Driver behavior: Managing your risk and lowering insurance premiums

Speed is a major contributor to the severity of a collision, and one of the best ways to significantly reduce both the frequency and severity of collision is by using clear and concise data to quickly identify at-risk drivers. Look at each driver’s baseline and what do they normally do, and then help that driver improve over time.

With a trend report in hand, a manager has quickly identified those at-risk drivers. Simply pull the report and show it to the driver. Incident maps are also there when needed to show the driver.

The purpose of the first simple conversation is to listen for the real cause. It is possible that you solve another issue and end with a clear expectation of a better result for next time. Read on to learn how to promote safe driving and lower insurance premiums.

How to promote safe driving

As valuable as it is to identify and coach at-risk drivers, it’s equally important to use the readily available information to identify those doing it right. Publicly acknowledging safe drivers with an incentive.

Safe driver awards and other rewards are another important piece of every driver conversation. Rewards and recognition highlight management’s commitment to improving safety culture by reinforcing safe behavior.

Such programs create a gamification opportunity that involves drivers in a healthy competition to see who can be the safest driver, while providing transparency in the data collection and analysis. Drivers see what their supervisors see and rejoice when great drivers are recognized.

What about insurance?

We all understand that safer fleets should pay lower premiums. While some companies are seeing premium increases, those sharing SpeedGauge Safety Scores with their insurers are holding last year’s rates, and in some cases even seeing premiums decrease.

Behavior-based insurance, which is new to the industry, links premiums directly to predictive metrics because it has been clearly demonstrated that fleets actively engaging with the metrics on their Geotab dashboard and in SpeedGauge Safety Center can and do bring loss costs under control. The data creates transparency for the fleet and underwriters who acknowledge the steps being taken to proactively reduce risk, improve driver consistency and change the safety culture.

With objective safety scores based on actual driving data, fleets can benchmark their performance and demonstrate improvement over time, which can lead to the application of additional safety credits for the fleet. Several innovative insurers, convinced by the results of providing more frequent incentives to fleets, have instituted earned premium credit and debit systems to reward effective safety programs each month.

In an environment where commercial auto insurance premiums can rise by as much as 20% year over year, having a behavior-based rating system that reduces your premium is very helpful to save costs in the long run.

About SpeedGauge

SpeedGauge's Safety Center and Driver Center solutions include training and coaching for fleet and safety managers. The SpeedGauge Safety Center and Driver Center (with mobile application) allows managers to quickly identify both safe and at-risk drivers with various reporting and visualization tools. SpeedGauge also provides personal coaching to managers with a comprehensive picture of a driver’s behavior on the roads – when you’re protecting your drivers, you’re protecting your company.

SpeedGauge’s Insurance Services help businesses benchmark their drivers, understand where to invest their next safety dollar and ultimately lower their driving risk. Decreasing the total cost of risk (both costs covered and not covered by insurance) results in both immediate and longer term financial benefits including: lower operational costs for fuel and repairs, increased driver retention and more favorable insurance coverage and rates. Reduce the cost of risk and rally your drivers to make safety pay. For more details, visit SpeedGauge on the Geotab Marketplace and click request info.