February 08, 2005

... and off we go!

Today, february 8th, marks the start of my university graduation research project. I am a student of environmental sciences at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

I plan to investigate the value-creating potential of Pay as you drive (PAYD) vehicle insurance, which is a car insurance that is paid for in cents per mile or kilometre instead of a fixed sum per year, as is currently the case with most insurance companies.

The idea is that people who pay their insurance fees per distance traveled will more consciously weigh their options when planning a trip, leaving their car unused more, thus contributing to reductions in traffic congestion, and reductions in transport emissions and in damage-claims, both collision- and liability claims.

Congestion, traffic (exhaust) emissions and damage repair all have considerable environmental impacts, so arguably PAYD insurance is potentially a good way to use a so-called market based instrument to reduce those impacts. But in order to have it available to individual motorists, individual insurance companies will have to have it on offer. Insurance companies will be reluctant to provide the possibility to insure 'the PAYD way' when a good business case is lacking.

My research will be focused on two main questions:
1. How much environmental value can be created by the introduction of PAYD vehicle insurance in the Netherlands?
2. How much corporate value (ie, business opportunities for individual vehicle insurance companies) can be created by the introduction of PAYD by individual dutch insurance companies?

Depending on the outcome of those two questions, the remainder of the research report will be about:
- suggestions to make PAYD a more attractive product for an insurer to offer (currently, hardly any company has it on offer)
- suggestions to make PAYD more value-creating in terms of reducing environmental impacts (under those involved with the product, there seems to be a sort of consensus about two things: 1. PAYD on its own will not revolutionize traffic-related environmental impacts; 2. It might be a sensible complement to other market-based transport regulation measures, such as a 'kilometerheffing', a general tax on mobility levied by the government, an idea that is aired regularly in dutch politics but has failed to pass through parliament as legislation on several occasions).
More generally, the idea is this: a comprehensive variabilisation of the costs of individual mobility, which is a part of Dutch governmental transport policy, is an indispensable part of the transition to a more sustainable mobility.

If the two questions should yield two clear 'zero' answers, the remainder of the research report should focus on suggestions to reduce transport-related emissions in other ways.

I hope to keep myself focused, motivated and productive by the contributions to this blog, at the same time practising my English writing skills.

So, dear reader, whoever you are, do not hesitate to reprimand me (in comments, for example) in case I fail to make good progress at any time!

Christof

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am also pursuing this topic for my middler year writing paper at Northeastern University. Mine is moreso geared towards writing a proposal to Geico to adopt a PAYD policy. I need to interview an expert in the field and use multiple scholarly articles, do you have any advice?

7:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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8:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

All I can say is WOW christof. The other half and I just got back from our friends house (well her friends house) and I needed a huge break. I am working on a project right now that is based on aaa car insurance. I have literally been on-line for 2-3 hours doing research. Even though this post really isn’t on the same page as aaa car insurance I am certainly glad I came across your blog. There are a ton of great view points on this blog. Well I think I can here the kids screaming in the background. I put you in my internet favorites and I will certainly come back and visit. If you want to take a peek at my site you can find me here at aaa car insurance. I update my site very frequently. Again, great job blogging and I will be back again soon!

2:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What up christof! I just finished up a ten hour work day and decided to kick back and do some surfing. So I grabbed myself a drink and stumbled across your blog while doing some research on aaa car insurance for a upcoming project I am doing. Well even though this post isn’t what I was looking for I really enjoyed reading your blog. Your doing a great job and please keep up the good work. Lots of people do not keep their blogs up to date :0) There are some very interesting view points stated here. Anyways I am going to grab the bull by the horns and continue to plug away at aaa car insurance. I have already bookmarked your blog. You many want to visit me at aaa car insurance. You never know you might see something you like! Again great job.

12:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sad to say I just got back from a bowling tournament and decided to log in and do some websurfing. christof I love your blog. I had some very good laughs. I am doing a paper on antique car insurance and have been downloading information for the last hour. I don’t know how I came across this post but I am glad I did. It has set me back a little because I have spent the last hour reading your archives. If you don’t mind I would like to add you to my favorites so I can back again and read some more. Well I need to get back to antique car insurance. I am almost finished with it. Great job.
p.s some very good points on your blog

3:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love your blog christof. How long has it been on-line? Reason I ask is I am doing a ton of work in the area of cheap car insurance rates and will probably end up starting a blog of my own. Funny how the internet brought me here when I was doing searches on cheap car insurance rates. Oh well, I am glad it did. Keep up the great blogging and I am sure I will visit this post again!!

3:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey christof. Very nice blog :0) I just got inside from washing and waxing my truck. It is my baby. Took me 2 hours though. So I settled down into my basement and started doing some web surfing. Anyways I am in the process of grabbing my masters degree and have spent the last 6 months researching car home insurance. In the midst of my surfing I landed smack dab in the middle of your blog. I hope you do not think I am intruding but I must say it is great blog. Even though this post is way off base from car home insurance I found myself cruising through your blog archives for the last half hour :0) You have some nice blogging friends. Anyways, I need to get back to my mission. I wrote don’t your url and feel free to visit me here at car home insurance. I am so busy so I can only update my site monthly. Keep up the great work.

10:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Il semble qu’il existe des solutions « statistiques » finalement plus pédagogiques et éthiques que financières d’aborder le PAYD. Une des méthodes s’appelle le PriPAYD (Privacy Friendly Pay As You Drive) et on trouve surtout de l’info en anglais dessus :

http://www.pripayd.org/privacy-friendly-pay-as-you-drive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAYD
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1314333.1314353&coll=&dl=GUIDE&type=series&idx=SERIES10763&part=series&WantType=Proceedings&title=WPES

12:21 PM  

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