Usage-based insurance (UBI) is an industry trend on the mainland and around the world and it is now available in Hawaii.

On August 1, DTRIC Insurance began offering Akamai Rater, Hawaii’s first program that aligns individual driver behavior with auto insurance rates. DTRIC’s Akamai Rater uses a small in-vehicle telecommunications device to capture information on a number of driving variables, including aggressive driving, time of day, excessive speeding, and hard braking. This information allows a customer’s insurance rates to better correlate with his or her actual driving behavior, creating an overall fairer insurance system.

“Akamai Rater will put Hawaii drivers in control of their insurance rates, giving them the power to save up to 40 percent,” explains Linh DePledge vice president and chief marketing officer at DTRIC. “More importantly, though, we believe that the kind of feedback Akamai Rater provides will allow Hawaii drivers to monitor, adjust and improve their driving habits and become safer drivers on the roads that we all share as a community.”

The device simply plugs into a vehicle’s on-board diagnostics port (standard in most vehicles sold in the U.S. from 1996 on) and begins capturing driving behavior data. That driving data is downloaded and posted to a user-friendly online dashboard, allowing a driver to regularly track and improve upon his or her own driving behaviors based on the information that is presented.

DTRIC’s Akamai Rater program was developed exclusively for Hawaii drivers and is powered by Octo Telematics North America, a global leader in insurance telematics technology.

People interested in learning more about DTRIC’s Akamai Rater or wanting to sign up for the program are encouraged to contact DTRIC at 792-0040 or 1-877-792-0040 (Neighbor Islands toll free). More information can be found online at www.DTRIC.com/AkamaiRater.