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.
