So You Think You Can Drive……..

Insurance companies and drug manufacturers exist in an inflation proof world. When times get tough, they raise prices and there is little you can do about it beyond trying to stay healthy and eliminate hazards around your home and vehicles. Like many folks, every two years or so, we assess our current expenditures with an eye toward fiscal responsibility and select quality insurers who offer a more competitive rate. This was our year and we selected a nationally recognized insurer and began our association with them. They asked if we would place one of those little plastic electronic devices in each of our cars that reports on our driving habits, a consideration that could result in an additional and substantial reduction in premiums, already very competitive. We said yes. After all, if you can’t count on a retired state patrol officer and his primary school administrator to drive properly, then who can you trust? Now the fun begins!

Each trip behind the wheel produces a report card that assess your skills. Speed, cornering, braking, acceleration and cell phone use are closely monitored and your grade is produced on a 100 point scale. I am amazed at the accuracy of this little white demon. We are doing very well, but the demon doesn’t like how I corner, and even hands free cell phone use can be a problem. Along with your score, the company produces a empirical dollar amount your next premium will be reduced if your grades are good enough. Has it changed our habits much? Yep, I’ll explain.

In todays urban traffic pattern, a careful and compliant driver is either going to get his butt run over or suffer a middle finger rebuke. I have always stopped at stop signs, which is not popular with following traffic and speed limits today are merely advisory in nature, with folks routinely busting the limits for their “convenience”. The demon will give you 8 mph over before sending you to the principal’s office. The smoothness of your stops is assessed, and if you are in the habit of hard braking just before impact with the car ahead of you….the principal’s office again. Ms. Sharon brakes hard (there is just so much her trooper husband can do). She is, however, adapting. The demon does not like my cornering, the precise reason I drive a European car renowned for it’s cornering ability. It wants me to corner as if Ms. Daisy is enjoying her tea in the back seat as I drive around. In Springfield, when negotiating a right turn on yield at an intersection, you had better be hauling (butt) when you make the turn or you’ll become a grill ornament on the front of a Lexus piloted by a soccer mom late for work. So it goes when you hand your conscience over to an insurance company for evaluation.

Here is my take on the experience so far. The best driver examiner that I have ever known was Highway Patrol Senior Chief Examiner Dale Shikles who I was associated with back in the day. He presided on one of the biggest days in the life of new driver’s who were about to wet themselves making the examiner happy during their drivers’ license test. The guy could measure inches from his position in the right front as you tried to squeeze your car into a parallel parking space and could feel a tenth of a mile an hour in the seat of his pants as you approached the speed limit. We have named the demon on our windshield “Shikles” in Dale’s honor. We actually like the challenge. Where, in life, can you see a financial reward for consistently obeying the law and driving reasonably?

So far, it is all good, however, I haven’t recently been challenged by a 18 year old in his mom’s Taurus who thinks I am just another old man in a Beemer. I am thinking that Shikles won’t care that once upon a time, I drove like a bat out of hell, catching folks who thought little of traffic law. I’m old but not dead behind the wheel!

Have a great week!

SR