Insurers and customers to benefit from more accurate motor insurance decisions with launch of Traffic Exposure Score by CRIF

CRIF has launched its Traffic Exposure Score service in the UK, helping insurers to more accurately account for traffic flows in the underwriting process for motor insurance

• At a time when car insurance premiums have surged by 46%, and the ABI is working with the industry to reduce costs, CRIF’s service can help insurers to offer lower premiums to drivers who are deemed lower risk
• Having previously launched in other European countries, the service can help improve loss ratios for insurers by between 1.5% and 2.5%
• Insurers will be able to leverage granular geographical information about daily commutes, traffic intensity, hazards, accident levels and more

Insurers will be able to make more informed decisions around motor cover, better understand potential risks and improve their loss ratios with the launch of CRIF’s new Traffic Exposure Score for the UK market.

With the new service, insurers can now leverage granular geographical data about a driver’s location, their daily commute and what hazards they could potentially encounter on the road, to help fine-tune their pricing strategy.

While insurers often try to estimate the risks of driving in certain areas and factor this into their premiums, CRIF’s service draws on data not normally used in insurance decision-making. The service utilises information from the open, proprietary and third-party data sources, to help estimate the probability of an individual being in a traffic accident based on where they live and drive in the UK.

Traffic Exposure Score only requires an insurer to provide a postcode for where a driver lives. With that it can provide a granular geographical score (from 1-14, where higher numbers mean higher risk), based on factors such as:

• Density of traffic-related points of interest (like nearby tube stations, bus stops and crossroads)
• The socio-demographic profile of the residents (which affects car protection levels)
• Other variables such as the make-up of the area (city centre, suburbs, industrial, etc.)

The launch comes at a time when the cost of insurance for motorists has increased by 46% in just one year, with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) announcing plans to work with the industry to bring down costs. CRIF’s service will help insurance companies to create a more accurate picture of the risks motorists may face and in turn help prevent those drivers who are lower risk from paying higher than necessary premiums.

Having previously launched in other European countries, Traffic Exposure Score can help insurers to reduce their loss ratio by between 1.5% and 2.5%.