A couple of months ago, I wrote an article about the Drive Wise program from Allstate, making speculations about how it could be used. Well now I have some data and I am going to show it to you.
The Allstate Drive Wise program offers drivers the chance to get extra discounts based on their driving habits and as I have used this device on three cars, I am able to produce some very interesting information. I say “very” because two of these vehicles were driven a total of 22 miles, while the third is used daily.
Just to sum up the plan; Allstate monitors four items to determine your projected discount, they are:
Low mileage: Drive less than 25-30 miles per day to be more likely to save.
Safe speed: Avoid high speeds
Safe hours: Skip the late night trips
Safe stops: Don’t follow the car in front of you too closely and avoid hard stops.
The first is a 2006 Chevy Malibu, which was for sale and has sat, in my driveway, gathering snow, has been driven very little.
Braking: A+ (0 events)Mileage: A+ (18 Miles)
Time of Day: C (0 miles at Safest Time)
Speed: A+ (0 miles > 80mph)
Overall Grade: A+
Current Discount: 10%
Projected Discount: 31%
The second vehicle is a 1997 Jeep Wrangler, which is usually my winter car, but since I got new tires, I haven’t used it once, for the snow. Anyway, this car has been driven very little as well.
Here’s the Drive Wise data:
Braking: B (2 events)
Mileage: A+ (6 Miles)
Time of Day: C (0 miles at Safest Time)
Speed: A+ (0 miles > 80mph)
Overall Grade: A+
Current Discount: 10%
Projected Discount: 28%
The third vehicle is my wife’s, 2012 Chevy Traverse. It is her daily driver and the family vehicle, taken on the weekends and trips, etc. So it gets some use, as you can imagine.
Here’s the Drive Wise data:
Braking: B- (32 events)
Mileage: B+ (2,326 Miles)
Time of Day: B (494 miles at Safest Time)
Speed: B+ (0.7 miles > 80mph) *that was me..
Overall Grade: B
Current Discount: 10%
Projected Discount: 9%
Ok, now that we’ve got the top layer of data; let’s go a bit deeper. Firstly let’s look at the C grades for the Malibu and the Jeep, for the Time of Day metric. Granted it does not seem to hurt my overall grade but it may affect the discount, again just making assumptions. These two vehicles were only driven after work when I got home, and may have driven around the block a few times, for whatever reason. In any case they were driven between the hours of 12PM (noon) and 11PM, which is considered Moderate Risk.
Here’s a breakdown of the Allstate Drive Wise Time of Day ratings:
The Drive Wise average is B
Safest Time: 5am – 11PM Weekend
Low Risk: 4AM – 12PM Weekday
Moderate Risk: 12PM – 11PM Weekday
High Risk: 11PM – 4AM Weekday & 11PM – 5AM Weekend
Ok, assuming most working people drive everyday in the morning to work and then again at night to get back home, which means the majority of their time will be driven in Low Risk (morning) and Moderate Risk (night), which makes me believe undoubtedly that the statement of The Drive Wise average is B provided by the program to be true. Now I am assuming they look at mounds of data to create those time frames based on accidents, etc, we won’t go into that. But still it is interesting to see the breakout.
The next item is Braking where the Chevy Traverse did not do well… Anyway the Allstate Drive Wise Braking is graded as follows:
Extreme Braking
Hard Braking
I am quite disappointed in this grading system! What is the difference between Extreme and Hard? In my mind I see Extreme as wheels skidding while you scream “Oh Shit!” with your shoulders back and arms locked straight on the steering wheel, but I have not had any situations like that, nor has my wife, so it has to be less “extreme” than I am envisioning.
The next two grades are pretty self-explanatory so we will just cover them briefly.
Allstate Drive Wise Speed Grades:
Less than 80mph
More than 80mph
And mileage has no “grading” system to speak of, so I guess they are looking at the 30 miles per day average as the grading.
So there it is folks! I also have included a few more images below to show you a few more screens from the Drive Wise app for iPhone.
What do you think about the Allstate Drive Wise? How does your data compare to mine? Leave your comments below.