paul mallett supports the “Toward Zero” Road Safety Strategy, and proposes additional measures to accelerate progress toward the goal of zero deaths each year on our state’s roads.

paul advocates for the use of telematics as part of the next road safety strategy. paul encourages the use of the telematics to: support insurers to offer lower car insurance “usage based options” (ensuring there is clear data use and data privacy safeguards); promote awareness of safe driving via real time feedback provided to road users; offer rebates for new drivers who choose to be monitored; and use data insights, with consent, from anonymous telematics data to identify dangerous roads and times, and use this data to target infrastructure upgrades.

paul promotes the use of telematics to incentivise safe driving and save lives

paul advocates for the introduction of strategies and incentives in Tasmania based on the technology of telematics (telecommunications and informatics). Telematics, increasingly used in car insurance, is the use of a device or smartphone app that monitors how, when, and where a person drives. With robust data use and privacy protocols in place, paul believes data on speed, braking and acceleration, cornering force, time of day, location, distance travelled, and phone use while driving can be used responsibly to incentivise safe driving and potentially save lives.

paul believes telematic data could be used in the following ways:

• Real time feedback. With drivers receiving scores for safe and smooth driving. Badges or financial discount rewards for consistent safe habits. And alerts if they speed or corner aggressively. This real time feedback is understood to help many people drive more calmly, particularly inexperienced drivers.
• Financial incentives. Insurance premiums (and potentially registration) could be lowered as a reward for safe drivings.
• Address distraction and mobile phone use. Known to be one of the major causes of crashes, inattentive driving and the use of mobile phones while driving could be addressed through modern telematics. The technology can: detect if the phone is handled while car is moving; disable certain phone functions while driving; and flag distractions in the driving scorecard. As such, there could be a reward for drivers with zero phone handing with extra reductions in insurance (and possibly registration).

paul believes the benefits will be less accidents, less injury and less deaths, as the strategic use of telematics will:

• Discourage speeding and reckless driving.
• Prevent fatigue, detecting long continuous driving without breaks.
• Flag high-risk areas or times, discouraging driving at these times via insurance premium price signals (not the fairness issue discussed below).

Evidence from the United Kingdon and the United States, where telematics has been used more widely in the provision of “usage based car insurance” (UBI), suggests that the use of telematics has made drivers more mindful, reduced insurance costs, and significantly lowered crash rates.

Equally, paul is aware that with the introduction of any technology there are risks and challenges. paul believes initiatives should be voluntary, there must be robust data usage and privacy protocols, and that it must be fairly administered. That is, roads or regions deemed high risk must not lead to penalty for drivers who have no alternative but to travel at certain times, nor use a partial road or route. There is also some limitations currently with reliably detecting subtle mobile phone use.

Inspiration

paul was fortunate enough to work beside Professor Ross Homel of Griffith University in 2013-2015 on matters related to measuring the impact of social programs on the development of children. It was at that time that paul learned that Ross was instrumental in the introduction of random breath testing (RBT) in Australia several decades earlier.  As a criminologist, Ross had studied deterrence theory, enforcement, and drink driving. His work showed the certainty of detection was far more powerful than the severity of penalties alone. paul was inspired by the academic work of Ross and noted how research, technology and political will could be combined to improve (save) lives.

paul has also survived a serious car accident (see post), and been knocked of his bike by a inattentive driver (see post).