‘Women are better drivers than men’ — Netstar

Women are “better” drivers than men, claims Netstar after examining its latest telematics data.

This is one of the conclusions from customer-incident data released by the stolen-vehicle recovery and fleet intelligence company, a subsidiary of Altron.

The new data calculates registered incidences of vehicle impacts, harsh braking, harsh acceleration and harsh cornering as a percentage of total male and female Netstar customers. On every metric women were more cautious than men, which Netstar claims makes them safer drivers.

In terms of harsh braking, registered incidents represent 16.9% of female members and 22.8% of male members. The numbers for harsh acceleration are 4.5% for women and 10% for men. For harsh cornering, the proportions are 13.2% (women) vs 18.8% (men).

Registered vehicle impacts (for example hitting potholes, kerbs or other vehicles) by women customers represented 1.3% of the total number of Netstar’s female customer base during the period measured, compared to 1.4% for men.

“The findings indicate that our female customers drove better than our male customers during the four months that we measured,” says Netstar Chief Technology Officer Cliff de Wit. “The data was gathered using Netstar telematics — a combination of vehicle sensors, GPS and telecommunications technology — and supports emerging offerings like usage-based vehicle insurance and underwriting.”

The data provides real-time information to help insurers understand client driving behaviour, which allows them to set relevant premiums and to incentivise safe and more sustainable driving.

The Netstar data supports the findings of a recent survey of road fatality data in the UK. The study, by Injury Prevention, a publication of the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (Savir), found a large gender imbalance in terms of driving performance and the risk posed by male drivers.

The data found there were more fatalities per billion kilometres travelled among men then there were among women. This was true for all vehicle types — cars, vans, trucks, motorcycles, buses and bicycles.