Rising Insurance Costs - Expert Advice On Doing Risk Management Right

Transportation exposes a substantial financial and operational risk to an organisation. In fact, survival can be dependent upon effective management and control of risk.

With insurance costs currently rising, some argue it's never been so important to create a decent risk management strategy.

When adopting a more mature approach to risk management, companies can identify their risks and get a good understanding of how to approach them.

We spoke to John Marks from Jelf, an award-winning independent insurance broker and financial consultancy, about this approach and the effects it can have on insurance premiums.

What can companies do to drive down the growing cost of insurance?

"Accident claim costs are on the rise and because of this, companies need to do more to reduce driver incidents. I think everyone concedes that you can't eradicate the risk of an accident happening completely, but you can certainly do things to lower that risk.

"A company shouldn't expect to see premiums reduce by just implementing a Risk Management System, one has to utilise the insight it gets from such a process.

"Simply put, you have to use intelligent data, in an intelligent way, and be proactive, not reactive."

What does a good risk management strategy look like?

"It's all about identifying those high-risk drivers (or vehicles) you have in your fleet. You can do this by monitoring data on how your staff are driving out on the public roads.

"Using that information to educate your drivers about their behaviour is a significant part of a system that tries to lower risk.

"It's also worth considering introducing in-cab cameras that can help protect against insurance fraud via so-called 'crash for cash' scams.

"These cameras prove who is on the right or wrong side of the law in the case of an accident."

What role does Telematics have to play within risk management strategy?

"How else does a management team know about poor driving practices such as harsh braking, speeding and high RPM without access to data that provides them with evidence of this?

"This is where I believe a decent telematics system adds value. Introducing positive KPIs for your drivers to work towards that and ultimately create better driving when out on the road is a positive step.

"However, you must ensure that you're using information to educate your drivers to make them better at what they do.

"The more thorough a company can evidence this, the more chance it'll have of dealing with less damaging premiums."

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