Discovery Insure positioned for continued, exceptional growth

Discovery Insure reaches a milestone of 50 000 polices in under three years of operations through disruptive short-term insurance model

Discovery Insure reached a milestone of 50 000 active policies since its inception in 2011. This milestone, says Discovery Insure CEO Anton Ossip, “is a remarkable achievement that comes before Discovery Insure marks three years of operation.”

Discovery Insure was launched in May 2011 with a vision to create a nation of great, safer drivers, and it was launched as a disruptive short term insurance offering to challenge how the short term insurance industry operated. Discovery Insure’s pioneering product offering was created by leveraging the behavioural economics expertise developed in the Vitality programme with the latest telematics technology. 

Today, Discovery Insure has 50 000 policies, and for the interim results period ending on 31 December 2013, Discovery Insure’s performance exceeded all expectations. New business grew by 40% to R257 million, and the business is fast approaching R1 billion in annual premium income, which is testament of the business’ rapid growth. Discovery Insure’s current market share of new business in South Africa’s short term insurance industry is estimated to be 12%.

“To date, we have collected over 1.2 billion kilometers of driving behaviour, and our data shows that Discovery Insure is having a positive impact on the South African driving landscape by changing the way people drive,” says Ossip. Some examples of how Discovery Insure is making a positive impact on South African drivers is through the Vitalitydrive programme, which leverages the behavioural economics model seen in Vitality and which rewards drivers for good driving behaviour. One of the programme’s incentives, shares Ossip, is a 50% cashback fuel reward through BP service stations, which helps clients to save costs on the rising price of fuel.

“It is widely known that South Africa has one of the world’s highest road death rates, with over 13 000 deaths a year, and a fatal accident occurs every 48 minutes,” Ossip notes. “The national death rate is too high, and in comparison, our data shows that the accident mortality rate of our clients is three times lower than the national average.”

The impact Discovery Insure is making on the country’s driving landscape is portrayed in the following data:

·  Discovery Insure drivers improve their driving behaviour by an average of 15% within the first 12 months after joining.

·  Drivers on Discovery’s Young adult driver programme have less than two thirds of the claims cost of other 18-25 year old drivers.

·  The majority of clients reach Advanced Vitalitydrive status within five months of joining, with 40% of these clients reaching this status within the first three months. Advanced status clients earn the most fuel rewards and are involved in fewer accidents.

·  Highly engaged Vitalitydrive clients submit less than half the number of claims than poor drivers, and have less severe accidents, resulting in up to 70% lower claims costs for these drivers who are better drivers.

·  Highly engaged Vitalitydrive clients speed less, brake less harshly and drive less at night than poorer drivers who speed 213 times more each month than the average good driver, brake harshly 133 more each month and drive up to 40 times more at night.

·  Our highly engaged clients with an  Advanced Vitalitydrive status  and who get 50% fuel rewards from BP as part of the Vitalitydrive rewards and spend more than R1 000 each month on fuel receive over R500 cashback in fuel rewards each month. Clients can receive up to a maximum of R750 back each month.

·  Discovery Insure’s early weather warning SMS mechanism has seen drivers move their vehicles to a place of safety and saved Discovery Insure over R1 million in claims during one hailstorm in Gauteng in November 2013.

This data, says Ossip, shows how Discovery Insure and the Vitalitydrive programme is making a difference and adding value to our clients’ lives, and helping more South Africans to become better, safer drivers.

“With 50 000 policies, we estimate that we dramatically reduce the number of road accidents by at least 70 each month, making the roads safer for all,” Ossip says. “We are excited about our progress and seeing our vision of creating a nation of great drivers stating to become a reality, and as we continue to grow, so too will our impact on road safety and society. This is an exceptional achievement that we are tremendously proud of.”