All about your Driving Style Score
Everything you need to know about your scores and how they affect your policy
Here are some key things to remember about your Driving Style Score:
- Scores reset to zero each Monday at midday
- Your Driving Style Score is calculated by measuring speed, smoothness and usage
- Achieve a weekly score over 5 (green) and you’ll earn a weekly treat (app policy) or Carrot Points (box policy)
How do you calculate my score?
For customers with a box policy, journey information is collected via the black box which is used to calculate the Driving Style Score.
For app customers, the app acts as the box and data is sent directly from your phone.
Both the app and box measure speed, acceleration, braking, swerving, and the number and length of journeys made. This data is then taken and split it into three categories – Speed, Smoothness and Usage – before being combined to give an overall Driving Style Score.
Checking your Driving Style Score
Keep an eye on your score either on your personal online dashboard if you have a box policy, or if you have an app policy, the data is held in the Better Driver app.
You can check things like:
- How many miles you’ve driven, and have remaining
- How your journeys were individually scored
- Whether you’re on course to earn a treat or Carrot Points this week
Speed, Smoothness and Usage explained
A journey starts when you turn the ignition on and ends when you turn it off.
Each Overall Journey Score is calculated from a blend of the scores for Smoothness, Speed and Usage, which are weighted to calculate the Overall Driving Style score.
Smoothness, unsurprisingly, measures how smoothly you drive. It considers sudden braking, sharp acceleration and how quickly you take corners. Trying to anticipate the road ahead where possible and easing off when going over speed bumps will help improve your smoothness score – your car will thank you for it too!
There are two parts to speed: the safe speed of the road, and speed limits. Sticking to the speed limit is an obvious one – not only will driving over the limit reduce your Driving Style Score, you’re also at risk of a fine or points on your licence. Safe speed is about judging the road conditions and being prepared for the unexpected.
Usage measures how and when you use your car. These are time of day, journey volume & journey duration. Starting with time of day, your usage score is affected negatively if you make a journey that starts any time between 11pm and 5am, because accidents are unfortunately more frequent and severe at night or in the early hours of the morning.
Low Driving Style Score
If your details remain the same, the cost of your insurance will stay exactly at the price you paid when you took out your policy, but you just won’t earn many rewards. If you consistently have a red score though, we reserve the right to cancel your policy.
All data is private
Privacy is something Carrot takes very seriously and the data that goes to create your Driving Style Score is yours. Your data can be used positively if another driver is trying to make a false claim about you.
We also promise to:
- Adhere to Data Protection laws – read our privacy notice
- NOT release your data to the police or to any civil authorities, unless we suspect fraud or attempted fraud, or if we are instructed to do so by law or a court order
- NOT use your data in a ‘big brother’ kind of way to tell anyone about where you are or what you’re doing. If you do have an occasional lapse and exceed the speed limit, you can rest assured that it goes no further than affecting your Driving Style Score
- NOT use your data to prejudice or refuse any claim you might make simply because you were driving above the legal speed limit at the time
