Women Drivers | Yes Please, Says Insurer
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday March 28, 1994
GIO Insurance created a controversy late last year when it announced a lower excess on insurance claims in cases where women were behind the wheel.
The company offers a 10 per cent discount on its excess in cases where a woman was driving a vehicle involved in an accident, even if the vehicle is insured by a man.
Now it appears that a second large insurer - the NRMA - is about to go in a similar direction. An NRMA spokesman said the organisation would be making an announcement shortly with details of a package aimed at women, but declined to give details.
Such deals, even though they discriminate in favour of female drivers, are legal under the antidiscrimination legislation because they are based on statistical evidence.
The insurance companies are merely responding to the realities of the marketplace. Statistically, women drivers cost them less.
Mr Steve Hunt, product support manager for GIO General, said that in assessing loss ratios, female drivers on average cost the company 7 per cent less than male drivers. A comparison among young drivers even more marked; young males cost up to 50 per cent more in payouts.
For the insurance companies the bottom line is that women tend to have fewer accidents than men overall, and when they do have a prang, there is usually less damage than would be the case when a man is behind the wheel.
John Hebron, formerly chief police driving and motorcycle instructor with the Australian Federal Police who now runs his own driver education consultancy, said that the main difference between men and women in driving was ego.
That ego is not restricted to young men. It is present in older male drivers as well. The difference is that the older men have the experience which can get them out of tricky situations which their egos got them into. The younger men can't.
"Generally - and speaking very broadly - women drivers are less aggressive, more patient, more tolerant and more understanding than men," Mr Hebron said.
He finds that particularly when he has a learner in a car out on the road, with a member of the public following behind. "The learner is often lacking confidence, and in that situation my experience is that women drivers behind the pupil are a lot more tolerant. They will wait and smile, whereas blokes stuck behind will tend to get agitated and blow the horn."
He said some of the male aggressiveness related to motor sport. He believes that the Bathurst rivalry between Holden and Ford is sometimes taken onto the streets by male motor sport enthusiasts. Women may follow motor sport, but are less likely to take it onto the streets themselves.
Fundamentally, Mr Hebron believes "males have bigger egos than females, and that is right across the board".
Peter Finlay, of Nationwide Defensive Driving, said that in the main women were more cautious and often took more care of the vehicle. As a result they were generally seen as better drivers.
© 1994 Sydney Morning Herald
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