It’s no secret that nuclear verdicts and insurance rates are rising each year on what often feels like an unsustainable upward trend. Research shows fleet insurance rates increase around 10% annually for low to medium risk carriers, and from 2010 to 2018 the size of verdict awards grew 51.7%, per the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) recent report.
The big question for everyone in the fleet industry is clear: How do we mitigate rising insurance costs and solve this problem?
Fortunately, the answer is also becoming clear: Telematics.
High Definition Vehicle Insurance (HDVI) found a strong connection between fleet technology and reduced risk, loss and claims, and decided to marry the two traditionally separate offerings. They include telematics as part of the insurance package for every client. The two year old company just closed their Series A round of funding and have their sights set on growth.
Understandably, a number of factors including increased mobile phone usage, poor first notice of loss reporting times, and increased jury awards make it difficult to provide fleets with insurance that is cost-effective. According to HDVI, their solution uses proven, high-quality telematics and an integrated suite of software and services to deliver greater protection and service than traditional insurers can offer, often at the same or better price.
“Certain fleet technologies have proven to help to drastically reduce claims, incidents and risk altogether, particularly when centrally incorporated into an insurance program” said Reid Spitz, Head of Operations and Co-Founder of HDVI. “We’ve found the key to helping carriers reduce risk and control their cost of insurance is the ability to obtain high-quality, actionable data, and incorporate that data into everything we do as an insurance provider. Netradyne’s vision-based Driveri safety camera solution is one of the technologies that produces extremely high-quality data. It ‘sees’ the entire driving day, providing proof for claims disputes, as well as guidance to improve safe driving for both drivers and managers.”
“Insurance companies have been forming partnerships with technology providers for years, but HDVI has taken it a step further by mandating use of the tools and integrating safety technologies,” said Brian Runnels, Director of Safety for Reliance Partners. “Telematics help customers understand risk exposure so they can be proactive. Sophisticated camera solutions like Driveri provide immediate and complete driving performance visibility to fleet managers while highlighting ways to reduce risk factors.
Netradyne has seen the same trend with its customer base. “Fleets using our safety camera solution regularly see lower CSA scores, reduced claims, and long-term improvement in driver performance,” said Adam Kahn, president of the commercial fleet team at Netradyne. “Our clients say that it’s a combination of the accuracy of alerts (due to the AI-enabled cameras), the real-time automated performance coaching (due to “Edge computing” which analyzes data on the device), the positive driver recognition, and the visibility for all parties — managers, drivers and insurers.”
The rise of insurance rates and the cost of fleet verdicts may feel unstoppable, but the use of data through vision-based edge computing and telematics systems allow any fleet to understand how to better control costs by understanding exactly what is happening with their fleet vehicles, regardless of size or miles driven.
