How To Reduce Insurance Premiums By Improving Driver Behaviour

With insurance costs rising, new tax initiatives set to be introduced, and accidents still occurring on Britain’s roads, keeping the cost of fleet insurance down is an important task for any fleet manager.

So, what steps can a business take to get its insurance premiums back under control? We recently spoke with Simon Marsh, Managing Director at TeleMGA (part of Markerstudy Group) who told us that “if companies can demonstrate they are proactively monitoring and utilising data sources to improve driver safety and increase standards, we will naturally be more confident that they’ll see less incidents and can then deliver lower insurance premiums.”

What we found particularly interesting was the need for businesses to demonstrate how data is being proactively used to improve safety standards and wanted to share some of the best ways we have seen our customers do this.

• Use data in de-briefs – effectively communicating patterns of behaviour is just as important as gathering the data in the first place. Being able to demonstrate how data is being used as part of driver debriefs is a great way for a business to show commitment to using data to improve fleet safety.
• Implement targeted training – training programmes can be significantly enhanced by incorporating telematics data. Demonstrating how data is being used to customise driver training and verify the improvements that are being made will ensure value from training is maximised whilst highlighting a commitment to using data to improve safety.
• Build incentive schemes – measuring key behaviours such as harsh breaking, aggressive acceleration, harsh cornering and speeding enables you to grade a drivers overall performance. Sharing this publically in the form of a league table, and rewarding top drivers is a great way to gain driver buy-in, and a very clear demonstration of how data is being used to improve safety.
• Get the full picture – utilise technology to fill in any information gaps that you have, we call this a 360° view on fleet safety. Having a continual process to identify visibility gaps will build confidence in your commitment to improve fleet safety. We recently launched our ‘360° Fleet Safety Solution’ integrating SmartWitness in-cab camera technology with our telematics solution, providing Managers with the full picture into driver behaviour.

Get an in depth look at the impact driver behaviour monitoring can have, by downloading our FREE guide ‘The Impact Of Measuring Driver And Vehicle Behaviour’ today.