Salvador Minguijón Pérez on PAYD

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
David McClure Director of telematics in Research and Markets exposed in its last report on the branch tendencies: 
 
"We have witnessed a dramatic change in the telematics industry in recent years, with the initial dominance of vehicle manufacturers being replaced by the business needs and policy objectives of the insurance industry and European governments.
"But in order for them to realise their goals, we need to see a step-change from the current situation, where each telematics service requires different in-car hardware, to a point where all applications can be supported on a single platform. This will require major investment and at present, none of the principle stakeholders appears willing to make the commitment alone, each preferring to 'piggyback' their services off a system installed at someone else's expense.
"Our report clearly illustrates the benefits that can be achieved once the present impasse is resolved."
 
Refering to the project "Pay as you drive" I fully coincide with the diagnosis of David Mcclure, it is a reality that I usually have to face with in the negotiations for the exploitation of the patent EP 0700009.
 
Currently, IP Auctions GmbH (Germany) is entrusted with the conduct of negotiations with interested parties in Europe. The final bidding phase will be brought to termination on October 31st. More information at www . ip-auction .eu

A fact that can break this situation is the acquisition of Tele Atlas by TomTom. We had recently commented that TomTom had acquired the centre of development of Siemens-VDO in Einhoven, and with it, the whole telematic technology of Siemens-VDO.
 
But, besides the development plans of TomTom in this field, we will also have to pay atention to the reaction of their competitors Navman, Mio, Garmin, etc that will tend to articulate around Navteq. That, on the other hand, will see in danger its up to now comfortable leadership in the business applications market.
 
For most of the insurance companies, it would be great if a company like TomTom or Navteq took the leadership in the offer of a platform that supports an application "Pay as you drive" together with other telematics solutions.
 
Nevertheless, there are some companies and people that, for one or another reason, are carrying out big efforts to overcome this impasse, for example:

At first place we have Norwich Union whose objective is to become the leader in the automobile insurance in England, and that supports its project with a set of additional services offered by RAC and Trafficmaster.
 
Octotelematics, that has worked with its own system of localization of vehicles to get a great penetration in the insurance companies. It has a platform that is gradually turning to be as a "Pay as you drive" system. It is nowadays a business model for Spanish, French or American companies, an other countries where the problem of robbery is much more important.
 
It is necessary to name Todd Alexander Litman in Canada and Ian Parry and Allen Greenberg in U.S.A who are taking several years trying that their respective governments force the insurance companies to offer policies linked to the use. This is a topic that we will discuss later on, because it deserves a specific article.
 
We should also mention to the family Cobopoulos, which is determinated in developing a telematic project in the city of Athens that would be a world reference and that would incorporate, among other multiple services, the "Pay as you drive" Insurance.
 
We should not forget that Fotis Karamitsos, the godfather of the telematics in Europa, is Greek and that he has a great influence in his country. It is hoped that Greece reaches a great economic dynamism in next years. The traffic supposes a tremendous problem in this country already. So everything indicates that indeed Greece can play an important part in the development of the European telematics systems.
 
In my previous bulletin of June, I made the error of linking the activities of Detecon and T-Systems, when in fact Detecon is a completely independent consultancy. They advise their clients with the best possible solutions for their business and are not bounded in any way to solutions offered by its shareholder T-Systems. Certainly, and without any doubt, a partner that any European insurance company that wants to throw a project "Pay as you drive", should speak with.

As always, I have upgraded my " Pay As You Drive Directory" and my News Bulletin.

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Yours sincerelly.
 
Salvador Minguijón Pérez.
Interim Management.
+ 34 649 49 17 70
+ 34 976 59 58 71
Email: s.minguijon@salvador-minguijon.es
Web: http://www.salvador-minguijon.es