Best Practices to Achieve Reduced Fleet Insurance Premiums

Businesses prioritizing safety are far more likely to benefit from competitive insurance rates. Implementing telematics technology is one of the first ways enterprise fleets attempt to manage and lower operational costs. While this technology can be costly and seem out of reach for many businesses, you can use a few alternative strategies to improve safety and lower fleet insurance premiums.

This article will outline best practices for cutting insurance costs, including highly effective approaches such as maintaining strict safety standards, next-generation technology, and monitoring driver behavior. We will also highlight Tourmo cost-effective AI-powered platform, which can help all-size fleet companies address driver behaviors that are known to raise insurance premiums and negatively impact your bottom line.

Can Technology Reduce Fleet Insurance Premiums?

Telematics, dashcams, and GPS technology have become industry standards because they significantly reduce safety incidents and liability. However, while these systems are beneficial, simply implementing technology does not guarantee reductions in operational costs.

Implementing this technology is only the start of the process. The key to reaping larger benefits centers on effectively managing telematics data. Telematics systems, particularly those equipped with GPS and dashcams, generate massive amounts of data. Companies that successfully analyze and act on leading indicators that  improve driver behavior, performance, and safety have the best chances of seeing a reduction in their commercial insurance premiums as improving those leading indicators reduces accidents and claims.

Fleet management processes that fail to act quickly on telematics data, such as addressing risky driving behaviors and other safety risks, can lead to increased liability and poor outcomes. With the high upfront investment costs of telematics systems considered, including repair and replacement costs over time, it's essential to recognize that effective data management is critical to achieving the best return on your fleet management solutions.

Telematics produces  large volumes of data and next-generation technologies with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation capabilities, such as Tourmo AI, play a critical role in turning that data into actionable information. Our technology can help companies improve their investment ROI with a unified system that can analyze and interpret big data from multiple systems, provide predictive insight, and enable companies to act preemptively and automatically on underperforming areas and behaviors.

Reduced Fleet Insurance Premiums Best Practices

All efforts to reduce operational costs, including fleet insurance premiums, will pay off in the long run as fuel prices, supply shortages, and inflation rise. In addition to shopping for better rates, policyholders who take action to address and control risk will benefit in the long run.

We've introduced best practices to help you achieve reduced fleet insurance premiums, which are listed below for further consideration:

Compare Fleet Insurance Policies

Investigating your options can result in lower overall premiums. Seeking quotes online or from several local insurance agents can help you identify the coverage your company requires while ensuring you get the best price.

In addition to comparing fleet insurance policies, consult with your commercial fleet insurer about ways to reduce your premium costs. For example, if you've already implemented telematics technology, made efforts to reduce incident rates, and taken larger safety precautions, share your positive trends and information with your insurer to help you negotiate lower premiums.

Maintain High Safety Standards

Maintaining a clean U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) safety record, hiring experienced drivers with clean licenses, and updating and enforcing effective training programs will help you save money on commercial insurance. These actions will demonstrate to insurance companies that you are serious about safety.

In addition to these efforts, it will be essential to provide ongoing training, provide consistent and fair coaching, establish company safety guidelines and monitor driving behavior. Continual training is a tried and true method for reducing safety incidents, disseminating effective safety strategies and techniques, and positively recognizing high performing drivers.

Implementing New Technologies

Implementing new technology can assist you in monitoring and managing daily operations' safety concerns and lowering fleet insurance premiums. Efforts to eliminate reliance on inefficient and error-prone manual processes and utilize technology to improve fleet oversight and management can significantly reduce liability and risk.

Telematics solutions with GPS and dashcam technology can help businesses reduce the risk of accidents and provide additional protection against false claims. These systems can also help provide ongoing training. However, it is critical to consider what can be accomplished without costly upgrades and equipment.

If you need to enhance insights, improve efficiency, or provide prioritization from your existing telematics system (without replacement) or if your fleet still needs to be equipped with telematics technology, Tourmo would be a great solution. 

Monitor Risky Driving Behavior

Monitoring and working to improve risky driving behavior will decrease risk and subsequently lower accident rates and keep insurance premiums low. This process, which involves tracking driving behavior along risky routes throughout the day, bad weather, and seasons, can be complex and difficult.

While various technologies and methods can measure and analyze driver behavior with varying degrees of accuracy, Tourmo collects and measures driver behavior data using open-source tools combined with AI and machine learning algorithms.

Our patented AI contextualization which considers various factors in which the vehicle is driving  increases data transparency and allows business users to assess driver behavior objectively and more precisely than traditional telematics. Our technology can perform complex telematics data analyses and generate unbiased assessments regardless of the weather, traffic, or topography.

Tourmo’s Driver Behavior solution uses a multidimensional driver scoring approach to help businesses quantify and communicate driving risk to raise awareness, gain driver buy-in, and quickly correct risky driving behavior. Couple coaching with positive recognition of high performance or improvement and your drivers become more  engaged and motivated to drive safely. Tourmo’s Driver Behavior solution also provides automated feedback and coaching without needing supervisor intervention.

Tourmo’s Driving Behavior Solution

Tourmo's AI-powered platform can help you get ahead if you struggle to identify risky driving behaviors, reduce rising insurance premiums, or gain access to actionable and accurate safety insights. In addition, company stakeholders and managers can benefit from Tourmo's valuable insights and real-time, actionable information about vehicles, driving behavior, and risk.

Tourmo enables business users to monitor, control, and quickly address risky driving behavior, leading to fast improvements in driver safety and environmental impact. Our Driving Behavior solution will enhance the accuracy of your data and provide reliable, safe driving analysis, giving you the confidence to act on your data to reduce the risks of accidents, lower costs, and improve employee engagement. 

Example benefits of using the Tourmo Driving Behavior product include:

• Up to 25% fewer accidents
• Up to 10% reduction in insurance premiums
• Up to 20% reduction in fuel and maintenance costs
• Up to 50% increase in driver engagement and satisfaction
• Reduction in driver churn

Tourmo AI — Reduced Fleet Insurance Premiums

While new technology, such as telematics and dashcam systems, are known for lowering accident risks, more is needed to safeguard fleet enterprises from all risks. To achieve reduced fleet insurance premiums, it will be critical to analyze telematics data and incorporate it back into safety initiatives and daily operations.

Unfortunately, managing multiple systems and analyzing large amounts of data overwhelms many fleet managers. As a result, they may lack the time and resources to detect irregularities with inability to efficiently prioritize coaching activities and therefore cannot respond quickly to safety concerns.

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and connected vehicle technology have made it possible to monitor driver behavior in real-time and eliminate safety risks previously managed only after the fact (or reactively).

Tourmo's AI-powered platform can provide your company stakeholders and managers with a single view with actionable insights across all fleets, employees, third-party vehicles, and fulfillers from multiple lines, businesses, and regions.