Sonnet Shift: Drive safe and get cheaper car insurance

Don’t worry, your Driving Score isn’t affected when someone else drives your car. After each trip, open the Sonnet Insurance app to view your trip. You’ll have the option to select if you were the driver or just a passenger. We’ll give you 72 hours to confirm before we automatically assume you were driving. So, if you hopped into a taxi or are riding as a passenger on the family road trip, you can let us know so that those trips won’t count towards your overall Driving Score. Once a trip has been confirmed you can’t change it.

If you’re driving a company car or were driving someone else’s vehicle (like a friend’s or a rental car), you should select that you were the driver. Trips made while driving another car will count towards your Driving Score and your mileage for the purposes of determining your Driving Result, Mileage Contribution, and Annual Mileage discount.

No. The great thing about the Sonnet Insurance app is that it tracks your trips automatically!

But, you do need to confirm whether it was you driving, or if it was someone else.

Here’s how to do it:

After each trip, open the Sonnet Insurance app. You should see a notification that you have trips to review. Tap this notification, or go to the Trips tab. For each trip, it will prompt you to select if you were the driver or passenger. We’ll give you 72 hours to confirm if you were the driver or a passenger before we automatically assume it was you. So, if you hopped into a taxi or are riding as a passenger on the family road trip, you can let us know so that those trips won’t count towards your overall Driving Score. Once a trip has been confirmed you can’t change it.

You’ll need to allow access to a few things on your phone so the Sonnet Insurance app can track your trips. But don’t worry, it’s easy to set up these permissions when you’re setting up your account. We’ll prompt you the whole way through the setup process!

If you’re an iOS user:

• Location Services must be set to Always Allow with Precise Location turned on. You must also Always Allow the app to use your location in the background, even when you are not using the app. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
• Motion & Fitness must be set to ON. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > Privacy & Security > Motion & Fitness
• Background app refresh must be turned ON for the Sonnet App. If this setting is off, it may cause trips not to be uploaded to your device. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > Sonnet App and ensure Background App Refresh is toggled ON.
• Background app refresh should also be turned ON for your whole device. To check your settings, go to Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh and ensure it's turned ON and set to WiFi & Cellular Data.
• Offload unused apps should be turned OFF. If this setting is on, it causes unused apps to become inactive to free up storage space. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > App Store and ensure Offload Unused Apps is turned OFF.

If you’re an Android user:

• Location Services must be set to Allow all the time with Use precise location turned on. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > Apps & notifications > Sonnet Insurance > Permissions > Location.
• Physical Activity must be set to ON. To check your settings, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Sonnet Insurance > Permissions > Physical Activity.
• App Power Management or Battery Optimization must be set to Allow the app to run in the background. To check your settings, go to Phone Settings > Apps > Sonnet Insurance > Battery > Select ‘Unrestricted’.

• The Sonnet app can enter “hibernation mode” on Android devices. This causes all necessary settings to be turned off and prevents the app from tracking trips. The setting that causes this mode may be named differently based on your device. To ensure this setting is OFF, go to Phone Settings > Apps > Sonnet App > turn OFF the setting called either Pause app activity if unused, Remove permissions if app isn't used or Remove permissions and free up space.

After updating any of these settings, it’s important to log into the Sonnet App with the correct username and password. Then if requested, follow the prompts in the app to continue setting up the proper permissions.

These permissions always need to be set properly for the Sonnet App to collect trip data. If we can’t track your trips because permissions were not set properly, you could be removed from the Sonnet Shift program.

Need help downloading and setting up the Sonnet Insurance app? We’ve got you covered.

What is your Mileage Contribution?

Sonnet Shift tracks the kilometers that all enrolled drivers of your vehicle(s) drive throughout your entire policy term. We use this to compare how often each driver enrolled in Sonnet Shift drives. In the app, this is called your Mileage Contribution. Quarterly, your Mileage Contribution is used as one of the factors in calculating your premium.

Did you know? If you’re the Primary Named Insured, you’ll be able to track the Mileage Contribution of all enrolled drivers. This way, you know who’s driving the most. Handy if you’re the one paying for gas!

How is your Mileage Contribution calculated?

When you first enroll in Sonnet Shift, we ask you to tell us who drives each vehicle the most (the Primary Driver). We also ask who drives each one less (the Secondary Drivers and/or Young Drivers). These details help us determine your premium from the moment you sign up.

Then, throughout your policy term, we track your actual mileage. We compare the mileage for each individual driver with the total mileage of all drivers assigned to a vehicle. This gives us a percentage that we call your Mileage Contribution. Every 3 months from the start of your policy, we use this as a factor in adjusting your premium.

The easiest way to look at Mileage Contribution? Think about the breakdown of your hydro bill. The usage may change and could result in a higher or lower premium for each driver on your next Shift Adjustment.

Do unenrolled Secondary Drivers contribute to your Mileage Contribution?

We can’t track the Mileage Contribution of unenrolled Secondary Drivers. That’s why we assign them a combined Default Mileage Contribution of 20%. The total Mileage Contribution for all drivers on the vehicle equals 100%. The 80% left over will be distributed among enrolled drivers based on their tracked Mileage Contribution.

Heads up! Your Mileage Contribution is slightly different than your Mileage Discount.

Discounts or surcharges will be applied to any drivers that are enrolled in Sonnet Shift. If you’re eligible and qualify for the enrollment discount, Driving Result, and the Mileage Discount they will be applied to the following coverages:

• Liability
• Accident Benefits
• All Perils
• Collision
• Comprehensive or Specified Perils
• Uninsured Automobile Coverage

Discounts are not applied to endorsements or Family Protection Coverage.

Have more questions about your Driving Result? Want to know more about the Mileage Discount? Not sure how the Enrollment Discount applies? You can contact us – we’re here to help! Or, read our handy FAQs for instant answers:

• Driving Result
• Mileage Discount
• Enrollment Discount

Yes. You can opt out of Sonnet Shift at any time. Here’s how:

1. Log in to your Sonnet.ca account.
2. Start a policy change.
3. Select Switch out of Sonnet Shift.
4. Remove all enrolled driver(s) from the program.
5. We’ll update your usage-based auto insurance policy to a traditional auto insurance policy and send you a confirmation email.

Keep in mind that any drivers on your policy who were enrolled in Sonnet Shift with you will lose any discounts from the program. Your premium will be adjusted on the date you unenroll. if a driver's score at the time of unenrollment results in a surcharge, the surcharge will be applied to your traditional auto premium moving forward (provided that at the time of your unenrollment you have 20 trips and 300 kms attributed to you in a Collection Period).

Once this change is completed, Named Insureds can still access the app. They will no longer have access to the Sonnet Shift section. Additional drivers will no longer have access to the app.

Heads Up! Deleting the app from your smartphone won’t automatically withdraw you from the program. You’ll still need to log into sonnet.ca to completely unenroll. Follow these steps to stop the app from tracking your driving.

The Sonnet Insurance app collects certain details during every trip you take. This allows Sonnet Shift to do its job. The data we collect lets us measure your driving behaviour so we can get your Driving Result. Your Driving Result is a discount or surcharge applied quarterly (every three months from your policy start date) to your car insurance premium.

The data we collect during each trip may include, but is not limited to:

• Global positioning system (GPS) time and location data
• Accelerometer data, gyroscope data
• Location services on/off data
• Screen on/off data
• Magnetometer data, and other smartphone or instrumentation data
• Mobile device ID
• Phone call start and end time
• Battery level and charging status
• Technical information about your mobile device’s hardware or software. This could include your mobile device’s make and model, operating system version, and software version. It could also include other technical information relating to your mobile device.

We may also use specific personal information such as your name, address, phone number and email address. This info would be used for authentication purposes.

Usage-based insurance is new to a lot of drivers, and we want to support you every way we can if you have questions. The data we collect helps us do this. It also helps you help yourself! You’ve got access to some of your driving data, too, in the form of your Driving Score in the app. You can actually view the precise details of your trips – including things like a map of your routes and how well you drove on your trips (yes, it even shows where and when you might have braked a little too hard!). This means that each trip is a new opportunity to learn how to better your driving habits – and save even more on your car insurance.

Keeping your info safe is important to us. It’s our priority to ensure it’s always kept confidential and secure, and we have strict safeguards in place to protect it. Plus, we’ll always ask for your consent before we collect, use or disclose your personal information.

In accordance with our Sonnet Shift Terms and Conditions, we do need to share your data with our service providers. This is done on a need-to-know basis and only when permitted by law. Don’t worry, we’ll also make sure that protecting your info is as important to them, as it is to us. This includes making sure they have secure networks and take physical security measures to keep your information safe.

Want to learn more about how we protect your information? Check out our Privacy Policy.