Black box insurance firm speaks out on ABI curfew proposal

The British Government have turned down a request by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to ban young drivers from driving late at night.

The ABI wanted the Government to back this bid in an effort to bring down the cost of car insurance and young drivers insurance as it's believed a restriction on late night driving will reduce the risk posed to young motorists.

This is very similar to a restriction imposed by telematics car insurance firm, iKube, who require that young drivers on their policies do not drive between the hours of 11pm - 5am (known as the iKube "red hours"). This is because research by the institute of advanced motoring (IAM) has shown that this is statistically the most dangerous time of night to drive for young motorists as they are far more likely to be involved in a serious accident.

Commenting for iKube, Technical Director Ian Brown said:

"We can understand why the ABI are going down this route as iKube encourages a late night curfew to help reduce the risks already highlighted by the ABI. However, we also realise that there has to be a sensible middle-ground. We don't completely exclude late night driving as we understand, certain circumstances necessitating, it may arise. However, we do strongly discourage night time driving by imposing a charge if young drivers do drive between 11pm and 5am."

Mr Brown added that iKube "rewards self selection - young drivers who take out an iKube policy are essentially telling us that they won't drive late at night and they will drive with due-care."

He went on to say that the telematics data that the company takes from its learner driver insurance data is invaluable. The data, collected by iKube’s black box, can be used to support the fact that the learner is a better driver and thus potentially be entitled to a discount when it comes around to renewing their provisional insurance cover or more likely full licence car insurance (if they passed their driving test during their policy term).