Tag Archives: gender

Are women really better drivers than men – and how does this affect insurance?

It’s a contentious and controversial argument which has been debated for decades – and will probably still run for several decades more. Perhaps it will never end.

We’re talking about the battle of the sexes behind the wheel – are men better drivers than women, or is it the other way around?

Driving stereotypes are ingrained and hard to shift. Thus, female drivers are often tagged as unable to park properly – especially reversing into a parking space – while male motorists are too often seen as aggressive, fast driving types who would rather turn a one-hour journey into a six-hour trip than simply ask for directions.

But are these truths or myths? And in the ongoing contest of women drivers versus their male counterparts, who are the better drivers?

Recent research seems to favour females. In fact, the Telegraph reported both in 2015 and 2016 that surveys revealed women are the ‘better’ drivers. Tests on motorists while in the car and when approaching London’s busy Hyde Park Corner junction yielded a stronger performance from women, who scored 23.6 points from a maximum of 30. The male drivers monitored managed 19.8 points in comparison.

Some of the results showed clear divides between driving behaviours. For example, 14% of men were witnessed ‘cutting dangerously into traffic’ while only 1% of women were. When it came to ‘driving too close to the vehicle in front’, 27% of men did so; only 4% of women did. And 79% of female drivers were considered to have shown ‘adequate use of mirrors’ compared to just 46% of men. Of course, this isn’t a definitive verdict but an interesting sample study.

Meanwhile, in this article titled 13 driving myths uncovered created by RAC Breakdown cover – data from an NCP survey suggested women were also more skilled at parking than men. It used surveillance on 2,500 drivers across 700 NCP car parks to come to the conclusion that while men were quicker at parking, women were more likely to park cars ‘in the middle of a bay’.

Driving proficiency obviously has a bearing on road safety but also insurance costs. Historically, primarily because male drivers are involved in a higher proportion of road traffic accidents, they were typically charged more for insurance than women. However, an EU ruling in December 2012 prevented insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of gender alone, instead pricing premiums of other data. What happens to that ruling in the wake of the Brexit decision remains to be seen.

What’s interesting is that, according to an article published by the Guardian earlier in 2017, instead of the price gap between men and women narrowing, it has widened. Back in 2012, it says, male drivers paid on average £27 more for an annual car insurance policy. Now, that amount has grown to £101. Despite the ruling, in general terms, women drivers have benefited from insurance pricing. Men are still considered higher risk. Instead, insurers are increasingly using more targeted data and analysing specific factors such as age, driving history and occupation calculate premiums based on the probability of risk.

As an extension of that, telematics – also known as black box – insurance is a way of monitoring driver behaviour and performance, as a means of rewarding safer drivers with lower premiums. It can track braking and acceleration to calculate a driving ‘score’ which could then lead to a reduced price at renewal time.

This means, regardless of whether you’re a man or woman, you have the ability to lower your insurance costs by driving carefully and responsibly – although black box insurance is usually available to younger motorists only.

Angry Birds behind the wheel

angry_womanA recent study of 1,000 UK drivers reveals women are, on average, 12% angrier than men when they’re behind the wheel.

So claims Hyundai and behavioural psychologist Patrick Fagan after cutting-edge technology to create the world’s first Driving Emotion Test (DET).

This involves facial coding technology, eye tracking analysis, galvanic skin response and a heart rate monitor to record how specific stimuli impact our emotions when we’re driving.

The results are then fed into specially-created software to provide subjects with a unique DET score.

If you want to have a go you can via an online DET and secure tickets to House of Hyundai– a three-day sensory experience on the 4th and 5th November 2016 at Unit London in Soho.

Quite remarkable…

Angry female driver reactions

Apparently women were the most angry when undertaken, shouted at, beeped at, had to deal with a back-seat driver (women 14% angrier) or faced with a road user who failed to indicate (women 13% angrier).

In all test scenarios, women were more likely to respond with anger than male drivers.

The study suggests two dominant emotions of happiness, as in a sense of freedom when driving and anger when drivers feel out of control.

Other Driving Emotion findings

Research findings include…

1/ The primary reasons for our continued love affair with driving are the freedom it gives us (51%), mobility (19%) and independence (10%)

2/ If you want a man to open up, take him for a drive. Just under a third (29%) of men said they find it easier to have a conversation in the car. Fourteen percent added that a chat actually makes them a better driver

3/ 54% of Brits said the thing that made them really happy in the car was singing – which may explain why Carpool Karaoke has resonated with many people

4/ When the researchers looked at what makes us happy behind the wheel, 84% of people said “empty roads”, 78% said “the countryside” and 69% “the seaside”

5/ Music also makes most drivers happy. Eight out of 10 people nearly always listen to something while driving with Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody top of the driving charts. Pop (70%) and rock (61%) are the most popular genres

Explaining the results, Mr Fagan commented: “Psychologically, women score higher than men on emotional and verbal intelligence, and on the personality trait of neuroticism. Evolutionary theory suggests our early female ancestors had to develop an acute sense of danger for anything that threatened them and their young if their cave was undefended while men were out hunting. That ‘early warning system’ instinct is still relevant today, and women drivers tend to be more sensitive to negative stimuli, so get angry and frustrated quicker.”

Tony Whitehorn, Hyundai Motor UK’s President and CEO comments:  “We are constantly striving to better understand what impacts people’s behaviour when they are driving and this research has certainly revealed some interesting, and somewhat surprising results. By examining drivers’ emotions, our aim is to help them get a better drive both today and in the future.”

Anger busting driver strategies

I am not sure how Hyundai plans to improve the driving ability of those that undertake cars, beep, shout or fail to indicate their directional intentions to women but I can say, hand on heart, that FOXY is doing what it can to help Club members cope with the stressful side of their motoring by being here for them when they need us.

So they can set out to drive to work, for example, in a better and less stressed frame of mind that is more likely to aid their concentration and tolerance of others.
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Comments most welcome via Twitter @FOXYtweets.

FOXY

MOT and a manicure anyone?

Carterton MOT and treatment-1

Would you buy an MOT and a manicure, or a massage, if they were attractively packaged and priced? I’d certainly consider it.

As you may know, FOXY Lady Drivers Club includes a network of garages that meet our standards in terms of quality, ethics, value for money, cleanliness and customer services.

We do this because few women realise that garages aren’t regulated and mechanics don’t have to be licensed to repair our cars. Which can make for dangerous cars and rip off practices which we know a lot about.

So we check out garage credentials for females and then promote them as FOXY Lady Approved ie female friendly, requiring regular female feedback to keep them on our network and their toes.

To the best of my knowledge one of our FOXY Lady Approved garages in Oxfordshire, called Carterton Auto Repair, is the first in the UK to offer women the combination of manicures and massages included in the cost of their MOT. As you might expect, this is a bit of light-hearted marketing fun but not everyone always sees gender marketing messages in this light.

Just for the record, this sort of initiative isn’t new in the US, France or Australia where women seem more relaxed about this choice of customer services.

What Mumsnetters think of Manicures in Garages

So where best to find out what UK women think about all this than that august barometer of female taste, Mumsnet. Posted under Feminism/Womens Rights this is what NotRealName wanted her fellow Mums to react to, followed by others taking similar and opposed stances.

notrealname

LassWI

Jen

enquiringminge

Mide

vestal

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All this makes for interesting insight for FOXY of course, because motoring services for women are what we do. But it just shows you how different women can be from each other, let alone men. And how unforgiving women can be when it comes to their gender…

Luckily Carterton services are optional and we know why they are doing this and I’m sure it’s a practice that’ll spread, even if you drop your car off and go next door for your manicure.

Men can be arsey too

And if anyone thinks it’s just women that can be arsey here, think again. In a garage in Kent last week the owner told me he’d had to remove his offer of a free Club membership for women drivers leaving feedback because the men wanted to know why they didn’t get one. The owner didn’t know to say ‘Sign your FOXY Lady up, Bill’ and you can likely share her offers and such like.

All this is ironic really. The garage industry has been run by men for men since WWII. Even today only a woeful 2% of staff in the retail motor industry are female. And now that the number of women drivers is about to outnumber that of men, men aren’t prepared to put up with female service levels today, after expecting us to do precisely this for 70 years…

And if men had sorted out the motoring industry during their 70 year reign, it wouldn’t be as dysfunctional as it is and there’d be no need for a motoring support service like ours for women. Which would be an all round good thing.

So let’s all grow up here.

Women are different from each other.

Men and women are different from each other.

Mumsnetters include mouthy and tolerant feminist views alike.

We all need to get on with it and let individual choice prevail.

Let’s celebrate well-intentioned initiatives like Cartertons (and FOXY) that are designed to give us choices that didn’t exist beforehand. It mightn’t be for you and it’s definitely not meant for everyone. But it’s called personal choice and I for one buy it.

FOXY

The critical importance of a thorough car check

pink_lady-showing-key-holding-hand-40899761Whenever it’s to do with motoring, men and women think and act differently at car shopping time.

Despite being the gender most likely to influence the final car shopping decision (in 80% of all cases in the UK), all too often women feel they are being ignored in manufacturer advertising and then intimidated and even overlooked in showrooms. This is often most apparent when she enters a showroom with a man. Too often the salesman ignores her, without finding out who the car is for, preferring to talk to a man during the car buying experience!

And knowing how dire the female feedback about the car shopping experience has been in recent surveys, such as the ones from Good Housekeeping and DifferentSpin.com I am always on the alert for new found knowledge that I can share with our FOXY Lady Approved car dealers and Club members.

Research from Experian’s AutoCheck confirms that one in ten cars they check has outstanding finance recorded and one in eight is listed as an insurance write-off. Think about it – the car you are considering buying from a dealer or privately could be reclaimed by a finance house and/or not owned by the person who is selling it.

Why a thorough car check matters

This is yet another worrying example of what can happen when you go car shopping for a used car in an unregulated industry where complaints are all too common.

Too many of us are too trusting having been seduced by the shiny look of a gleaming ‘new’ car that’s hiding mechanical problems. That’s mechanical problems usually borne out of neglected car care such as regular servicing and/or maintenance. If an elderly car has been neglected for a long period of its life, especially when it comes to regular oil and filter changes, it will likely have lost its reliability and, chances are, it’s waiting to prove this to you just after you’ve bought it or any warranty expires!

Negotiating the price of a used car

When it comes to finalising the price of a used car, the motor industry is in a league of its own due to so many potential smoke and mirrors tactics designed to confuse the car shopper. Whilst a cash transaction is easy most of us consider using finance and may need to part exchange a car. That’s when it gets more complicated and in many cases of used car sales it’s all too confusing by intent.

Sadly many women are too trusting that the advertised price of a used car is a fair one. Or they’ve picked a car that the salesman (it’s usually a male – we’d like to see more females doing this job…) is happy to discount when he knows the car’s background and you don’t. Too many bad cars are being sold as a ‘special price for you’ and it’s only when the ‘warranty’ expires that you start to learn why…

So the point of this blog is to remind all of us to get our cars checked before we buy them. Twice. Once via the likes of Experian’s AutoCheck to make sure the car in question is free of finance and hasn’t been in an accident or stolen.

And again (a different sort of check) to get a trusted mechanic or a dedicated service to give it the once over. Yes, you should be able to rely on the vehicle checks carried out by a car dealer promoting a well known named ‘Approved Car’ scheme but we know of instances where unscrupulous dealers have ticked all the multiple check boxes, actively disguising a missing car servicing history and MOT advisories that hadn’t been addressed pre sale. Clearly the price you pay is critical here, as is any advertising that suggests the car is in better shape than it turns out to be…

So that’s about it from me. When it comes to buying a car, women shouldn’t need to take a man with them and certainly members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club have no need to. Because they can either shop at a FOXY Lady Approved dealer that’s signed a promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women anything they don’t need.’ Or they can ask us for advice and support before shopping elsewhere. And should things go wrong of course.

For example, if the dealer doesn’t get it right or put it right afterwards (most do), we’d then tell the members about this. That’s the FOXY way – fair and feminine by any name!

So if you’re planning on buying a new ie used car soon I recommend you join The Club BEFORE you need us, because we may well help you buy a better car deal than you’d end up with on your own!

And you’ll see we have a special Club offer with Experian’s AutoCheck too (subject to terms and availability) – one of many exclusive member benefits.

FOXY

Should Muirfield be free to refuse women golfers as members?

gender

“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” said Groucho Marx memorably but many women golfers in Scotland might see things differently…

Headline news is that Muirfield is losing its right to host the Open golfing tournament in Scotland because it continues to exclude women from being Club members. Let’s be clear here. It is a privately owned links and the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers who just happen to be men.

These are men who can invite female guests and partners to play, when they want their company. They are men who have paid a high membership fee to belong and who presumably like ‘their’ club as it is.

Why is that so offensive today?

Yes, I can understand why some female golfers might feel aggrieved that, assuming they can afford it, they can’t join. After all, nothing makes you want something more than not being allowed to have it!

But then, if Muirfield gives in to gender and peer pressure here, would this mean the likes of the Lady Golfers Club and many similar social groups having to open their single sex changing rooms to men? That’s an interesting thought…

Democracy, free will and political correctness in golfing

Like most reasonable people, I believe in democracy and free will. So, when the majority of Muirfield members decide to accept women as Club members, that’d be the right time to do it. And if it doesn’t happen because the links’ owners don’t want it to, that’s OK with me too.

Clearly golfing powers feel the need to reprimand Muirfield (for PR disapproval but little else I suspect), then that’s OK with me too because I’m neither a golfer, rich enough to join nor geographically near Muirfield to be bothered either way. But surely we don’t all have to feel the same about issues like this?

But I can see that some men are deeply troubled by modern day feminism. It’s said we’re taking their jobs, pipping them at the post in further education, doing without them as parents (using donor sperm) and then ditching/divorcing them in our 60s… And seemingly wanting more and more for ourselves at all stages in between.

Ok that’s a bit over the top, but clearly some men see women as a threat to their very existence. And don’t know how best to respond.

So there should be no surprise that Muirfield likes their male dominated Club as it is and wishes to retain the status quo. Or that the likes of menssheds.org.uk, mensdefense.org.uk, Save The Males, Men in Nursing, National Coalition for Men and so on feel the need for male only drawbridges on occasion.

And so do women. Which is presumably why we have the wonderful WI today, exclusive female business networks like Athena and special interest associations like FOXY and so on.

What’s wrong with doing this I wonder?

Each to their own I say because men and women are fundamentally different, designed to be compatible and complementary (not always I know…).

And long may we remain so… Vive la difference.

FOXY

PS: I’m told it’s International Women’s Golf Day on Tuesday 7 June 2016. Well at least women golfers have one day to themselves haha…

PPS: Women are welcome to join FOXY here. Just like Muirfield, FOXY members can share most Club benefits with members of their family, including men. Heavens to Betsy, whatever next!!