The car tracking program of an insurer has led to a truck owner discovering how his vehicle may have been mishandled by a valet service.
Kerry Charbonneau, a 62-year-old retiree from Sarnia, was on an out-of-country trip last February when he left the keys to his 2010 Ford with the Park’N Fly valet service in Toronto.
Charbonneau later returned to Canada and retrieved his vehicle without issue. But eight months after, he decided to check his driving history to find that his truck had been moved several times while he was on the trip.
He has been tracking his driving telemetrically using en-route with The Co-Operators. The insurer installed a device on Charbonneau‘s vehicle which tracks his driving behaviour - if his driving behaviour is considered safe, he can receive discounts on his auto insurance. Part of the insurance discount calculation involves the number of times heavy braking and acceleration events were recorded by the device.
Charbonneau admitted that he rarely checks his driving log. But while his driving has been described as “relaxed,” with an average of one or two heavy braking/acceleration events, he was shocked to find that during his time out of the country, his truck recorded 46 heavy braking and acceleration events, from February 01 to 18.
“I thought ‘Holy crap. What happened?’” he told The Observer.
The driving log included maps, which revealed that most of those events – 34 instances – happened while he was waiting for the truck to be brought out from the lot at the airport. The log also exposed that the truck travelled to the nearby Woodbine Racetrack on February 01, and was later returned to the airport lot on February 18.
“I didn’t realize they were going to be shuffling vehicles around like that, so customers beware.”
A spokesperson with The Co-Operators told The Observer that the driving irregularities will not impact his discount.
“He just needs to connect with us and we can correct those events and take them off of his history,” said The Co-Operators corporate communications Michelle Robichaud.
Unexpected changes in driving behavior could impact discounts in theory, however, Robichaud said.
“But we would have that conversation with the driver and, if it’s an anomaly in his history, then again, he’s not going to be penalized for that.”
Charbonneau emailed Park’N Fly, notifying the company of the issue. Vice-president Frank DeCesare responded to the email and declined to comment when asked if it was a company practice to move vehicles.
Other industry experts weighed in on the issue.
Steve Kee, Insurance Bureau of Canada director of media relations, said that Park’N Fly probably has a lot at or near Woodbine where it moves the vehicles.
“And you’ve handed over your keys and they’re going to park the thing, you have the faith in the company to do that,” Kee said.
However, even Kee admitted that this unique circumstance – of a truck’s movements tracked by a telematics program – is something he has never seen before. He also explained that insurance programs in Ontario provide discounts for good driving but will not charge above the normal rate for “bad” driving.
Sarnia police Const. Giovanni Sottosanti told The Observer that there could be potential charges to moving a vehicle without the owner’s consent if a valet company takes the vehicle for a joyride or to run errands.
“They have permission to oversee it, but their permission is just to keep it on the lot and keep it safe,” the officer said, adding that there could be contractual exceptions.
