Black Box Car Insurance

We don’t impose night time curfews or charge you additional fees for driving at night. However driving between the hours of 6pm and 6am will have an effect on your Driver Score. Our driver scoring takes into account when you are driving at night, which statistically increases the chances of an incident. If you regularly drive between these hours, then it may have a negative impact on your Driver Score, and could reduce any discount that you may be offered when you come to renew your policy.

Telematics is an advanced driving technology that monitors the way you drive. It tracks things like braking and acceleration and works out how safe a driver you are by giving you a score out of 100. The higher your score, the better your driving and the lower the price your insurance could be.*

At the RAC, we call this technology RAC Black Box.

It's simple and easy to install: one of our approved fitters will fit a small black box into your car which is the telematics unit, or 'black box'. It uses GPS to give us the information we need to ensure you're driving safely and to provide you with the most competitive price based on your driving behaviours.

The information it gives us also helps us to let you know when you need to make some changes to your driving to ensure you get the best insurance price for you and your vehicle.

Check out the benefits of our Black Box Car Insurance below and get the right cover for your car today.

• No curfews for young drivers - Drive where you want, when you want.
• You choose your annual mileage - We don't charge you on a per mile basis, unlike some providers.
• No installation fees – We’ll arrange to fit the black box at a time and location convenient to you. You just need to make sure the box is fitted within 14 days of the policy start date.
• You could save more at renewal - The better you drive, the more competitive your renewal quote could be.
• Lower your fuel bills – our useful driving tips could help you lower your fuel bill by becoming more fuel efficient.
• Vehicle locator – If you can't remember where you parked your car, you can use our Black Box App to help you find it.

RAC Black Box Car Insurance carries the same features and benefits as traditional RAC Car Insurance but it gives you the opportunity to reduce your insurance premium price at renewal based on your true driving behaviour, which you control.

Car insurance is expensive for young and new drivers because they are more likely to have an accident than someone who has been driving for longer. Factors such as lack of road awareness, varying weather conditions and driving at night all mean inexperienced drivers are a greater risk on the road.

The benefit of black box insurance is that a person’s individual driving is monitored and their renewal premium calculated based on their own driving record, rather than them being treated the same as all other drivers.

If you can prove to your insurer that you’re a safer risk, then your premium can be reduced as a result. Like other types of car insurance, if you don’t make a claim within a year you will build up a year’s No Claims Discount (NCD). The more NCD you have, the more discount car insurers can offer you, and the cheaper your insurance is likely to be.

As with any other type of car insurance policy, other factors - such as the age of your car, engine size, where you leave it parked overnight, whether you have an immobiliser or other security device fitted - will be used to calculate your insurance premium.

Getting your Black Box fitted is easy, normally takes less than an hour and will be carried out at a time and location convenient for you. Visit our fitting the box page for more information.

When you take out an RAC Black Box Car Insurance policy, we fit a black box to your car. This enables us to record information about your journeys, how you drive, braking, acceleration, and so on. The data we capture is used to monitor and alert you if we think you need to better manage your driving. At renewal we can then price your premium according to how safely you’re driven over the year.

This data is not used as a ‘speed camera’, so we don’t actively pass information to the authorities, unless specifically required to do so by law. However, we will email you an alert if you drive over the speed limit if we feel your speed is excessive, and if you continue to do so we have the right to cancel your policy with notice. In the event of an accident or suspected fraud, we can use your black box information for investigative purposes.

Other than stated above, we do not share your black box data with anyone else, for example your parents. You can view your black box data, along with any alerts, on our RAC Black Box Portal, or via our app.

Our Black Box plugs into the OBD (On-Board Diagnostic) port in your vehicle, which is normally located under the dashboard. This connects to the vehicle computer and is used by professional technicians to diagnose problems or errors with the vehicle.
 

 

Your vehicle’s computer runs a diagnostic check every time you turn on the ignition and produces specialist codes relating to any issues – these are known as DTCs (Diagnostic Trouble Codes), and require a special tool to read them. 

You may not know, but it’s common for DTCs to be detected by your car’s computer without any warning lights appearing on your dashboard. Our Black Box can enable us to catch these potential problems early, and prevent them becoming more costly or troublesome in the future.

The OBD port can be used by a variety of devices, such as;

• Telematics or black box devices – these use the port to identify the vehicle and to power themselves, so that they can monitor the vehicle location and driving behaviours

• Manufacturer data logging devices - these are designed to capture information about the vehicle systems/mechanics while the vehicle is in use. These are sometimes supplied by the vehicle manufacturer or dealer to assist with fixing issues and schedule servicing

• Driver Information devices - these devices provide additional information to the driver in addition to what’s normally displayed on the dashboard, and may be used by vehicle enthusiasts to monitor specific areas of their vehicle

No. We don’t impose a restriction on your annual mileage – you choose this when you get a quote for our cover. Before you get a quote, it’s worth thinking about how far you regularly travel (i.e. to college, university, or a place of work) and how many miles you may travel outside of this (i.e. holiday, days out, etc).

As with traditional car insurance, the higher the mileage you do, the higher the risk you are on the road, and the higher the premium you’ll pay for your policy. However, we will not charge you on a per mile basis, like some alternative young driver insurers.

We may contact you to discuss your declared mileage if you exceed it, so it’s worth making sure the mileage you give is a realistic estimate when you get a quote. If you exceed your estimate, this could result in an increase in your premium or potential cancellation of your policy.