A driver’s mileage is one of the most important but often overlooked aspects of auto insurance policy pricing. Although the number of miles a vehicle owner drives clearly correlates with the number of insurance claims they file, many insurers and underwriting teams are hesitant to make mileage a top rating factor because it is difficult to verify. In fact, auto insurers in the United States lose $5.4 billion every year due to underreported mileage.
Smartcar offers a simple and accurate process for insurers to verify their policyholders’ mileage by email. Our API technology allows insurance providers to replace error-prone self-reporting practices and expensive aftermarket hardware devices with an instant and effortless user experience.
How to verify a customer’s mileage by email
Smartcar’s mileage verification process is as simple as five steps. Here’s what it looks like for customers of an example insurance company called Sky Insurance:
1. Eligible customers receive an email
Our VIN-based compatibility API allows Sky Insurance to verify which customers’ vehicles are eligible for Smartcar’s mileage verification process. If a customer’s vehicle is eligible, Sky Insurance sends them an email inviting them to connect their car.
2. The customer logs into their insurance account
a. The customer clicks the “Connect your car” button in the email and gets sent to the Sky Insurance web portal. Here, the customer logs into their insurance account.
b. The customer clicks the “Connect your car” button to start sharing their mileage with Sky Insurance.
3. The customer connects their vehicle
A Smartcar-provided login flow allows the customer to connect their vehicle to Sky Insurance. First, the customer gets the chance to review Smartcar’s privacy and security commitment.
Next, the customer logs in with their vehicle’s connected services account.
Before agreeing to share their vehicle’s information, the customer reviews exactly which information Sky Insurance will have access to. In this case, Sky Insurance will be able to verify the car’s make, model, model year, location, odometer reading, and VIN.
4. Smartcar verifies the customer’s mileage
The customer has now connected their vehicle to Sky Insurance. In the background, Sky Insurance makes an API request to Smartcar, which remotely retrieves the odometer reading directly from the vehicle’s instrument cluster. The information takes a few seconds to load.
5. Done!
The customer’s exact odometer reading now appears at the bottom of their vehicle details page. Sky Insurance can schedule recurring requests to automatically verify the customer’s mileage once a month, once a year, or as often as needed.
Why you should verify mileage by email
There are several benefits to using Smartcar’s mileage verification process:
- It’s important. As mentioned before, a driver’s mileage is an important risk factor. On average, insurers lose 2.6% on their policy income due to underreported mileage alone.
- It’s easy. Smartcar offers the easiest way for insurers to verify their customers’ mileage. Insurers no longer need to spend time calling customers and asking them to self-report those details. Customers need to connect their cars only once. After that, they never need to worry about mileage reporting again.
- It’s cost-effective. Insurance companies no longer need to buy messy, historical data sets. With Smartcar they can reduce data acquisition costs using an easily customizable, real-time solution.
- It’s accurate. Smartcar’s mileage verification solution is the most accurate on the market, as our API retrieves the actual odometer reading directly from a vehicle’s instrument cluster.
- It’s transparent. The provided onboarding flow brings transparency and peace of mind to the customer, who knows exactly which types of information their insurer will have access to and why.
- It’s digital. Many telematics solutions involve expensive aftermarket hardware devices that require installation and stop working if they are accidentally or intentionally unplugged. Smartcar’s technology is completely hardware-free and reliable, saving insurers and customers time and cost.
This is how insurers can easily and accurately verify their customer’s mileage by email using the Smartcar API. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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