Broker Urges Fleets to Embed Telematics Data Analysis in Company Culture

As the Road Safety Strategy starts to gather pace, fleet insurance specialist and commercial broker, McCarron Coates, is highlighting the importance of operators making determined efforts to use the data at their disposal through their camera and telematic systems.  

Data has a prominent position in the Road Safety Strategy document, with government clearly viewing its role in achieving a reduction in the number of incidents and deaths of Britain’s roads as key.

McCarron Coates says many professional operators have already invested in telematics systems and tools that provide insight into driver behaviours.  However, a significant number then fail to interrogate the data provided.  

This becomes evident when an operator works with McCarron Coates, whose in-house claims team utilise such data to address claims scenarios and spot trends in claims experiences.  When they request historical analysis for comparison, it is often unavailable from operators.

This situation is depriving operators from improving their risk on the road.  Not using dashboards and reports, or viewing footage provided by cameras, allows poor behaviours to continue and faults to remain unaddressed.  

It can also potentially cause defects to remain in place, effectively knocking out of action some of the safety tools on which operators should be able to call.

Pressure of workloads, lack of training in how to use the advanced tools, and a failure to implement systems that could cascade data revelations into positive risk management action, are all factors behind the lack of data usage.  

To date, not utilising data for continuous improvement been a huge missed opportunity and a failure to leverage the benefits of their investment in the technology.  Now, however, things are changing.

The advent of the long-awaited Road Safety Strategy offers early indications that, in a drive for higher safety standards, regulators will expect operators to have a data-led safety approach.  The legal team behind McCarron Coates’ RTC Crisis Line service believe that future investigations into incidents on the road will probe what data was available and what action was taken in response to its insights.

Failure to act on the data could eventually be deemed as bad as not having had telematic and camera data available at all.

This message is being endorsed by McCarron Coates (www.mccarroncoates.com) whose RTC Crisis Line service is offered free to every client.  This service offers drivers dedicated and face-to-face legal representation, should any incident on the road lead to police investigation.  Drivers are supported at every stage of police interview, so as to not unwittingly incriminate themselves. Legal support also allows for mitigating circumstances and other scenarios to be put forward, as the incident is fully investigated.

Data is already one of the mitigating circumstances that can help the operator and employer of the driver involved in an incident avoid legal ramifications for any actions taken by that driver.  If an operator can demonstrate that they utilised data to pinpoint and address issues in the driver’s driving behaviours, or keep on top of vehicle maintenance, it can be hugely advantageous.  

It is this use of data  in this way that the authorities are increasingly likely to want to see becoming the norm, not the exception.  Those now learning from what the data shows may well be viewed as having failed to run a fleet proficiently.

McCarron Coates director, Ian McCarron, says, “Having talked to our legal experts who provide our clients with the RTC Crisis Line service, it is clear that the use of telematics data needs to be embedded in the corporate culture of fleets right now, before the regulator deems this absolute required practice, rather than best practice. 

“We unfortunately know that data analysis is not top of the to-do list of many fleet managers and something that can be out of sight and out of mind.  That needs to change.”

Fellow director, Paul Coates, believes that McCarron Coates’ claims team can assist those operators who are navigating this aspect of fleet management and nervous about using data to improve their fleet.

“We can perform a lot of hand-holding in the early days, ensuring that the fleet manager becomes confident in drawing down and analysing their data, knowing what to look for and having a clear idea of what actions they should take in order to improve fleet efficiencies or driver behaviours.  Once they have got over that hurdle of using data in the business, it usually becomes second nature.  When the use of data then results in positive outcomes, such as claims reductions and lower premiums, the desire for even more data typically increases.”

In our high-tech world, cameras, telematics and AI-driven systems are becoming viewed as essential parts of safety on the road, by regulators of all kinds.  Embracing technological aids now, on a voluntary basis, is the way to be ahead of the game whenever these become mandatory, as they most probably will.  For help with this, talk to McCarron Coates on 0113 298 3489.

Ends

Editors notes

McCarron Coates is an award-winning insurance broker, based in Morley, Leeds, which is a specialist in fleet transport insurance and other niche areas such as roofing, scaffolding and woodworking insurance. It also supplies many other types of commercial insurance policies and risk management services, to clients nationwide and is highly respected as an industry thought-leader, within its individual spheres of influence.