By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor
Hans Damen, the veteran international fleet consultant, and FleetVision partner, has formed a new partnership, Fleet & Driver Care, with Eelco Van de Wiel, president of Fleet Insurance, a Netherlands-based consultancy.
Fleet & Driver Care has recently introduced Insurance Plus, a program that allows large multinationals to identify cost savings in their insurance programs and reinvest these savings into driver behavior programs, which, they say, will yield substantial savings. As of now, Insurance Plus is available only in Europe, but Damen says that the company is looking at the option of expanding to the U.S. “At the moment, we are close to an agreement with a large European multinational.”
“We review the premium structure, the financial results of the past few years, the taxation structure, as well as some data mining involving their own cost structures,” Damen explains. The program, he says, is equally applicable to large multinationals that have fleets in operation with insurance or are self-insured. The key benefit for the program, says Damen, is that “We are reinvesting the cost reductions achieved in the first year into driver support tools.”
The program identifies the drivers with the highest risk profile through data mining such as damage statistics, fuel consumption programs, traffic violations, and other measures. After identifying drivers that it defines as needing additional support, Insurance Plus installs telematics devices that allow measurements of driver behavior, such as high corner speeds, hard braking, excessive acceleration, and lane departures. Geo-location data are not logged, thus maintaining driver privacy. In-vehicle devices are typically installed in the vehicles of the “worst” 10-15% drivers.
Typically, Damen says, the insurance reduction is about 100 euros per year in the first year, and that money is reinvested in driver behavior tools, “Not only can companies bank those savings in subsequent years,” says Damen,”those savings are more sustainable because we are actively reducing their risk profile.”
Fleet & Driver Care is proposing a unique compensation program for itself, which involves sharing the cost savings achieved in the years following introduction of the program.
