How many kilometres do you drive each year?
This is one of the questions you’ll need to answer when getting car insurance quotes.
It is estimated that Australian motorists typically drive 15,500km each year, which works out to be around 43 kilometres a day.
Average distances travelled vary significantly by state and people who drive for a living obviously skew the average figure. Having said that, plenty of people would cover more than 19 kilometres each way simply in their daily commute to work.
Why do car insurers need to know this?
Insurers calculate your risk based on how often you will be on the roads.
If you don’t drive very often, the risk of having an accident (and general car wear and tear) is significantly reduced. Therefore you might find that the less you drive, the cheaper your premium costs may be.
Some policies (known as ‘pay as you drive’ or ‘low kilometre insurance’) will offer a cheaper premium if you drive less than 10,000km per year.
How do I calculate how far I drive?
Don’t worry, we’ve made answering this question a little easier. Use our quick kilometre calculator to help you estimate your annual kilometres. It’ll only take a minute!
Tip: A kilometre takes approximately 1 minute to drive within a town or city. So if you drive to the shops and it takes you 5 minutes, use 5 kilometres as the distance. If you are on a highway you're more likely to be driving at approximately 90 to 110 km/hour so a kilometre will take less time around 30 to 45 seconds.
Cut your kilometres and your costs
Looking to reduce the distance you drive? Why not use public transport from time to time, or catch a lift with friends or family? You could even split your journey by driving half the way, and getting public transport for the rest.
Compare policies and save
A simple way to see if distance affects premium costs is to use our car insurance comparison.
You can easily do a couple of different quotes on compareinsurance.com.au and change the amounts of kilometres driven each year to see if premium costs go up or down.
Irrelevant of how far (or how often) you drive, a great way to save on your car insurance is to shop around and compare policies. See if you can find one that offers the same benefits as you’ve got now (or more), for a better price. Our car insurance comparison lets you easily compare features, benefits and prices in one place.
Remember you don’t need to wait until your policy is about to expire to change insurance policies. Compare your car insurance today and see how much you could be saving!
