Driver Education is now useless?

[darnovak]

During a recent webinar hosted by a country-wide PAP carrier, someone posted a question asking why there was no longer a "driver education" discount. "Because it cannot be verified." was the answer. The big discounts are now: paying in full, owning your home as opposed to renting, buying a hybrid vehicle, having a preferred insurance score, etc. For spending several hours sleeping through the famous "defensive driving course" and coughing up $40 or so, one receives a three year 10% discount for everything but Comprehensive, Rental, & Towing. Driver ed was several class hours and actual "behind-the-wheel" learning but is now obviously useless because the new experts have declared that taking steps to be a better driver means nothing. If you fit a specific social profile you are automagically a better risk and deserve to pay less than drivers with clean dmv histories and no claims. What has happened? Recently I read a magazine article on six long haul truck drivers with most of them having driven 1,000,000 miles or more without ANY incident. They take course after course with hands-on instruction and classroom training. They are not excellent drivers because they fit specific social profiles, but because they continually operate vehicles in a safe manner. IMHO, drivers with a clean mvr and no at-fault collisions are the ones who deserve the lower rates. They understand and respect the laws of physics and display courtesy, competency, and respect while on the road.

[rhare]

$40? Where? We paid $330 for each female child to take it at our high school. And our third child will be taking next year, for maybe $350 by then. Our children receive the dr ed discount. I ought to know, I was a Pers lines csr for 18 years before I moved over to commercial. I know what we paid before her Dr Ed was done, and how much of a discount we got after it was applied. I don't know about you, but when I took driver Ed in Wisconsin it was intensive and I still have visions of the movies, skill labs and road exposure we had. My kids took a wholel semester of evening classes twice a week and on road for almost 2 hrs once a week. Driver Ed is INVALUABLE. ANy crackpot from a carrier who is sputing off that Dr Ed doesn't "return" what you put in to it, is nuts! After all those years in Pers lines (I handled claims, underwriting etc) and my own experience as a teenager a parent - I know it works! As for Defensive Driver (DDC) for 6 hrs and $30 - that is almost a joke. I took it to get a ticket reduced. My 82 yr old mother-in-law has taken it many times (every 3 yrs) to reduce her premiums - DDC does NOT teach a bad driver how to drive properly. Especially OLD PEOPLE. My mother in law leanred to drive when rear view mirrors weren't on cars, nor were seat belts, side mirrors, etc. To this day, she looks at me like I'm crazy when I make a big deal about her NOT using her rearview mirror and side mirrors! She was never taught and doesn't "get it!" There should be a mandatory OLD age driver course to learn the modern ways of driving. She doens't knwo a thing about what the solid & dashed white lines mean, same for yellow (except she does know the no pass zone). etc. They don't understand the general rules of the road because they didn't apply when they learned to drive! PLus she grew up out in farm country - when there were no speed zones or lines! oh boy! Now fast forward 60 years and what do you have? - an illiterate driver pretending she knows what to do!

[darnovak]

The DDC is around $40 (my fourth sentence). and is a joke but the discount is real. I have no idea what Driver Education in schools here (NY) costs (or if it is even available...). My son and daughter graduated HS in 1992 and 1993 and Driver education was not available any longer. I took it in 1967 at the same high school. The webinar carrier I referred to is Drive from Progressive. RHARE, what is your opinion on credit scoring? Please message me. Thanks.

[rhare]

I have been against credit scoring since they started it in NY many years ago. I am not convinced it is all THAT wonderful as an indicator of risk. When I was in personal lines, most of my wealthy clients were the worst drivers (parents, not just kids), stupid loss control, and had the young kids driving nice cars. Of course, at least once a year, a bad accident was in the mix...unbelievable. BY loss control stupidity - I mean... I had doctors, dentists and attorneys as my clientele, they were stupid ewnough to park their new expensive car on the City streets, with their laptop and cell phone on front seat...duh - no kidding, the thieves break the glass and steal the goods. The car damage is over $1,000 (expensive cars with expensive glass and leather repairs) plus the personal belignings under the HO claim. And then the times the thieves actually take the car - and then the owner cries about his baby being stolen - stupid jerk - yeah let's park the nice car out in the open (not a ramp) with teh goodies out for all to see. What an advertisement.