Hibernian targets the young with new driving school

The recent spate of accidents on Irish roads has once again highlighted the disproportionate number of crashes involving young motorists.

One might expect insurance companies to shy away from such a statistically risky customer base rather than go out of their way to target them, but this is exactly the approach being adopted by Hibernian.

Following the success of its Ignition course - a training and assessment day which enables inexperienced drivers to qualify for a 30 per cent discount on their car insurance - Hibernian has now announced that it is to launch a driving school, which will be operational by April 2007.

Learner-drivers who sign up for lessons with Hibernian will be offered the opportunity to qualify for discounts on their premiums whether they decide to buy their own car or become a named driver on their parent's vehicle.

"We are interested in the lifelong value of a customer and we're interested in engaging with people when they're starting to drive," said Dick O'Driscoll, managing director of Hibernian General Insurance.

He explained that extending their service offering in this direction would enable Hibernian - which currently insures 25 per cent of the motor insurance market - to identify potential new customers.

The company's latest offering comes at an opportune moment given the recent suggestions that lessons should become compulsory for learner-drivers.

However, Mr O'Driscoll explained that this project has been in the pipeline since last year, when Hibernian's parent company, Aviva, acquired the RAC School of Motoring in the UK. This turn of events enabled Hibernian to access a huge amount of technical knowledge and cutting-edge technology such as simulators, which its driving school customers will benefit from.

"This is really about providing better access to people who are start-up customers themselves, and better access to people who have kids coming through the system whom they would like to get driving . . . but the barriers to entry are very high at the moment," he said.

While Mr O'Driscoll feels we are heading towards a better regulatory framework on road safety, he emphasises that there is some distance to go. "We're not trying to specify what the A to Z should be. That is not Hibernian's role," he said.

He feels that enforcement presents the single biggest opportunity to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads and points out that the "highly dangerous" practice of provisional licence-holders driving unaccompanied has become culturally acceptable.

"There's no other developed country that I've come across that allows people who have not passed their test to drive unaccompanied," he said.

"In the wider sense of how you get better drivers in the future, obviously educating people from school level on, and having a system of accreditation for people who are learning to drive, would help."

He added that because Ireland does not have a formal system of training, a variable quality of drivers is being released on to our roads. He also advocates a graduated licence system, whereby drivers who have recently passed the test will be restricted in terms of access to motorways and so on.

"We're always working to try to find new initiatives to make a difference to the customers," he continued.

The benefits of initiatives introduced to date, such as Ignition, extend beyond the customer, he explained - for example, to other road-users, if safety improves, and to Hibernian in terms of increased business.

"I think that we have a job to educate people in the widest sense about how much they can directly engage in minimising the risk that they generate and in the long term get benefit from that themselves in their wallet."

Road-users will be glad to hear that the recent surge in motoring accidents is unlikely to have a significant impact on insurance premiums.

"I don't see the pressures that are arising from these individual events at the moment driving the motor insurance premiums," Mr O'Driscoll said.

"What I do see is a situation where motor premiums are generally somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent lower than what they were at their peak between three and four years ago."

While premium increases are inevitable, they are most likely to be in line with normal inflation, he said. However this is dependant on continued enforcement of regulations, improved infrastructure and, in the longer term, education.

The motor insurance side of Hibernian's business tends to get the most publicity, but the company is a market leader in general insurance.

It has implemented an innovative risk management tool for small to medium sized business customers called Risk Assist, an online system that helps businesses to reduce the risk of accidents in the workplace.

Mr O'Driscoll feels that there is less enthusiasm for active risk management in Ireland than is desirable, but conceded that the latest health and safety legislation has helped a lot.

Initiatives such as Risk Assist and Ignition have helped to differentiate Hibernian materially from its competitors by demonstrating that is taking a proactive stance on safety and risk management, he said. "That's not typical of the insurance industry. It's about a philosophy that is Hibernian."