My thinking on the black box issue. Is it a way for Motability to crack down on misuse, people delivering takeaways and those not living with the disabled person using the car for their own benefit. The black box will likely log locations, if a car is constantly outside a takeaway and driving short distances from said takeaway it would be obvious to prove misuse.
I’m sure that it could be used for all sorts of reasons BUT there would need to be a cost / benefit analysis done for it to make any sense. Purchasing and installing smart boxes costs money. Monitoring anything other than speeding requires people to review. That costs even more money, especially given the gold plated pay and benefits packages that Motability Operations pay. Whilst removing those who abuse the scheme is the right thing to do, this reduces income for Motability. So, the combined effect of additional costs plus fewer customers means that Motability will need to make up this loss of revenue, and they only have one way of doing this – increases to APs!
There are a number of instances on Facebook where insurance has been withdrawn and leases cancelled after 2 weeks of scores being in the red, contrary to being told they would accumulate points. One scheme user was told hey needed to buy a smartphone or they would not insure, in contrast to what is advised on the website. Others are being marked down for driving over or avoiding potholes fearing they will loose their vehicle, even a wheelchair bound customer, who’s highly unlikely to deliver take aways was removed from the scheme, due to low scores. There are reported problems with device connectivity where they are being threatened over their lease, even though reports suggest they have been set up as per instructions.
Why Motability chose such a device over an industry standard tried and tested blackbox is beyond me so was the random age of 30 and now extended to new customers regardless of age or experience. Its only a matter of time before it becomomes mandatory for all scheme users and as far as I’m concerned, they can shove it where the sun don’t shine. I would rather leave the scheme now, than risk through no fault of my own, having insurance denied by DLM and complications with other insurance providers.
@DJWheels thanks.