Travelers is debuting a smartphone app designed to go with its usage-based auto insurance coverage, with an initial launch in two states.

Participating customers who use the app and drive safely can save up to 20 percent on their premiums and will get feedback from the app to help improve their driving and savings, Travelers noted. The IntelliDrive smartphone app is available right now in Minnesota and Nevada. Travelers said it will add more states later this year.

With the launch of its IntelliDrive smartphone app, Travelers joins the likes of property/casualty insurers including Esurance, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Plymouth Rock, Progressive and State Farm that launched auto insurance-related apps over the last two years to work with usage-based insurance programs.

IntelliDrive has had several previous iterations. It launched as a plug-in device for a usage-based auto insurance program in 2008 and before that, was a mileage-based discount program, according to a Travelers spokesperson.

Now, the app moves beyond just tracking mileage and tracks driving behavior including time of day for driving, speed, rapid acceleration and hard braking, the spokesperson said. TruMotion, a provider of smartphone usage-based insurance technology, is working with Travelers to implement the app.

Travelers said that IntelliDrive will capture driving information for all enrolled drivers in the household for 90 days, after which it will determine an overall score. Plans call for basing renewal premiums on that score. New customers can get up to a 5 percent discount for enrolling in IntelliDrive.

Travelers saw its 2017 first quarter profit plunge by 11 percent, due to higher catastrophe losses and lower underwriting gains. The insurer is scheduled to hold its Q2 earnings call on Thursday July 20, starting at 9 a.m. ET.

Source: The Travelers Companies, Inc.