New Ontario auto insurance product targets infrequent drivers

Ontario brokers will have a new auto insurance option for their auto customers this July with MyPace, a product intended for vehicles driven fewer than 9,000 kilometres per year, Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) officials said Wednesday.

MyPace, which measures distance travelled using telematics, was approved this past February by the Financial Service Commission of Ontario, said Elliott Silverstein, manager of government relations for CAA South Central Ontario, at a press conference in Toronto.

“This is the first (Ontario auto insurance product) I am aware of with an incentive for people to drive less,” Steve Kee, a spokesman for Insurance Bureau of Canada, told Canadian Underwriter Wednesday in an interview.

CAA Insurance will sell MyPace through 41 brokerage partners, as well as directly in stores and through call centre agents.

Clients who select MyPace “will start with a base rate and be charged in 1,000 kilometre increments,” CAA Insurance president Matthew Turack said during the press conference. That “base rate” will be based on the same rating factors for any other private passenger auto customer (such as make and model of vehicle, drivers’ experience and location). Then CAA will track the vehicle’s distance and charge for every 1,000 kilometers.

Once a vehicle is driven more than 9,000 km in a year, the price would then be no lower than a “traditional” auto policy, Turack noted.

“It’s not the first telematics product on the market, but seems to be the first one focused just on the amount driven,” Kee said. “I think this appeals to people who do not drive a lot,” as well as to commuters who get to work primarily by public transit, he added.

“It shows what a competitive marketplace does,” Kee added. “It allows companies to deliver innovative solutions to their customers.”