'Vitality Open made me a better driver'

Discovery's Vitality Open, where all South Africans were incentivised to get active and drive well in its Vitality Active Rewards programme, was an unprecedented behavioural experiment.

Non-Vitality members were motivated to get active and reach weekly goals to earn points that could be exchanged for rewards. Many existing Vitality members were already engaged, but the added awareness of the Open - plus some healthy peer pressure from friends - no doubt boosted activity. It was the driving angle, however, that I found particularly compelling.

How Vitality Drive Active Rewards works

In the Open, participants used the Discovery Insure app on their smartphones to measure how 'well' they drive (Discovery Insure customers can install a dedicated Vitality Drive Sensor, linked to their smartphone, in their cars). Driving activity is measured across five vectors: braking, acceleration, cornering, speeding, and phone use. Each trip is scored across these five, resulting in an overall trip score.

During the Vitality Open, you needed to drive 100 consecutive kilometres event-free to earn reward points. Discovery describes "event-free" driving as "smooth acceleration, smooth braking, smooth cornering, driving within the speed limit, reduced night-time driving, and no cellphone use." In other words, your trips needed to score four or five stars.

Any trip with an incident - think harsh cornering or braking, or cellphone use - sees your progress reset to zero, and the count towards 100 km starts anew.

'Knowing I'm being scored has made me more engaged'

I'm a sucker for gamification. My fitness goal streak stretches back right to the launch of Active Rewards. So far, I've had over 600 km scored in the past three weeks, and have achieved the weekly 100 consecutive event-free goal each time. My Driving Score is a not-quite-perfect 761 (out of 850).

I can say with absolute conviction that knowing I'm being scored has made me a more engaged driver. It's also made me a better one. I'm far more aware of the environment around me, and (even in my VW Up!) I'm no longer racing robot to robot as most of Gauteng does. Getting a four or five star result for braking is harder than you think!

How the Discovery Insure cash rewards work

Your reward is a rand value of between 5% and 50% of your Vitality Drive points or the score reached during the Vitality Open (whichever is higher). This means I could get a cash reward of up to 50% of 761 (hence the R381). To get that maximum reward each month, I need to be on the Classic or Executive plan, and take out both car and home insurance.

After month two, I'll need to have installed a Vitality Drive sensor, completed a multi-point vehicle check and linked the Vitality Drive card (used to track fuel rewards) to keep getting a higher cash back. Fuel rewards (where driving well earns you up to 50% of your fuel spend back) only kick in after the six-month period.

Over time, the insurer positively impacted behaviour

It is easy to dismiss either the Vitality Open or Discovery Insure's driver behaviour programme as a gimmick. But, over time, the insurer has been able to positively impact driving behaviour, which results in insurer savings, which it then passes back to customers in the form of member incentives.

In its results presentation for the year to end-June it revealed that its (car insurance) members have a 10% better driving score compared to the population, and that it sees a 15% improvement in driving behaviour over one month, on average. There are clear correlations between health, wealth and driving. And, even with the probable bias inherent in the sample, the trend for Discovery Insure drivers is clear.

'I've stopped even looking at my phone while driving'

The Vitality Open has managed to get me to stop using - or even looking at - my phone while driving (we've almost all responded to that WhatsApp message without thinking!). Not even Apple's 'Do Not Disturb While Driving' feature - released last year in iOS 11 - could manage this. It was far too easy to simply turn it off with two taps.

On this score alone, the Vitality Open was an unquestionable success.

References:
https://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-opinion/vitality-open-made-me-a-much-better-driver