Is your fleet gathering ELD data but not utilizing driver safety reports?
An underwriter’s main job is to gather as much information as possible on your fleet to create the best picture they can on the risk your fleet faces.
Today, fleets gather a treasure trove of data that underwriters can use to build a more complete picture of your company’s risk. This data can come from telematic devices, video recording, and more.
When it comes to insurance renewals, the biggest issue we see is fleets not being able to show underwriters that they are using the data well.
It can be daunting to scour millions of data points, create useful reports, understand how to act on these reports, and then document everything to tell your story to an underwriter.
However, any savings you can get today matters.
Let’s break this down in detail and show examples of what you should do to help lower your insurance rates.
Top three telematic reports on driver safety
How much is your ELD data worth?
If your company is not required to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) for timecards, there are affordable telematic devices available for your short-haul, construction, or delivery fleet that can be used to gather important safety data that underwriters look for.
Some insurance providers, like Progressive, have telematic programs for ELDs (Smart Haul®) or if you do not have ELDs (Snapshot ProView®) where they will send you a telematic device for your truck.
With your permission, Progressive pulls the data directly from the telematic vendors up to the last 90 days before your renewal process. They create their own reports that look for the most important safety data, such as:
- rapid acceleration
- rapid braking
- sharp cornering
- speeding > 5mph
- driving with no seat belt
- location
- number of HOS violations
- idling greater than 20min
- idling percentage
- fuel efficiency
“Smart Haul offers qualifying truckers a minimum savings of 3% on their initial commercial auto policy period for signing up and sharing their ELD driving data,” Progressive says.
These programs can save companies 5%-18% off their insurance premiums and even new ventures can save 3% by joining the program, saving an average of $1,106 with Smart Haul®.
Snapshot ProView allows any business with commercial vehicles the opportunity to access complimentary fleet management tools with a minimum 5% discount on their policy. Just plug in the provided hardware and you’re good to go!
With such a program in place, the underwriting process will be more accurate and potentially reduce rates.
Fleets can pull their own reports from their telematic devices as well.
Driver Scorecard Reports
Tech savvy companies can create customizable driver scorecards reports that highlight your safest and weakest drivers based on telematic data.
For example, Pedigree ELD has a driver scorecard tool that gives drivers point-based scores on any selected telematic stat centered on the severity of the stat.
Scorecard reporting can be customized based on:
- timeframe (the previous 7 days or month)
- selected vehicle or vehicle types (semi/long-haul trucks, medium-sized trucks, construction vehicles, etc.)
- severity scores (the more severe the higher the point value)
- and more
ELD provider, Geotab, also has a Driver Safety Scorecard Report designed to maximize driver safety and identify a fleet’s riskiest drivers.
You can download an example excel spreadsheet to see how this report can be used and see how to customize the data in the excel spreadsheet.
This report has default settings that weighs the severity of each telematic stat:
| Default Rule Weights | Default Risk Classifications |
| – Hard Acceleration: 10% – Harsh Braking: 10% – Harsh Cornering: 10% – Seatbelt: 20% – Speeding: 20% – Excessive Speeding: 30% | – Low Risk: 90 — 100 – Mild Risk: 75 — 90 – Medium Risk: 60 — 75 – High Risk: 0 — 60 |
Does your ELD provider offer similar reporting tools? If not, learn more about Pedigree Technologies.
Hours-of-Service driver violation report
Recent studies report that 27% of large truck involved accidents that resulted in injury or fatalities were caused by a driver’s lack of adequate training or fatigue.
For fleets, ensuring that drivers are following Hours of Service rules is one way to help them get proper periods of rest on the road and limit driver fatigue.
The FMCSA reported that the number of carrier safety investigations turning up ELD violations has doubled since the COVID pandemic began.
An HOS Driver Violations Alert Report identifies each HOS violation by driver and allows you to track when and how frequently violations occur.
HOS driver violation reports can track when a driver is in violations to set HOS rules, such as:
- Going over the 14-hour limit
- Going over the 11-hour driving limit
- Not taking a 30-minute break
- Going under the 10 hours off duty
- Going over the 60/70 weekly limit
If drivers are following the HOS rules well, this report can show underwriters that the risk of driver fatigue is low, which can help decrease insurance rates.
No matter what you use, our partners at Compliance Navigation Specialists can manage your ELD system for you so you can start taking advantage of your ELD data.
Documenting how you are using the telematic reports to improve safety
While these reports can show an underwriter important safety statistics, how your fleet uses the data is just as important in lowering your driver risk.
It is not enough to simply gather data, it is about developing and changing the culture of prevention and the ability to show this to underwriters.
Carriers need to start evaluating what they are doing in preventing accidents, whether this includes using the data for proactive driver training or safety rewards programs.
For larger fleets, all data needs to be shared among safety individuals from your fleet safety compliance team to your risk team.
Any driver red flags can immediately trigger video training schedules related to defensive driving, fuel efficiency, HOS regulations, driver ELD training, or whatever topic they are having real-time issues with.
Customized training should also be measurable. This can be accomplished by using regular quiz assessments to track driver performance as well as monitoring ELD driver scorecards for improvement after their training.
If training assessment scores are low or the habit continues, then training needs to be retaken or a driver performance review could be scheduled.
These training classes can be documented and shown to underwriters that you are proactively trying to lower the risk across the company.
Our partners at Compliance Navigation Specialists offers three different types of trainings, including customizable online training, live webinars and in-person trainings.
Need a quote?
CNS Insurance is proud to offer Progressive’s Smart Haul ELD Program. Progressive is the #1 truck insurer and CNS Insurance is a top agency performer for Progressive Truck Insurance.
If you are interested in a quote, please call CNS Insurance at 717.625.0066 or email us at info@cnsinsures.com.
If eligible, you can choose to participate in Smart Haul when getting your insurance quote.
Have some extra time?
Expedite the quoting process by filling out a Complete Quote with all of your vehicle and driver information.
