What is car insurance per kilometer for small riders?

How does this type of contract work? What are its advantages and disadvantages ? Find below our complete comparison of insurance offers per kilometer for small riders.

Insurance per kilometer: a boon for small riders?

Insurance per kilometer is aimed at drivers who use their car less than the average of other drivers.

In France, according to various studies, the average annual mileage traveled by a car is 12 to 13,000 km. A small wheeler in the eyes of car insurers, is therefore a driver who travels less than 5 to 10,000 km per year, exclusively for private or home-to-work journeys.

More and more motorists reduce car use and are receptive to lowering their auto insurance rates. The formulas dedicated to small riders can therefore, for example, be suitable:

• city ​​dwellers who only occasionally use their vehicle;
• retirees who no longer need to commute to work;
• people who want to save money on gas and maintenance costs;
• young drivers;
• to people sensitive to the defense of the environment;
• etc

Why subscribe to a per kilometer offer?

An insurance offer per kilometer is ideally suited to a small rider since it generates a reduction in the amount of the premium to be paid. In fact, according to insurers, this reduction is between 5 and 35% for mileage packages included between 10,000 and 4,000 km. Of course, a lower contribution does not impact the content and quality of the guarantees available (civil liability, theft, fire, collision, glass breakage, etc.).

This price reduction is logical since a vehicle with little use represents a lower risk for an insurer. The number and frequency of claims are logically impacted. In view of the statistical difference in claims between a driver driving 6,000 km / year and a driver driving 20,000 km / year, the reduction in premiums should even be much greater!

Conversely, medium and long-distance riders (over 10,000 km) do not have access to insurance offers per kilometer, because the principle of calculating the contribution per kilometer could generate an additional tariff.

How is the annual mileage calculated?

In France, insurers use two types of solution for calculating the kilometers traveled by a vehicle during a year:

1. the declared mileage package;
2. the electronic unit installed in the vehicle.

The declared mileage package

This is the solution most commonly chosen by insurance companies because it is the simplest to implement. For this, the insured declares, at the time of subscription, to travel a certain number of kilometers per year, corresponding to a “small rider” mileage package offered by the insurer. For example, the insured agrees to drive less than 6 or 8,000 km/year. The lower the mileage package chosen, the greater the reduction in the insurance premium.

So that the insurer can control a posteriori compliance with the subscribed mileage package, the insured is obliged to provide him with a mileage statement at the time of subscription. This statement can, for example, be made by photographing the meter and the license plate of the car. Then, at each annual due date, the insured must renew the operation in order to prove that he has complied with the contractual package.

The electronic unit installed in the vehicle

This type of formula is rarer on the market. The installation of an electronic unit in the vehicle, with or without a GPS chip, is offered by some insurers who have designed offers for specific audiences (young drivers or city dwellers). These are concepts usually called pay as you drive Where pay how you drive (the best known being certainly the offer YouDrive of Direct Insurance).

The particularity of these offers is that the price reduction is not limited to the sole calculation of the mileage carried out. The box, connected to the vehicle’s OBD socket, also allows the driver behavior behind the wheel (acceleration, braking, pace, etc.) and to refine the calculation of the bonus using this data. This type of solution is particularly used for young drivers, who are more inclined to exceed the authorized limits. In this case, the distance traveled is only one parameter among others of the overall behavior of the insured.

A solution with another type of electronic box is offered by the insurtech Wilov and Altima. The box is here simply controlled remotely by an application installed on the smartphone of the insured. Only the frequency of vehicle use per 24 hour period. The annual mileage is not recorded, the amount of the premium being established on the days and hours of use of the vehicle.

The advantage of solutions with electronic box is to be able to follow, in real time via a dedicated application, the kilometer consumption and its future impact on the insurance premium.

What happens if the vehicle exceeds the declared number of kilometers?

As part of a mileage package, the insured agrees not to exceed a number of kilometers per year, defined in the contract. If he realizes during the year that this plan is too fair for his consumption, he must report this as soon as possible to his insurer who will offer him a solution such as:

• switching to the higher mileage package;
• the abandonment of the small rider offer, in particular if it turns out that this increase in the distance traveled is sustainable;
• subscription to temporary additional mileage (1 or 2,000 km for example).

Obviously, switching to a higher offer entails a premium increase.

If the insured does not declare the kilometers exceeded

Penalty mechanisms are provided for in the contract between the insurer and the insured. The most obvious is the reduction of compensation paid in the event of a claim. As the insured risk no longer corresponds to the risk declared by the policyholder, the insurance company is contractually entitled to penalize the insured by means of a higher deductible or a proportional premium rule. These sanctions are indicated in the conditions, general or specific, of the contract.

And if the insured forgets to declare the mileage performed on the annual due date, the insurer will limit the reduction in premium, or even completely eliminate it.

What happens if the vehicle drives less than expected?

This is not systematic, but some insurers allow the insured whose vehicle has been driven less than expected to carry over the kilometers not traveled to the package for the following year, in the form of mileage reserve.

Comparison of car insurance offers per kilometer

Below you will find the list of insurance offers per kilometer currently offered on the French car insurance market. Attention ! Each insurer has its own conditions for controlling the annual mileage and its own adjustment mechanisms in the event of an overrun.