In an innovative approach to road safety Northern Beaches Council is the first local council in the country to encourage motorists to compete to be the safest driver using telematics technology on smartphones.
Telematics technology is used in over 20 countries with a proven record of changing driver behaviour and is now being used in Australia through the free UbiCar app.
For the month of October local motorists compete against one another for a prize pool of $5000 to be the Northern Beaches Safest Driver after downloading UbiCar on their phone.
“Australia relies heavily on penalties to improve driver behaviour, which has an impact, but it’s time to introduce positive reinforcement and reward motorists for safe driving. We're thrilled to have Northern Beaches Council sponsor UbiCar's first Australian Safest Driver Competition” said Carolyn Batterton, Co-Founder of UbiCar.
“UbiCar measures phone distraction, speeding, acceleration, braking and cornering, but there is no interaction whilst driving,” said Ms Batterton.
“Patented technology allows UbiCar to run automatically in the background, like a silent driving partner, calculating scores, so at the end of a trip UbiCar lets drivers know if they made mistakes and where they can improve their driving.”
“New data shows this technology leads to an average reduction of 35 percent in phone distraction, 20 percent in hard braking and 20 percent in at-risk speeding all within 30 days of using the program.”
Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan said Council is pleased to be leading local government and taking part in this fantastic concept.
“It’s a personalised approach, gives immediate results and any demographic can access the app. I hope it inspires other councils to follow suit.”
“Council’s aim is to make Northern Beaches roads safe for all of us - drivers, cyclists and pedestrians,” said Mayor Regan.
“Speeding is the biggest problem on the Northern Beaches and one of our key aims in our own 20 year Transport Strategy is to work towards zero deaths by 2038.
“We already have a number of road safety initiatives in place including bicycle safety, educating seniors, educating the supervisors of learner drivers and safety around schools, as well as funding and coordinating child safety restraint checks.
Carolyn Batterton said schools have started adopting UbiCar into driver education for year 11 and 12 students and now councils are looking to use the safe driving app to complement their existing road safety programs, making our roads safer.”
To be part of the Northern Beaches Safest Driver Competition simply download the UbiCar app from the app stores on to your phone and join the competition if you live in the area.
Motorists outside the Northern Beaches can earn UbiCoins by driving safely to spend in the UbiStore within the app to save money on products including movie tickets, groceries, gifts and fuel.
For more information visit www.ubicar.com.au
Northern Beaches Safest Driver Competition
The Northern Beaches Safest Driver Competition is an Australian FIRST! Northern Beaches residents can compete with one another using the UbiCar app to be crowned the area’s Safest Driver!
The Competition is open to ALL residents of Northern Beaches Council, the major sponsor of the Competition.
Competition Details:
- Competition launch: 24th September 2018. (You can enter from this date!)
- Official Competition period: 1st October – 31st October 2018.
- Prize periods: Weekly from Monday 1st October.
- Grand Prize: Awarded shortly after competition closes on 31st October.
