TORONTO, Sept. 24, 2020 /CNW/ – Do you follow all the rules? Are your driving skills second to none? Find out if that’s true, have fun, and win up to $10,000 cash in the new Canada’s Safest Driver contest.

This skills-based contest, which launches October 1, 2020, invites Canadian residents of age of majority with a valid driver’s licence to download the Canada’s Safest Driver app. It’s available as of September 24 at parachute.ca/CanadasSafestDriver.

This telematics app, developed by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, will track the following five indicators of safe and responsible driving:

• Speed: are you obeying the speed limits on your trip?
• Braking: are you screeching to a halt or braking safely in advance of your stop?
• Acceleration: do you “gun it” or accelerate at a steady pace?
• Cornering: are you taking your turn smoothly or cutting around at a dangerous angle?
• Phone distraction: don’t touch that phone when you’re driving!

The contest runs from October 1 until November 26, after which one grand prize of $10,000, a second-place prize of $5,000 and a third-place prize of $2,000 will be awarded to the entrants who get the best three overall driving scores on the app. There’s a $500 “early bird” prize for the best score between October 1 and October 15 and additional $500 prizes throughout the contest tied to best score in a particular driving measurement.

Contestants earn points for good driving habits and they’ll be rewarded with badges for increasingly higher levels of achievement. In the cornering category, for instance, you can earn “Punkeydoodles Corners Praise”, “Corner Brook Bravo” or “Four Corners Fabulous”.

“Through this contest, we want to promote safe driving, improve road safety, provide insight into how telematics can improve driver safety and increase awareness of and participation in Parachute’s Vision Zero initiatives,” says Pamela Fuselli, President and CEO of Parachute. “We want all Canadians committed to the Vision Zero goal that there should be no serious injuries or deaths on our roadways. This is possible if we take a systems-wide approach to how we build our roads and vehicles, regulate and enforce safe practices, and commit to putting the safety of all road users first and foremost.”

Partners of Parachute since 2008, Desjardins Insurance is a strong supporter of the Vision Zero mandate in order to help Canadians stay safe on our roads.

“Promoting safe driving habits and behaviours is important to reducing injuries and fatalities on Canadian roads,” says Valerie Lavoie, President and Chief Operating Officer, Desjardins General Insurance Group. “We’re proud to support Parachute and this initiative. Telematics can provide actionable insights on our driving behaviour. Rewarding and reinforcing safe driving habits will help prevent injuries and help save lives.”

“Canada’s Safest Driver uses CMT’s DriveWell smartphone telematics platform to measure driving behavior and shows drivers how to improve their driving,” says Hari Balakrishnan, CTO and Co-Founder of Cambridge Mobile Telematics. “We are thrilled to partner with Parachute and Desjardins on this initiative that builds on our vast experience with improving driver behavior and reducing road crashes.”

The Canada’s Safest Driver app also has a family sharing feature where contestants can invite small groups of peers, colleagues or family members as a “Challenge” – keep track of each other’s scores!

Read the contest rules and download the app at parachute.ca/CanadasSafestDriver

Full release