TERMS OF USE APPLICABLE TO CLIENTS WHO HAVE ENROLLED IN THE AUTOMERIT PROGRAM AFTER FEBRUARY 5TH, 2024.
The automerit program (the “Program”) allows your automobile insurance premium to be adjusted by sharing information about your driving behaviour with belairdirect in order to apply it as a rating factor to determine and/or update your automobile insurance premium. As a result, your automobile insurance premium may be increased, decreased, or remain unchanged (the “Adjustment”), as further outlined below. If you unenroll or are removed from the Program, belairdirect may continue to use data collected while you were enrolled to adjust your premium at subsequent renewals. Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) for more information on how we’ll adjust your premium.
Please note that by downloading and using the belairdirect application (the “Application”) on your smartphone (by “smartphone” we mean a suitable mobile computing device capable of downloading and running the Application as intended), you are deemed to accept and agree to be bound by the following Terms of Use (the “Terms”) during your participation in the Program. For the purposes of these Terms, “you”, “your” and “yourself” refers to any principal driver of a private passenger vehicle, whether or not they are the policyholder or a named insured, who enrols in the Program and who meets all the conditions in the “Am I Eligible?” section below (“Enrolled Drivers”). It is important for policyholders who are not also Enrolled Drivers, to be aware that their premium on each eligible vehicle will be adjusted based on the Driving Data of Enrolled Drivers only.
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Terms. Subject to any applicable regulatory approvals, we may modify the Terms at any time by providing notice and obtaining your consent for such modifications where legally required to do so. Where such consent is not required, modifications are effective immediately and you agree to be bound by them through your continued participation in the Program following receipt of such notice.
If you do not accept these Terms in their entirety, you are not eligible to participate in the Program. Do not activate or use the Program portion of the Application if you do not accept these Terms. You must contact belairdirect if you wish to cancel your participation in the Program.
Federal and provincial laws may completely or partially prohibit you from using your smartphone, including the Application, while driving. For your own safety, and the safety of everyone else on the road, belairdirect strongly encourages you to avoid any prohibited use of your smartphone or the Application while driving.
To participate in the Program, you will have to install the Application, which will use your smartphone’s instrumentation (such as GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.) to continuously collect information about your driving behaviour and transfer this information to belairdirect. Along with adjusting your insurance premium, the information collected and transferred will be used by belairdirect to design, operate, enhance, and administer the Program, as described in detail in the “How is my Personal Information used?” section below.
If you were enrolled in previous versions of the Program, belairdirect may also use data collected from those previous versions to assess any Adjustment.
To participate in the Program, you must meet the following conditions:
Enrolling in the Program is easy and completely voluntary. Simply contact belairdirect, or for more information you can visit our website at https://www.belairdirect.com/en/app/automerit.html. You will then receive a confirmation text message (SMS) with instructions to download and log into the Application and activate the Program module. You can also enrol directly through the Application. If there are multiple Enrolled Drivers on the same automobile insurance policy, text messages (SMS) related to the Program will be sent to the mobile phone number provided for each of them. Once you have logged in following the instructions provided, accepted the Terms and given the Application permission to access your location and other required data, your enrolment is completed. Once the Application detects your first trip, it will begin recording Collected Data regarding the driving trips and events, which will be sent to belairdirect. The Application only collects and transmits Driving Data to belairdirect when a trip has been detected.
If you are a new belairdirect customer and are enrolling in the Program, you will receive a one-time discount applicable to your first policy term enrolled in the Program (the “Activation discount”). For more details on the Activation discount, please see our FAQs.
Please note that enrolment in the Program does not guarantee entitlement to any Adjustment, which varies based on your Driving Data and other rating factors.
Your automobile insurance premium will be adjusted upon each renewal of your policy, if eligible, based on a variety of driving events, such as:
The driving events may be contextualized in light of various factors, such as:
These driving events and factors (collectively the “Driving Data”) will be continuously measured by processing Collected Data while you remain enrolled in the Program. The assessment of your Driving Data will be used to adjust the premium of all eligible vehicles for which you are listed as the principal driver. This assessment may also include historical Driving Data collected during your participation in prior versions of the Program.
The premium will be updated upon each renewal of your, or the policyholder’s, automobile insurance policy, based on your Driving Data, and may:
However, upon renewal, the premium may also be increased or decreased based on rating factors other than a change in your Adjustment based on your driving behaviour.
Since your Driving Data may be contextualized, you will not be provided with an exact amount or percentage of Adjustment at your or the policyholder’s automobile insurance policy’s renewal. However, the Application will provide you with feedback on your driving behaviour which will allow you to assess whether you are trending towards an increase or decrease in premium. For more information on how you can assess your potential Adjustment, please see our FAQs.
Your smartphone’s location services (GPS) must be turned on and accessible by the Application at all times. You must also give the Application permission to access other required data (e.g., accelerometer and gyroscope) to allow collection of Collected Data.
If your smartphone’s location services (GPS) are turned off or inaccessible, you may not receive an Adjustment or the Adjustment you do receive might have a lesser impact on your premium, and your access to certain features in the Program portion of the Application may be restricted (e.g., you may be unable to track your driving behaviour or correct incorrectly tagged trips).
Once the Application is installed and activated, it will detect certain movements, record trips, and tag them automatically to be used to assess your driving behaviour and Adjustment each time you are considered driving a private passenger vehicle. This includes trips where you were driving any private passenger vehicle, regardless of where the vehicle is insured or who it belongs to. Information relating to each trip is available in the Application. If a trip was incorrectly tagged by the Application, you will be responsible for correcting its tagging within thirty (30) days of the applicable trip.
We reserve the right at our sole discretion to terminate your participation in the Program or alter any Adjustment if we deem there to be any misuse of the Application (e.g., tagging a trip as a passenger trip when you were the driver).
The Application must remain activated on the smartphone of each principal driver enrolled in the Program.
Each time you drive a private passenger vehicle, whether or not it is enrolled in the Program, you must have your smartphone with the installed, activated, and functional Application in your possession.
Should you or the policyholder wish to make any changes to the automobile insurance policy regarding the enrolled vehicle or principal driver, you must first contact belairdirect. Failure to do so may lead to removal from the Program.
Each principal driver listed on the automobile insurance policy can become an Enrolled Driver as long as they meet all eligibility requirements. Adjustments based on the Driving Data of Enrolled Drivers will be applied to the premiums of all eligible vehicles on the policy for which the Enrolled Driver is listed as the principal driver. Only one Application will be issued to an Enrolled Driver. Occasional drivers do not need to be enrolled in the Program; Adjustments will only be based on the Driving Data of Enrolled Drivers. For more information, please refer to the FAQs.
You cannot enrol in the Program on multiple belairdirect policies. However, if you are listed as the principal driver on multiple vehicles insured under separate belairdirect automobile insurance policies, your Adjustment will also be applied to those vehicles automatically. Please keep in mind that if you are not the policyholder or named insured on any applicable automobile insurance policy, you must obtain the consent of policyholder(s) and/or named insured(s) prior to enrolling.
The Application will allow you to track trips and details about your driving behaviour. You can review these in the Application for up to thirty (30) days.
To help you understand and visualize how you can improve your driving, the Application will translate your Driving Data into a comprehensible summary of select high-risk driving behaviours and personalized performance results that will be displayed in the Application, although more Driving Data than is displayed will be factored into the assessment of your driving behaviour.
Please note that you may not be able to track your driving behaviour when you are using the Application in certain regions where the adequate cellular coverage required by the Application to transmit Collected Data relating to your driving behaviour is non-existent or insufficient, or if your smartphone’s location services (GPS) are turned off or inaccessible.
If you do not enrol directly through the Application, you could be removed from the Program if you fail to activate the Application within fifteen (15) days of the effective date of your enrolment into the Program or within fifteen (15) days of the date we send the text message (SMS) to you confirming your enrolment in the Program, whichever is later. Re-enrolment in the Program following your removal will be at belairdirect’s discretion.
The Application runs in the background on your smartphone, detecting your trips and gathering your Collected Data. The Application must remain activated and functional at all times except in the event of extenuating circumstances (e.g., failure of the smartphone or unavailability of the mobile network) or unless directed by belairdirect. See the “Does the Application affect the battery life of my smartphone?” section below. If the Application is deleted, it will stop gathering Collected Data.
We reserve the right at our sole discretion to terminate your participation in the Program or alter any Adjustment should we not be able to capture an accurate assessment of your driving behaviour, if we deem there to be any misuse of the Application (e.g., tagging a trip as a passenger trip when you were the driver or demonstrating a pattern of pausing and/or disabling of the Application suggesting that your recorded driving behaviour may not be representative of your actual driving behaviour), if no trip is recorded by the Application for more than thirty (30) consecutive days, or if you reside or if the vehicle is used in certain regions where cellular coverage is non-existent or insufficient.
If we are unable to obtain an accurate assessment of driving behaviours (for example, due to the inability of your smartphone to collect and transfer the Collected Data used for the Program, the lack of cellular coverage and/or network in the area where you live or use your vehicle or the deletion of the Application), a notification will be sent to you advising you of such, and providing you with fifteen (15) days to remedy any breach of the Terms. If you fail to remedy any such issues within the allowed timeline, your participation in the Program may be terminated or your premium may be adjusted based on the existing Collected Data, if applicable.
In case of malfunction of the Application or pursuant to our request, you may be required to uninstall the Application from your smartphone. As a result, reinstallation and/or activation of the Application on your smartphone may be required to continue with the Program.
Should you decide to opt out of the Program, or if your participation is terminated, the Application will stop gathering Collected Data as of your effective date of un-enrolment (or as of the date the Application is deleted if it was done prior to your effective date of un-enrolment).
If your participation is terminated, whether by belairdirect (see the previous section “What happens if the Application is deleted or does not collect and transfer Collected Data?”) or by your decision to opt out of the Program, we may use any Driving Data collected prior to the effective date of termination to provide an Adjustment at subsequent renewals.
If you choose to unenroll and end your participation in the Program, you may re-enrol at any time subject to the eligibility criteria in the above "Am I Eligible?” section. However, if your participation was terminated by belairdirect due to any misuse of the Application (e.g., tagging a trip as a passenger trip when you were the driver or demonstrating a pattern of pausing and/or disabling of the Application suggesting that your recorded driving behaviour may not be representative of your actual driving behaviour) on your part, your re-enrolment in the Program will be at belairdirect’s discretion. Please see our FAQs for more information on ending your participation in the Program and conditions applicable for any subsequent re-enrollment.
Additionally, if your participation in the Program ends for any of the reasons outlined above (including your failure to activate the Application), any Activation discount that may be applicable to your first policy term enrolled in the Program will be removed. Please see the FAQs for more information on the Activation discount.
Yes. To do so, you must sign out of the Application on your smartphone, download the Application onto your new smartphone and log in to the Application.
Use of the Application may affect your battery life. You must ensure that the smartphone is charged and functional when the vehicle is being driven so that the Collected Data may be recorded.
The Application is free and can be downloaded via Wi-Fi or cellular data. However, unless you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, downloading the Application and the Application itself will use your cellular data to transfer Collected Data to belairdirect. You are responsible for assuming all roaming fees, data fees (including overage), plan fees and any other fees your mobile service provider may charge you as a result of your download and use of the Application.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. We will handle your Personal Information in accordance with our privacy policies (visit belairdirect.com/en/privacy to learn more about our privacy policies or to contact our privacy office). However, when you participate in the Program, you will have to share additional information about your driving behaviour with belairdirect. These Terms describe in detail how we collect, use, and disclose the Personal Information we collect under the Program.
The information handling practices described in these Terms supplement those described in our privacy policies.
To participate in the Program, you will have to provide additional contact information including your mobile phone number and email address, which will become part of your insurance file with us and will be handled in accordance with our privacy policies. In these Terms, by “Personal Information”, we mean certain information in your file, such as, your name, mobile phone number and policy number, your driving behaviour, and your Collected Data.
You will also have to install the Application so it can continuously collect information about your driving behaviour and transfer this information to belairdirect. This information is only transmitted to belairdirect when a trip is detected (e.g., when the Application identifies you as riding in a vehicle).
The information collected and transferred by the Application includes:
(Collectively the “Collected Data”)
The Collected Data (alone and in combination with third party data such as road map software to contextualize the data) will be used to enable belairdirect to design, operate, enhance, and administer the Program by:
Automated decision systems are used for the purposes of assessing your driving behaviour and determining your Adjustment.
However, please note that the Collected Data will only be used, collected, and shared as permitted by, and strictly in accordance with applicable laws including Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Canada’s federal private sector privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), or their successor legislations.
Collected Data will not be used on its own to directly:
However, we may use Collected Data to contribute to the investigation, prevention, and suppression of fraud (e.g., misrepresenting where a vehicle is principally garaged and operated), which may result in our declining to issue a policy or the cancellation of, or our refusal to renew, your automobile insurance policy. Where required by law, you will be contacted during any such investigations.
If your participation in the Program is terminated, we may continue to use Driving Data collected prior to the effective date of termination to adjust your premium at your subsequent renewals and any existing premium adjustments may continue to apply.
The Application will allow you to tag detected trips with information such as whether you were the driver or passenger (e.g., passenger in an automobile or public transit). For your convenience, the Application will also auto-tag detected trips based on an understanding of your past driving behaviour. The Application will allow you to review or correct these auto-tagged trips or review your driving behaviour within those auto-tagged trips within thirty (30) days.
However, please note that if we deem there to be any misuse of the Application (e.g., tagging a trip as a passenger trip when you were the driver), your participation in the Program may be terminated or your premium may be adjusted.
We work with service providers who provide the technology, systems, and services necessary to administer the Program. As a result, your Personal Information may be transferred by us or directly by the Application to these service providers who provide data processing, storage, and related services on behalf of belairdirect. Rest assured, we require these service providers to protect and handle your Personal Information in a manner consistent with our own practices as well as the law.
We will not otherwise disclose your Personal Information specific to the automerit Program to third parties, except as reasonably necessary to design, operate, enhance, and administer the Program or as permitted by law, unless we have your consent.
Please note that we may anonymize, aggregate, or otherwise render the Collected Data non-identifiable as permitted by law, in which case these Terms or our privacy policies will no longer apply to it.
To administer the Program, we may transfer your Personal Information to our service providers who provide data processing, storage, and related services. These service providers will only store your information in Canada.
Your Personal Information will be retained until it is no longer relevant for the purposes of the Program or our general insurance information retention policies, after which it will be deleted or anonymized. We will always collect, retain, use, and delete your Personal Information in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
Only your Collected Data will be collected, used, and disclosed by the Application for the purposes of the Program. If you are not the policyholder or a named insured on the automobile insurance policy covering the private passenger vehicle for which you will be an Enrolled Driver, you must obtain the policyholder’s consent to participate in this program and you acknowledge some of your Collected Data will be accessible to the policyholder as a result of your participation in the Program.
If you have any questions about your privacy or would like more information, please contact our Privacy Office at:
belairdirect Privacy Offic
700 University Avenue, Suite 1500-A
Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A1
Phone (toll free): (866) 941-5094
Fax: (416) 941-5284
e-mail: privacy@belairdirect.com
If you have any questions about the Program, or any technical questions about downloading or activating the Application or its functionalities, please contact belairdirect, or visit us at https://www.belairdirect.com/en/app/automerit.html for more information. For any questions, you can contact us at 1-877-220-6065.
The Application is made available "as-is", "with all faults" and "as available" and it is used at your risk. belairdirect makes no warranties or guarantees of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. belairdirect does not warrant that the Application, its operation, and any data collected will be uninterrupted or error or defect-free, that any errors or defects in the Application will be corrected, that data will not be lost or damaged, or that the Application or server(s) that make it available are free from viruses, disabling code or other contaminants.
THE PROGRAM AND THESE TERMS DO NOT ADD, LIMIT, REMOVE, OR MODIFY COVERAGES ON YOUR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE POLICY IN ANY WAY. HOWEVER, THESE TERMS OF USE ADD ADDITIONAL TERMS TO YOUR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE POLICY WHICH ARE SPECIFICALLY LIMITED TO OUTLINING YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THE AUTOMERIT PROGRAM AND OUR COMMITMENT TO USE YOUR INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE AUTOMERIT PROGRAM AS IS DISCUSSED ABOVE. ALL TERMS, LIMITS, CONDITIONS, EXCLUSIONS, DEFINITIONS AND PROVISIONS OF YOUR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE POLICY CONTINUE TO APPLY AND HAVE FULL FORCE AND EFFECT.