Soon, You’ll Get One Policy for Many Cars

Car insurance policy is necessary for all the car owners. If you have a car and you want to drive it freely on the road then you will have to buy a third party car insurance for every car that you own. As per the mandatory requirement of third party insurance policy every car owner has to buy a car insurance policy to cover the third party damages. However, one car insurance policy provides coverage only to one car owned by the individual. Hence, for every additional car that you own you need an additional car insurance policy to cover the damages of each individual car. There are two options of car insurance which includes third party insurance which is mandatory under law and comprehensive car insurance which is optional.

Third-Party Insurance policy

Third-party insurance policy covers all the third party damages caused by your car due to an accident. Any damages caused to any third party or his/her property will be covered by the third party insurance policy. Third-party insurance is mandatory under the Motor Vehicles Act and one policy provides coverage only to one car. The premiums for the third party insurance policy are determined by IRDAI and they are same for all the insurance company across India. IRDAI revises the rate of premium from time to time.

Comprehensive Insurance Policy

Comprehensive Insurance policy provides coverage for personal damages as well as third party liability. It provides complete coverage to the policyholder against all the damages caused to the policyholder due to an accident. A comprehensive policy also provides coverage against loss or theft of the vehicle. Comprehensive insurance policy is optional and the premium of these policies is determined by the insurance companies. They also have an added rider facility to enhance its coverage benefits. One insurance policy covers one vehicle only.

One Car Insurance Policy for many cars

The premiums based on usage will soon prevail in the industry of Motor Insurance with the insurance companies offering single owner of multiple cars an option to allocate the coverage of the car insurance policy in line with anticipated usage of each of the car. This option will enable the individuals owning more than one car to buy a single car insurance policy for multiple cars with a different limit for each of the car.

Floater Policy by ICICI Lombard

The floater policy option introduced by ICICI Lombard allows the car owners to optimise the sum assured in their car insurance policy since no individual will drive two vehicles at the same time. This floater option is very much similar to the family floater available in the health insurance plans to buy a single health plan with sum assured for all the family members. ‘Single owner, multiple vehicles’ offered by ICICI Lombard is app-based floater interface which helps the policyholder to link their multiple vehicles and ensure coverage to all.

ICICI Lombard has developed the prototype to evaluate the floater option after six months. This prototype is valid for a period of six months and the insurance companies can opt to launch usage-based insurance to the individuals where they can pay the amount of premium as per their driving choices.

Features of Floater Option of ICICI Lombard

The floater option is an app-based interface. Key features of this new programme by which soon you will get one policy for many cars are as follows:

1. The new programme of floater option will take into consideration the driving behaviour, hard braking, rash accelerations, distance travelled, speed, etc to compute the amount of premium for the car insurance plan beside various factors generally considered by insurance companies for computation of premiums on the insurance policies.
2. An application will be used by the insurance company to monitor the driving behaviour of the owner and also reward him/her for the practice of safe driving. The customers will be able to check their score based on their usual driving behaviour. The scores based on the driving behaviour of the customers will be automatically updated in the app and reflect in their own damage premium at the time of renewal of the insurance plan
3. This new programme may be chosen by the customers for less than one year time period.
4. The premiums for this floater option insurance plan will be charged by the insurance company on the basis of ‘pay as you consume’. This means the premiums will be charged based on the kilometres that are utilised by the policyholder, or the time period that the policyholder intends to drive their car.

Benefits of Floater option of ICICI Lombard

This option will provide various benefits to the policyholders. The benefits of this floater option are as follows:

1. This makes car insurance policy hassle-free for many people. If you own more than two to three cars, it becomes difficult to buy car insurance for each and remember and pay the premiums for each such policy.
2. You will not be required to remember the renewal date of each policy of each car.
3. No requirement of maintenance of so many documents of various car insurance policies for many cars.
4. This option is app-based enabling ease and online handling of the insurance policy
5. This app-based interface rewards the owner for safe driving practice which encourages the drivers to drive safely and increase their score and rewards and enjoy benefits of premium discounts.
6. This option takes into consideration various other factors for calculation of the premium for the insurance policy such as rash driving, hard braking, etc. This ensures that the individuals will keep these factors in check to keep their premiums low.

Conclusion

Getting an option of one car insurance policy for many cars is a high relief to the car owners owning many cars. IRDAI has allowed one car insurance plan for more than one car ensuring ease and hassle-free insurance for many cars. Hence, if you deal in the business of car or own many cars and faces difficulty for maintaining their insurance then there is relief coming your way soon with the option of floater option.