Speakers:

Brett Stevenson, VP of Business Development, Idelic
Brian Runnels, Director of Safety, Reliance Partners
Jeffrey Roth, SVP of Transportation, Crum & Forster Insurance

Last week, Idelic hosted the webinar, “Reduce Insurance Costs: Using Fleet Data to Prove Your Safety to Insurers,” where our presenters discussed how fleets can use their data to work with insurance carriers and unlock a fair rate. Below, we’ve transcribed questions our audience asked of our presenters and answered a few we didn’t get to during the session.

How do you view these new, innovative insurtech companies? How can they help or hurt fleets?

Brian Runnels, Director of Safety, Reliance Partners:

I think what some of these insurtech companies are trying to do is take as much of the subjectiveness out of the equation as they can. “Let’s just work with the raw data and we’ll supply it. In return, we’re going to be able to review it and make decisions on it, whether it’s settling a claim or potentially continuing to insure a fleet, or aim for more training toward specific drivers.” They’re getting so granular with the data they obtain that they can put together a pretty nice safety platform and say “Hey you need to focus on this or talk to your drivers about that.” I think it will help more than it hurts because everything is data-driven these days.

As a fleet, how can I best utilize my data? What kind of data are insurers looking for?

Brian Runnels, Director of Safety, Reliance Partners:

What data are you making actionable? Any data that you have has to be made actionable that a broker or an agent can mention to an insurer. If you have the data and you’re not using it, it could be a worse situation than not using the data at all. So you have to determine what that data is—you have to determine what data is going to be actionable and lead to performance improvement. In that way, it’s hard to pin down what the “good data” is. All of it is “good,” it’s about what you’re going to focus on to improve.

Fleets can be hesitant about sharing their data. Should they be? What can insurers do to make fleets more comfortable with sharing data?

Jeffrey Roth, SVP of Transportation, Crum & Forster Insurance:

I cannot imagine a scenario where a fleet says to an insurer, “Hey, here’s the data we looked at. Here’s the key actions we’re taking and here’s the improvement we’ve seen.” I can’t imagine that’s going to hurt you with an underwriter. Insurers are in the risk business—they assume risk—and less data means more risk, so all things equal, more data is better. If we’re flying blind and have to make an assumption, that assumption is going to be that a fleet’s data is average or below average

Brian Runnels, Director of Safety, Reliance Partners:

There are some newer insurance companies that, in exchange for their data, give fleets a more competitive rate. Insurance companies have said “We’re going to take the data and analyze it to give you a better rate at a lower cost, instead of relying on an older way.” I think it’s a good thing. I think the companies that manage their data and are able to supply it to an insurer are going to benefit from this process going forward.

How Fleets Can Better Manage Their Data

The Idelic Safety Suite® is the most comprehensive driver management platform in the trucking industry, pulling in data from all of a fleet’s technology systems into a single location.

With Safety Suite, fleets can standardize their training, driver engagement, safety processes, and claims management across their organization, which reduces liability after a crash and demonstrates to insurers that they are a company that uses their data to drive key results.

If you’d like to learn more about how Safety Suite has helped fleets like Modern Transportation reinvent the way they approach compliance and liability, watch a 2-minute demo or sign up for a deep dive here.