Teen Driver Safety Service - Insurance & Assurance

Smoothing over the rocky road often traveled by parents and new teen drivers, Safeco Insurance recently launched a completely new product—Teensurance—that offers uncompromised new driver safety for the first time.

Using a GPS-based device—the Safety Beacon™—and online tools to reinforce good driving habits, Teensurance gives parents tangible assurance about their teen's driving behavior by delivering real-time notifications.

Safeco policy holders can register for Teensurance, which grants access to a secure web portal loaded with materials and services to help establish a safe teen driving plan. Beyond its tangible benefits, the new plan enhances the most important parenting tool: communication. By using this safety program, parents and their teens are encour-aged to enter into an ongoing dialogue about good driving habits.

Parents and their teens can agree on the speed, distance, location and curfew limitations. Notification is transmitted in real time to parents' computers, home phones, PDA or cell phones when limits are exceeded.

Only parents and their teens can access the driving information gathered through the Safety Beacon. (Individual driver information is not available to Safeco and will not be used to calculate individual rates, says the company.)

For teens, there's 24/7 roadside assistance and, if they lock their keys in the car (and it has automatic door locks) they can use their mobile phone to remotely unlock the vehicle.

"We believe the most important work we can do for our customers is to help keep their families safe. Parents would rather have 'assurance' than 'insurance,'" says Paula Rosput Reynolds, president and chief executive officer of Safeco.

Research shows that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States.

"Because teen drivers and their parents jointly set limits for driving times, speeds and locations, Teensurance helps young drivers demonstrate responsibility, improve their driving skills and earn their parents' trust," says Jim Havens, vice president of customer solutions at Safeco.

Safeco offers subscribers access to Teensurance’s online services and roadside assistance beginning at $15 a month. (This includes free installation of the Safety Beacon into the teen’s car.)

For more info on Teensurance, visit www.teensurance.com.

(Source: Safeco)