check, annual service, driver assessment or carbon footprint calculation within the previous 12 months.

Similarly quarterly quiz points will be awarded provided the questionnaire has been done for that quarter. Defensive driving courses need to be completed every 3 years or any other specified period to earn points and if a defensive driving course has been completed in the past 3 years then the relevant points will be added to the driver score for the present month.

If confirmation of these point earning events are received midmonth then points will be awarded immediately therefore contributing to the driver status in that month.

On the last day of each month the driver's telematic data or a telematic score will be received and points award points accordingly.

If multiple vehicles are insured then one method of dealing with this is to use a weighted average to calculate a single score calculated.

This will complete the driver's points for the month which will be added together to get the driver status for that month.

The driver status and individual driver telematic scores are communicated to the principle drivers via the communication network 28 as well as the policy holder where the policy holder is different to the driver.

In addition, reminders are sent out when a roadworthy check or tyre check is required via the communication network 28.

In one example, the amount of funds to be allocated to the excess waiver fund is based on the driver category.

In one example embodiment, analysing module 22 accesses data stored on the database 18 relating to historic fuel spend using a credit or debit card.

This information is typically obtained from the financial institution that issued the credit or debit card. ln one example implementation, the driver is given a non transactional magnetic or smart card which is swiped each time fuel is purchased at a fuel supplier.

The fuel supplier system identifies the driver and stores fuel purchase data relating to the fuel purchases in a database. The fuel purchase data is then transmitted to the receiving module 20 of the server 4.

Alternatively the fuel purchase data can be transmitted to the receiving module 20 directly without being stored in the database associated with the fuel supplier system.

In any event, it will be appreciated that in this embodiment there is no restriction on the method used to purchase the fuel i.e. the driver could pay with cash, credit card etc.

Another method of calculating the historic fuel spend if the driver does not want a card or does not qualify for one is that they can opt for a "Mileage and Consumption" version. The same rebate table will apply. The mileage driven will be derived from the telematics data. A generally-accepted consumption table will then be used to approximate "Litres consumed" and the calculation module 24 will calculate the reward value. The reward will be paid into the owner's nominated bank account.

In any event, the historic spend could be for a calendar month period, for example, but it will be appreciated that this could be any period of time. In this example, the driver of the motor vehicle will then receive a monthly fuel based reward.

The calculation module 24 then uses this to calculate the amount of funds that can be allocated to an excess waiver fund as follows. ln one example, if the driver earns 800 points in a given month then 25% of the members petrol spend up to a limit of R800 (the number of points) is allocated to the Excess Funder Account.

It will be appreciated that each month the amount allocated will be added to the amounts allocated in previous months so that the excess waiver fund will continue to grow.

An excess module 30, on receipt of a claim from the insured person, accesses the memory to determine the amount of the excess waiver fund and allocates an amount from the fund towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and reduces the amount of the excess waiver fund accordingly.

It will be appreciated that sometimes the excess waiver fund will not be enough to cover the excess amount, sometimes the excess waiver fund will match the excess amount and sometimes the excess waiver fund will exceed the excess amount.

In the case that the excess waiver fund is not enough to cover the excess amount, the insured person will be required to pay the difference between the excess waiver fund and the excess amount.

Where the excess waiver fund matches or exceeds the excess amount, the excess module 20 will reduce the amount of the excess fund by the excess amount.

Examples of the above are as follows: i. The insured person has a claim for R10 000 with an excess of R2 000 and a fund balance of R2 500. The insured person will access R2 000 from the fund and maintain a balance of R500. ii. Same as example i but the fund balance is R1 500. The insured person will be entitled to access up to R1 500 from the fund and will be required to pay the balance of the excess amount in cash.

iii. The insured person has a claim for R6 000, an excess value of R10 000 and a fund balance of R12 000. The insured person will be allowed to access R6 000 from the fund.

In addition, the insured person may be given the option of topping up the excess waiver fund.

Thus, the excess waiver fund will be continually increasing as time goes by and will be decreased with each insurance claim.

The system in an example embodiment periodically communicates the balance of the excess waiver fund to the insured person via a communications network.

The insurer will typically invest the excess waiver fund to ensure that funds are available to be used to cover excess amounts.

The investment may be in a bank account or in an investment fund, for example.

In one embodiment, if the investment fund increases or decreases this will be for the insurers benefit whereas in another embodiment the insured person will be rewarded if the fund increases but will lose out if the fund decreases.

Where the excess waiver fund is simply invested in a bank account there would be no risk but the interest paid by the bank could be accrued either to the insurance company or the insured person. The system includes a payments module 32 to effect payments from the excess waiver fund. In one example embodiment, the payment module 32 may transmit an instruction via the communications network 28 to a server of a financial institution. In response to the instruction, the financial institution will typically access the excess waiver fund from where it is invested and pay the necessary amount either to a third party, to the insured person or to the insurer depending on the selected implementation of how the insurance claim is paid.

If the insured person cancels their insurance policy, the excess waiver fund can either be paid over to them in full, in part or not at all.

In one example embodiment, in order to motivate the insured person to use the facility, for every R1 that the client contributes to the excess fund, the insurer will contribute R1 to the fund.

In addition, if the excess is recovered from a third-party, the fund will be credited for the amount that was originally withdrawn.

In any event, it will be appreciated that the excess waiver fund can be used as a mechanism to assist an insured person cover an excess that they will need to pay on the occurrence of an insured event.

In a further embodiment, the fund not only funds the excess amount but can also be accessed by the insured person to pay for claims that exceed the minimum excess but do not necessarily exceed the policy excess. For example, if an insured person has an excess fund of R5 000, he can increase the excess on his policy to R5 000 and enjoy the premium discounts. If the minimum excess that applies to him is, say, R2 000 and he has a claim for R4 000, then he may access the fund to the value of R4 000. There will be no claim registered under the insurance policy and the insured person is not out of pocket. Where the quantum of the excess waiver fund is used as a reward for compliance with a programme, this provides the insurer with a mechanism for motivating the insured person to comply with the programme which in turn benefits the insurer.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of managing a driver rewards programme, the method including: receiving data including information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of a plurality of programme areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviours and storing the data in a database; awarding points to the driver wherein the points awarded are related to the compliance of the driver in the at least one programme area; receiving fuel related data including the amount of fuel purchased in a past period; using the points awarded and the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund; storing the amount of the excess waiver fund in a memory; and on receipt of a claim from the insured person, accessing the memory to determine the amount of the excess waiver fund, allocating an amount from the fund towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and reducing the amount of the excess waiver fund accordingly.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the points awarded are used to determine a driver status, wherein the driver status is used together with the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to the excess waiver fund.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of programme areas includes at least some of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of programme areas includes all of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance.

5. A method according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the programme area of vehicle maintenance includes one or more of servicing the vehicle, checking the vehicle and checking the vehicles tyres.

6. A method according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the programme area of driver education includes one or more of a driving course, a driver assessment, a periodic driver quiz and a carbon footprint calculation.

7. A method according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the programme area of vehicle insurance claims includes the number of claim free periods.

8. A method according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the programme area of driving performance includes monitoring the manner in which a motor vehicle is driven.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the monitoring of the manner in which the motor vehicle is driven includes: obtaining data from a device associated with a motor vehicle; and analysing the data to determine the manner in which the motor vehicle has been driven for a past period.

10. A method according to claim 1 wherein the higher the points awarded and the more the amount of fuel purchased the more the amount of funds that will be allocated to an excess waiver fund.

11. A system for managing a driver rewards programme, the system including: a receiving module for receiving data including information relating to the compliance of a driver in at least one of a plurality of programme areas related to motor vehicle driver behaviours and for further receiving fuel related data including the amount of fuel purchased in a past period and storing the data in a database; a calculation module to award points to the driver wherein the points awarded are related to the compliance of the driver in the at least one programme area; a rewards module to use the points awarded and the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to an excess waiver fund; an excess module to on receipt of a claim from the insured person, access the memory to determine the amount of the excess waiver fund, allocating an amount from the fund towards an excess amount required to be paid by the insured person in respect of the insurance claim and reducing the amount of the excess waiver fund accordingly.

12. A system according to claim 11 wherein the calculation module uses points awarded to determine a driver status, and wherein the awards module uses the driver status together with the amount of fuel purchased to determine an amount of funds to be allocated to the excess waiver fund.

13. A system according to claim 11 wherein the plurality of programme areas includes at least some of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance.

14. A system according to claim 11 wherein the plurality of programme areas includes all of vehicle maintenance, driver education, vehicle insurance claims and driving performance.

15. A system according to claim 13 or claim 14 wherein the programme area of vehicle maintenance includes one or more of servicing the vehicle, checking the vehicle and checking the vehicles tyres.

16. A system according to claim 13 or claim 14 wherein the programme area of driver education includes one or more of a driving course, a driver assessment, a periodic driver quiz and a carbon footprint calculation.

17. A system according to claim 13 or claim 14 wherein the programme area of vehicle insurance claims includes the number of claim free periods.

18. A system according to claim 13 or claim 14 wherein the programme area of driving performance includes monitoring the manner in which a motor vehicle is driven.

19. A system according to claim 11 further wherein: the receiving module obtains driver data from a device associated with a motor vehicle; and an analysing module analyses the data to determine the manner in which the motor vehicle has been driven for a past period.

20. A system according to claim 11 wherein the higher the points awarded and the more the amount of fuel purchased the more the amount of funds that will be allocated to an excess waiver fund.