IBC launches education campaign for young drivers in Quebec

The Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Groupement des assureurs automobiles (GAA) have launched a new awareness campaign around insurance and claims for young drivers in Quebec, after survey results revealed that they are often undereducated on those issues and underestimate their risk of collision.

The “En voiture, j’assure!” campaign covers four topics: insurance premium, deductible, loss and false declarations.

“There are almost 100,000 new drivers every year,” noted Johanne Lamanque, IBC’s vice president for Quebec and general manager of GAA, an organization that represents auto insurers doing business in the province.

“Since the majority are young drivers, we used humour to explain these various notions to them, to make them aware of the consequences of making poor choices or not looking enough into car insurance,” Lamanque added.

The awareness campaign launched Tuesday includes a contest, “Gagne ta prime d’assurance auto!” that will be featured on Facebook and infoinsurance.ca, a resource site on insurance issues in Quebec.

To apply, young drivers can product and submit a video clip featuring an insurance mishap, with five auto insurance premiums worth $1,000 as the award for the winners.

To encourage participation, IBC and GAA have recruited actor and TV host Stéphane Bellavance, and Thomas Gauthier, a young vlogger (video blogger) to produce videos related to the campaign and to promote it to their online followers.

The campaign also includes a partnership with the Driving Schools Association of Quebec (DSAQ), which will be distributing posters and postcards about four young drivers who have made wrong decisions about insurance.

Many young drivers not familiar with what their coverage provides

As part of the preparation for the campaign, IBC and GAA commissioned a survey from research firm SOM of young Quebec web users, aged 16 to 24, as well as Quebec web users who are the parents of a young driver in that age group.

With over 750 respondents, the survey looked at the level of knowledge of auto insurance, driver behaviour, attitude to certain risky behaviour, as well as the role of parents with young drivers.

According to the results, 66% of young people use a car rather than public transit, either because they needed to (from a lack of transit network) or because they felt it was more efficient.

Young people mainly used a car to go to work (39%), to school (25%) or to go out with friends (18%), according to the results. 

However, when it came to insurance, the answers from parents and their kids varied significantly when asked if their policy covers liability, collision or fire, theft and vandalism.

Young drivers weren’t as familiar as their parents about what coverage is included in their policy, but that’s likely because in more than 85% of the cases, insurance coverage was purchased by the parents, according to IBC. 

When it comes to driver behaviour, most parents (82%) also set different rules for their kids about using the vehicle they drive: alcohol consumption (36%), speed limit (22%), curfew (14%), safe driving (13%), destination of the young person (12%) and no cell phone use behind the wheel (8%), IBC noted. 

However, IBC also said that nearly two out of three (63%) of the young drivers surveyed also underestimated the risk of having an accident, placing that risk at a three on a scale of one to 10.