How InsureTech Can Help Your Fleet

a circuit board representing insuretech for fleet management

Do you remember your first computer? It was probably big and boxy, weighed a ton, and made all sorts of strange noises. You might even remember when floppy disks were actually floppy. Our kids today can’t even fathom it. Technology, a once clunky thing, has changed by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years, even in the last 10 years. What was once reserved for the super rich or big corporations sits in the average 12 year old’s pocket.

What that means for you is that technology isn’t the luxury it once was. It has permeated every part of life – personal and professional. The world moves faster. Information is at your fingertips. Your fleet runs more efficiently with good technology, and so do you. Insurance might seem old fashioned, but it’s catching up in the 21st century, too. Insurance technology, a.k.a InsureTech, saves your company money and helps keep your fleet operating smoothly.

On Demand Service Through Mobile Apps

One of the unique situations only a fleet manager can understand is having every part of your business anywhere but in the office or on-site. Whether you have two trucks or 1,000, they’re always on the road somewhere. You send drivers and trucks out with little information as to where they are or what their doing until the arrive at their destination or call in for some reason.

Mobile app technology has changed that. HONK, the Uber of roadside assistance, allows insurance companies to connect their customers to the help they need through a mobile app. Fleet management systems that connect drivers, the service department, and dispatch mean that you know what’s going on every minute that your driver is out on the road. When there’s an accident, with a system like the Gorilla Safety app, you get the information you need to file a claim within minutes instead of days.

When you can send information to your insurance company faster, it’s harder for someone to hold your company responsible for injuries or damage that don’t fit the details of the accident. Get good pictures and on-site statements to your insurance company, and you might not have to face a frivolous lawsuit later. That cuts down on your premiums. And you can do it all through mobile app technology.

Artificial Intelligence

Make no mistake about it, artificial intelligence will one day touch every part of our lives. For most people, that means asking Siri about the weather or to set an alarm for them, but the insurance industry is using it right now to assess risk. GeoQuant uses artificial intelligence to assess risk for banks, foreign governments, and investors so they know if a country is a safe financial investment. Using 250 risk variables, the system correctly predicted the political stability of Mexico and Italy and the collapse of Brazil.

What does that have to do with your business? Artificial intelligence isn’t just an automated assistant playing all your favorite music or answering random questions for you. With enough data, it can predict what will happen. One day, a fleet management system could predict, based on driver activity in a truck, whether they might cause an accident.

Current systems, like Gorilla Safety, already give you data so you can make your own decisions about your drivers. Hard braking, driving too many hours, and more is available at your fingertips to tell you that it’s time to pull a driver in for a chat, before they cause an accident. Fewer accidents equals fewer insurance claims – which means lower insurance premiums and fewer lawsuits to worry about.

Usage Based Insurance

Waiting for artificial intelligence to predict what will happen is one thing, but how do you take advantage of the information right now? Data collection – sometimes called big data – can already be used to directly impact your insurance rates. A new system of determining premiums, known as usage-based insurance or UBI, is being offered by a number of InsureTech companies like Octo Telematics, TrueMotion, and others.

The premise is fairly simple. A system within your vehicle – in your fleet or a personal vehicle – tracks your behavior as a driver. It collects data on the miles driven, your location (through GPS), and what time of day you drive. These telematic systems also know whether you’re accelerating quickly, braking hard, or taking hard corners. The data you provide based on how, when, and where you drive determines your insurance rate.

Does that type of data sound familiar? It should because much of this information is already available through fleet management systems like Gorilla Safety. What if you could show proof that you and your drivers are safe and drop your insurance premiums as a result? And if you have a driver who’s being unsafe, you’ve got the proof and the incentive to correct their behavior – quickly. More and more insurance companies are seeing the benefit of assessing risk based on actual real-time behavior. In some cases, for truly safe drivers, usage-based insurance premiums can drop 30 percent.

Smarter fleet management systems that use cutting edge technology to provide the information you need save you time and money. As systems like Gorilla Safety and InsureTech continue to grow and improve, you’ll have more information about what’s going on out on the road. With the right technology, you may even be able to avoid some accidents all together.

Technology hasn’t completely caught up yet, but give it time. It all starts with a single fleet management system that hands the control back to you. Gorilla Safety can help you manage your fleet and give you more control.

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