UK: Fleet Risk Management: How Technology Can Help Reduce Risks And Insurance Costs For Fleet Operations

To help you secure more competitive fleet risk terms and conditions, this insight examines ways to embrace technology to manage risk more effectively and present it more persuasively to insurers.

U.K. fleet operators are facing a restricted insurance market where fleet insurers seek well-managed fleets and a proactive fleet risk management approach before considering offering capacity.

Technology and digitalisation can help you secure better outcomes, enhancing how you manage fleet risk and generate the data insurers increasingly expect.

As a proactive, data-led approach to fleet risk management is key to unlocking insurer capacity, below we provide practical steps to leverage this technology, such as telematics, to support your organisation in securing better auto risk pricing.

Specifically, we consider:

• What is telematics technology?
• How can technology impact your fleet risk management approach?
• How to pivot to proactive fleet risk management using data
• How to improve fleet claims efficiency using technology
• Next steps on harnessing data and technology for fleet risk management

What is telematics technology?

Telematics is a digitalised way of monitoring vehicles using GPS technology, AI-enabled dash cameras and on-board diagnostics. With telematics you can gather and analyse data from dash cameras, sensors and other connected hardware.

Telematics technology can provide a range of data from vehicle information, driving speed, harsh braking and acceleration to idling and potentially wasting fuel. It can also provide insight on fuel use more generally, as well as trip distances and durations to support route optimisation. Telematics can also alert you to performance issues related to vehicle maintenance, potentially reducing vehicle down time and associated costs.

AI-enabled dashcam technology can detect if drivers are distracted, tailgating or if they're wearing their seat belts. It can also provide evidence on how other road users are behaving, which could prove vital for claims defensibility should a vehicle in your fleet be involved in a road traffic incident.

How can technology impact your fleet risk management approach?

Traditional fleet risk management is generally reactive. For example, there may have been an accident or series of events that highlight you need to address how a particular driver is behaving. You might only be able to access this information retrospectively and it may also only come to the fore shortly before the annual insurance renewal is due. By the time renewal comes round, it's likely too late to address risky driver behaviour and you could face reduced insurer interest and increased insurance costs.

Rather than feeling you're gathering 'data for data's sake', telematics lets you rapidly process data into actionable insight. In this way, it challenges traditional and reactive fleet risk management and enables a modern and proactive approach.

How to pivot to proactive fleet risk management using data

With telematics technology you can more effectively monitor driver behaviours such as speeding, harsh braking and aggressive driving, proactively identifying potential risks and taking immediate action before the damage is done.

As well as providing real-time data insights into various aspects of fleet operations, telematics can also trigger in-cab notifications to the driver, enabling the driver to respond immediately. It can also provide live alerts for the fleet manager to review and action. This is the meaningful and actionable data that can enable your organisation to pivot from a reactive to proactive fleet risk management stance and present a more compelling narrative. And it's this presentation to insurers that can lead to better terms and conditions and longer-term relationships with insurers.

Telematics technology enables targeted interventions to improve driver safety in an auditable way. By leveraging telematics data, you can identify those drivers consistently exhibiting risky behaviour and provide them with tailored training, while rewarding and incentivising good driving practice, potentially via gamification and rewards programs.

When you have the data to show, for example, you have identified a driver who was braking harshly and who posed risk of loss by harming themselves or others, you can then present to insurers both the evidence of the drivers elevated risk, together with your actions and response to it.

How to improve fleet claims efficiency using technology

As well as stable or even reduced pricing, better terms and conditions, harnessing technology can also reduce fleet claims frequency and lower the associated costs.

After an incident, it's vital you make the first notification of loss (FNOL) to your insurer urgently. The sooner this happens, ideally within the first 24 hours after the incident, the more likely you are to boost your rates of third-party capture and reduce claims cost. This enables your insurer to approach the other parties involved in the incident directly, to for example, organise their courtesy car and mitigate the risk of the third party arranging their own, usually at greater expense. This is crucial to managing the likelihood of increased claims costs that can then lead to higher insurance costs through increased premiums or deductibles.

Using telematics can provide faster, sometimes almost immediate, first notification to insurers. You can also use data to link claims and driver behaviour trends at an early stage within the policy period, allowing you to intervene and proactively to improve your risk profile. With data-led mid-term reviews and interventions, you can present an improved profile with reduced claims to insurers to secure better terms and conditions and pricing at renewal. Once you put additional fleet risk management protocols in place, telematics then evidences how the risk profile of a driver improved, showing insurers you have robust risk governance, backed by data.

Next steps on harnessing data and technology for fleet risk management

As fleets become more technologically advanced, the data from the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and telematics integration will allow for more advanced interrogation. We can expect this to improve overall efficiency through route optimising, predictive servicing and maintenance which will enhance road safety more generally.

Data transparency, meanwhile, will increasingly influence the structure of your fleet management through a better understanding of your fleet use. This will allow you to leverage other transport methods and optimise available fleet, improving fleet risk profiles and making your risk attractive to a wider pool of insurers. Wherever you can proactively identify changing risks, intervene early and apply remediation, whether these lie at fleet manager, driver, vehicle, or depot level, this can support you in presenting your risk more persuasively.

As the transition to more automated fleet management continues, advancing technology will allow for greater data-focused decision making. With this, we can expect more efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly operations, which also generate reduced claims frequency and costs, improved insurance premiums, terms and conditions and reduced time with vehicles off the road.

Working with fleet risk and insurance specialists that partner with technology providers can provide additional advantages around efficiency and a smoother renewal cycle, potentially reducing the need to remarket your fleet insurance.

To discover a smarter way to manage fleet safety and enhance your risk management approach, get in touch with our fleet and transportation risk specialists. We have access to a network of suppliers delivering a range of solutions around driver training, compliance and legal support.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.