Potential of group incentive schemes to encourage use of driving safety apps

Encouraging young drivers to use driving feedback systems (referred to here as "green boxes") is a challenge. Prior research and experience have indicated that adoption of green boxes has been minimal, primarily because of insufficient motivation. Research has also demonstrated that providing feedback from green boxes to young drivers or their parents has reduced the frequency of risky behavior. This study investigated the possible benefits of providing group incentives to encourage the use of green boxes among young drivers. The specific green box used in this study was a smartphone app that needed to be initiated at the beginning of each trip. Once initiated, the app monitored driving behavior in terms of g-force events, provided a score and feedback, and shared the driving information with a predefined sponsor. This study built and expanded on a previous study by making the duration of the experiment longer and by allowing participants to recruit their friends to help the group win its rewards. Despite the more demanding scheme, the results obtained repeated 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 to use the app to help the group win rewards (without acquiring any personal rewards for themselves). Once all prespecified rewards were achieved within the allotted period, the young drivers stopped using the app. This study confirms again that barriers to adoption of the green box app by young drivers can be overcome by choosing low-cost, suitable group incentive schemes.