An Incentive Scheme to Motivate Young Drivers to Use a Smartphone Based App. That Monitors Their Behavior

Encouraging young drivers to use driving feedback systems is a challenge. Prior research and experience indicated that mainly due to insufficient motivation, adoption of driving feedback systems is minimal. Research also demonstrated that once feedback from the system is provided to young drivers and their parents, the frequency of risky driving behavior is reduced. 

This study investigated the possible benefits of providing group incentives to encourage usage of driving feedback systems among young drivers. The specific feedback system used, was a smartphone app that needs to be initiated at the beginning of each trip. Once initiated it monitors driving behavior in terms of G-force events, provides score and feedback, and shares the driving information with a pre-defined sponsor. 

This study builds and expands on a previous study by making the duration of the experiment longer, and by allowing participants to recruit their friends in order to help the group win its rewards. Despite of the more demanding scheme, the results obtained repeat the success of the previous study: all eligible participants downloaded the app and used it to win the rewards for the group. Additionally, friends were recruited by participants and used the app to help the group win rewards (without getting any personal rewards for themselves). However, once all the pre-specified rewards were achieved within the allotted period, the young drivers stopped using the app.

This study confirms again that barriers to adoption of driving feedback systems app among young drivers can be overcome by choosing low-cost suitable group incentive schemes.