Crafting a fleet incident management plan that helps your municipality get ahead of claims

Did you know? The average vehicle collision resulting in property damage costs $6,600 to resolve Open in new window, and if it causes a disabling injury, that total skyrockets to $174,000. But the risks of an incident don’t end with your agency’s budget. Every collision you’re found liable for can also chip away at your community’s confidence in your services, damaging your reputation over time.

If your current safety solutions only help your agency react to incidents, you could be more vulnerable to these heavy costs. Getting ahead of them starts with a proactive fleet incident management plan. Rather than simply trying to contain the damage any time a collision is reported, a forward-looking approach will enable you to confront key issues before they lead to incidents (or settlements) in the first place. This post shows you how to make that approach a reality with the help of AI.

What does reactive collision management usually look like for municipal fleets?

For public agencies, reactive collision management often involves:

• Scrambling for data and witness accounts after an incident. If a collision takes place and your incident data is limited or hard to find, you may be stuck with unreliable or potentially biased testimonies to build your claims defense on.
• Settling claims to guard your agency’s image. Negative narratives swirl soon after an incident. To help prevent reputational damage from eroding public trust in your agency, faster claims resolution can feel like a safer option than a longer, more thorough investigation, even if the results might clear your agency.
• Missing important context that tells the full story. Even if you do have some insights from the incident (such as video clips, speed data or directions traveled), it’s harder to identify what really happened if they’re disconnected. Misaligned context can leave facts in doubt and create jury skepticism if a claim reaches a courtroom.
• Discussing post-incident review findings with council. After a severe collision, your leaders and council might want to review an after-action report to identify what your drivers can do differently to avoid similar future incidents. Having these conversations with little insight could leave you looking unprepared or uncertain of what next steps should be taken.
• Coaching drivers without deeper fleet safety insights. When trying to avoid future at-fault incidents, coaching your team based on limited fleet visibility could lead to incorrect conclusions, causing you to miss important risky behaviors that actually do need to be fixed, such as frequent close following or lane swerving. You might also leave some drivers feeling unfairly singled out, resulting in union friction.

The benefits of moving from fleet incident management to fleet risk mitigation

Rather than hoping that your current fleet safety tactics are enough to minimize collisions, a better solution exists; one that helps you look ahead and proactively reduce risk. AI-enabled telematics platforms allow you to identify and address deeper issues before incidents occur. Embracing a liability protection strategy can help your agency:

• Save taxpayer dollars from being spent on settlements: Use AI-enabled tools to help prevent incidents before they can drain public funds.
• Shield itself from reputational damage: Reducing at-fault incidents also helps you limit exposure to negative publicity. Plus, you can point to your telematics investment as proof of your road safety commitment.
• Have answers for your council before they ask questions: Proactive risk mitigation doesn’t just apply to preventing incidents; it applies to defending your agency if a collision does happen, too. AI-enabled solutions can give you valuable incident evidence, so you’re more prepared before inquiries land on your desk.
• Create safer roads for all who drive on them: Proactive driver coaching helps everyone make it home to their families each evening, from your team to the public you serve.

Four ways to get proactive with AI fleet safety tools

With AI-enabled tools, there are four powerful ways your agency can proactively manage risk, incidents and claims.

Help your team avoid hazardous driving habits and prevent incidents

While it’s smart to coach your drivers on avoiding harsh driving events like abrupt braking or heavy acceleration, only focusing on these could cause other risky habits you aren’t privy to (like tailgating or lane swerving) to go unnoticed, quietly raising your fleet’s incident chances.

Core telematics data leaves these behaviors out. But AI dash cameras can automatically catch them, prompting your drivers to adjust before a collision takes place. For example, cameras like Geotab’s GO Focus Plus Road Only alert your drivers to behaviors like lane departures, rolling stops and close following in the moment, all while respecting privacy by not recording employees in the cabin. During review, Magnitude Ranking brings critical behaviors to light first, saving you time spent finding what’s most urgent to coach your team on.

Predict and monitor risk to fine-tune your coaching efforts

While some factors that influence collision risk are obvious (like driver behavior), others aren’t. Variables like average precipitation rates, road types and route disruptions also play a crucial role in how likely your fleet is to experience incidents. Geotab’s Collision Risk brings each of these into a unique calculation for each driver in your fleet, helping you see a complete view of each team member’s risk profile and track trends over time. You can even benchmark your drivers’ performance against others that operate in similar conditions.

AI-enabled tools like these help you develop smarter coaching strategies that go beyond behavior alone. For instance, you might see that one team member has an elevated Collision Risk percentage relative to their peers, even though they’ve had few harsh driving events in the last three months. Rather than dismissing the disparity, you notice that it’s due to operating in an area of elevated risk and bring it up in a coaching session.

Take smarter action if a collision occurs

Driver coaching is crucial for a safer fleet, but it can’t fully eliminate the possibility of collisions. If an incident takes place, you need to know not just that it happened, but how severe it was to quickly provide the right response – fast. Tools like Geotab’s Collision Detection use machine learning to identify patterns and group incidents accordingly, helping you determine if situations are minor or require a stronger response.

Classifying incidents by severity also allows you to pinpoint common causes or find areas where the worst collisions tend to happen. In coaching conversations, you can then use that information to encourage your team to avoid these areas whenever possible. Rely on AI-enabled detection for proactive collision management and reducing risk on the road.

Protect your agency by starting to build a claims defense automatically

In the aftermath of an incident, the safety of those involved comes first. However, you must also consider how the event could impact your agency’s budget and reputation. Video from AI dash cameras gives you a strong foundation to build your defense on before a claim can damage either.

For example, certain Geotab AI dash cameras can continuously record and automatically detect vehicle impacts, so you get detailed visual context behind every collision. Smart Sequence™ then helps you reach the critical moment faster without manually combing through hours of footage. If your driver wasn’t at fault, that captured video becomes important evidence.

Safeguarding your community and taxpayer funds with proactive fleet incident management

When every driver decision can impact your budget and citizens’ trust, reactive fleet incident management leaves you a step behind. By using in-platform AI to manage risk proactively, you’re better equipped to avoid costly settlements and the reputational damage that follows.

Geotab’s AI-enabled safety tools support each aspect of a smarter collision management strategy. From reducing incidents to making better decisions if one occurs, our solutions give you the insights to get in front of risk and govern even more responsibly. In turn, public dollars stay where they belong and streets remain safer for everyone who calls your city home.

If you’re interested in learning more, explore this ebook: Liability risk: Protecting your agency with a unified view of fleet safety. In it, you’ll discover how three streams of context work together to help you create one complete defense against collisions and claims.