Press kit

As car-sharing and mobility platforms scale across cities and usage patterns become increasingly dynamic, insurance models designed for private ownership are showing their limits. Traditional insurance was built around fixed assumptions—predictable drivers, stable usage, and long policy periods. Usage-based insurance, by contrast, reflects how vehicles are actually used in shared and on-demand mobility businesses.

Understanding how these two models differ is essential for car-sharing operators managing cost, risk, and growth.

Traditional Insurance: Designed for Static Risk

Traditional motor insurance assumes that a vehicle is owned by a single user and driven in relatively consistent ways over a long period, usually a year. Premiums are calculated upfront using historical averages rather than live operational data.

Traditional insurance is differentiated by: 

• Fixed annual or monthly premiums
• Coverage tied to vehicle ownership
• Limited responsiveness to changes in usage
• Risk, pooled broadly across drivers and vehicles

For car-sharing businesses, this results in inefficiencies—idle vehicles remain fully insured, and low-risk trips subsidise high-risk ones.

Usage-Based Insurance: Coverage That Activates with Use

Usage-based insurance shifts insurance from ownership to exposure. Coverage activates when a vehicle is in use and adjusts dynamically based on how, where, and when it is driven.

Key features of usage-based insurance include:

• Insurance activation during active trips or rental periods
• Pricing linked to mileage, time, location, and feet cases even driver behaviour
• Dynamic risk assessment rather than fixed assumptions
• Closer alignment between insurance cost and real risk

This model is particularly suited to shared mobility and car-sharing environments.

Cost Structure: Fixed Premiums vs. Variable Costs

The cost difference between traditional insurance and usage-based insurance is one of the most impactful changes for operators.

Traditional insurance:

• Insurance costs remain constant regardless of utilisation
• Low-usage vehicles subsidise higher-risk usage
• Insurance spend becomes difficult to optimise across fleets

Usage-based insurance:

• Costs scale with actual usage
• Idle vehicles generate minimal or no insurance cost
• High-risk trips are priced, based on exposure, not averages

This variable cost model improves profitability and capital efficiency for car-sharing platforms.

Accurate Estimation of Risk vs. Behavioural Insights

Traditional insurance relies on historical data and generalised risk pools. Usage-based insurance introduces precision by incorporating real-time or near-real-time data.

Usage-based insurance enables:

• Risk differentiation by trip, route, and time of day
• Identification of unsafe driving patterns
• Incentives for safer driving behaviour

Predictions made with AI and enhanced with machine learning improve fairness and reduce loss ratios by addressing risk at the place where it actually occurs.

Scalability for Multi-Regional Operations

Expanding into new regions often creates headaches, as traditional insurance models and regulatory burdens hold you back.

Usage-based insurance supports scalability by:

• Adapting coverage at the regional or city level
• Enabling rapid policy distribution within a single insurance platform
• Reducing the need to renegotiate policies for each new market

This flexibility allows operators to scale faster with less insurance-related risk.

Claims Transparency and Efficiency

Claims under traditional insurance can be slow, fragmented, and difficult to manage across multiple users and locations.

Usage-based insurance improves claims management through:

• Trip-level data linking time, location, and driver behaviour
• Smoother claims validation and clearer resolution timelines
• Reduced disputes and fraud

This transparency enhances operational efficiency and user trust.

When insurance becomes an asset

Traditional insurance is often treated as a cost of doing business. Usage-based insurance transforms insurance into an operational edge that supports decision-making.

With usage-based insurance, insurance becomes:

• A dynamic risk management mechanism
• A source of actionable fleet and usage insights
• A tool for improving safety, efficiency, and scalability

For modern mobility platforms, this shift is foundational rather than incremental.

Usage-Based Insurance represents a fundamental shift from static protection to dynamic risk management—one that aligns insurance with how modern mobility truly operates.

Cachet’s range of insurance solutions are designed specifically to give you the perspective and power needed to turn risk management into an operational edge.

FAQs

What is Usage-Based Insurance?

Usage-Based Insurance is a model where coverage and pricing are determined by how a vehicle is actually used such as trip duration, distance, location, and driving behavior, rather than fixed ownership-based assumptions.

How is Usage-Based Insurance different from Traditional Insurance?

Traditional insurance uses fixed premiums and broad risk pools, while Usage-Based Insurance adjusts coverage and cost dynamically based on real usage and exposure.

Why is Usage-Based Insurance better suited for car-sharing businesses?

Car-sharing involves fluctuating usage, multiple drivers, and varying risk levels. Usage-Based Insurance aligns insurance with these dynamics, reducing inefficiencies and unmanaged risk.

Does Usage-Based Insurance reduce insurance costs?

In many cases, yes. By eliminating full coverage during idle periods and isolating high-risk usage, operators can better control insurance spend.

Can Usage-Based Insurance help me work across multiple regions?

Yes. Usage-Based Insurance adapts to region-specific risk, regulations, and usage patterns, making it ideal for multi-region mobility operations.

Is Usage-Based Insurance only for large fleets?

No. Usage-Based Insurance scales with fleet size and is suitable for both early-stage car-sharing platforms and large, multi-city operators.

Scaling a car-sharing business across multiple cities unlocks growth, utilisation, and network effects, but it also introduces complex, city-specific risks.

 Traffic density, driving behaviour, regulatory environments, weather patterns, and theft exposure vary significantly from one city to another. Traditional, static insurance models are not designed to respond to this level of variability.

Adaptive insurance enables car-sharing operators to manage risk dynamically across cities by aligning coverage with real-world usage, location, and behaviour. Instead of relying on fixed assumptions, adaptive insurance continuously reflects how fleets actually operate in each market.

Why Multi-City Car-Sharing Increases the Complexity of Risk 

Operating in multiple cities does not simply increase scale—it increases risk diversity. A new city introduces its unique mix of infrastructure, driver profiles, regulatory requirements, and loss patterns.

Common challenges include:

• Higher accident frequency in dense urban areas
• Uneven vehicle utilisation across markets
• Seasonal and weather-driven risk variations

Adaptive insurance helps manage this complexity by adjusting coverage, pricing, and preventative risk controls based on actual trends in each city.

Adaptive Insurance Responds to to Location Trends

One of the defining strengths of adaptive insurance is its ability to respond to location-specific trends in usage. Instead of applying uniform coverage across all cities, insurance flexes according to the location. 

For multi-city car-sharing fleets, this has far-reaching consequences, because:

• Coverage aligns with city-specific risk profiles
• Higher-risk markets are priced and managed appropriately
• Lower-risk cities are not burdened with inflated insurance costs

This location awareness allows operators to expand into new cities without compromising financial or operational stability.

Usage-Based Coverage Flexes Across Cities

Vehicle usage patterns vary widely between cities. Some urban areas experience short, frequent trips, while others have longer rental duration or lower utilisation. Adaptive insurance activates coverage based on actual usage, not just vehicle ownership.

The key advantages are:

• Insurance applies only during active rental periods
• Idle or parked vehicles incur reduced insurance costs
• Risk exposure aligns directly with trip duration and usage intensity

This usage-based model is essential for managing risk efficiently across large, distributed fleets.

Managing Driver Risk in Diverse Urban Environments

Driver behaviour is one of the most significant risk drivers in car fleets leasing out their cars for ride-hailing. Cachet’s adaptive insurance uses driving behaviour data to assess actual on road performance and help you respond to risk behaviour in the fleet.

This enables:

• Identification of high-risk behaviour in specific cities or zones
• Dynamic pricing or coverage adjustments based on driving patterns
• Preventative risk control recommendations to encourage safer driving

By isolating risk at the driver and city level, operators avoid penalising the entire fleet for localised issues.

Regulatory Flexibility Across Countries

Insurance and mobility regulations differ across regions and countries. Static insurance models can slow expansion or expose operators to compliance gaps when entering new markets.

Adaptive insurance includes:

• Country-specific and jurisdiction-compliant coverage
• Embedded insurance that activates automatically per trip
• Faster and lower-risk entry into new markets

This regulatory flexibility allows car-sharing platforms to scale without restructuring insurance programs for every new market.

Claims Efficiency in Multi-City Operations

Managing claims across multiple cities can become operationally complex and costly. Adaptive insurance simplifies this process by linking claims directly to trip data, vehicle data, and location information.

Benefits include:

• Smoother claims processing
• Reduced fraud through trip-level validation
• Clear attribution of liability across cities and users

Efficient claims handling reduces operational friction and improves user trust across markets.

Data-Driven Risk Management at Scale

Adaptive insurance transforms insurance from a static cost into a real-time risk management layer. Centralized visibility across cities allows operators to identify
emerging risks early.

This includes insights such as:

• Rising claims rates in a newly launched city
• Seasonal spikes in damage or accident
• Cities with disproportionate insurance losses

These insights enable proactive decisions around fleet allocation, pricing, and operational controls.

Adaptive insurance is no longer optional for multi-city car-sharing businesses—it is a foundational layer for managing risk, enabling scalability, and sustaining long-term growth.

Since 2018, Cachet has been developing and adding to a data model based on real-world trips back-tested with actual claims data across different cities. Today, we are turning these insights into tools for action through our Driver Behaviour Analytics module within Cachet Mobility. We use advanced technology to give you an accurate risk analysis for vehicle deployments across multiple cities. 

FAQ

What is adaptive insurance in car sharing?

Adaptive insurance is a dynamic insurance model that adjusts coverage and pricing based on real-time factors such as vehicle usage, location, trip duration, and driver behavior, rather than relying on fixed, annual policies.

Why is adaptive insurance important for multi-city car-sharing businesses?

Each city presents different risk conditions. Adaptive insurance allows coverage to respond to these differences, ensuring that operators are neither under-insured in high-risk cities nor over-insured in lower-risk ones.

How does usage-based insurance reduce risk exposure?

Coverage activates only during active rental periods, aligning insurance costs and exposure directly with when risk actually exists. This reduces unnecessary premiums and improves loss control.

How does adaptive insurance improve claims management?

Claims are linked to trip-level data, including time, location, and driver information. This speeds up claims processing, reduces fraud, and improves transparency across distributed operations.

Is adaptive insurance suitable for both large and growing car-sharing fleets?

Absolutely. Adaptive insurance scales with fleet size and city expansion, making it suitable for both early-stage platforms and large, multi-city car-sharing operators.