Newtown company wins £4m contract

Newtown based Quartix has won a £4million contract to supply vehicle tracking devices to one of Europe's leading on-line pay-as-you-drive (PAVD) insurers.

Coverbox is one of the UK's leading brands for telematics-based insurance and has signed a deal with Quartix for black box technology that could  be adopted by fleets within 12 months.

 Coverbox is to be supplied with around 15,000 of Quartix's latest tracking devices. These will be used by its policyholders as s part of its pay-as-you-drive service - a service that offers refunds if the system detects their mileage is less than anticipated or their driving is limited to off-peak periods when fewer accidents happen.

At present, the service is aimed at consumers but Quartix believes that telematics-based insurance will increasingly be takne up by fleets in the future.

Andy Walters, Quartix managing director, who said the deal was worth £4m explained : 'Fleet managers are already using telematics systems to modify driver behaviour to reduce health and safety risks and fuel costs, and it's a relatively small development to share that information with insurers and to reduce premiums.'

Quartix is supplying Coverbox with its new TCSV9 system, which incorporates a comprehensive range of features in a unit only slightly larger than a matchbox and weighing under 80g. The features include GPS tracking; a crash-detection "black box" to alert the insurance company or fleet owner of an accident - plus detailed storage of vehicle movements prior to a crash; and  a tri-axis accelerometer to monitor acceleration, braking and cornering.

Speeding is monitored against a road speed limit database for the UK. Data can be used to assess a driver's accident risk level through his driving behaviour.