What trends are you seeing in driver safety?
There are really three things that we are seeing in the world of driver safety right now. One is more comprehensive fleet policies. We are also seeing a major shift towards driver training. Clients are also starting to look at their own insurances, whether it is physical damage coverage or liability and how it is bundled with all their other coverages.
What does LeasePlan offer with respect to insurance?
LeasePlan provides insurance to its clients through a broker with various types of coverage. It is a very flexible program where we evaluate our clients and help them determine what type and what amount of coverage they need.
How does this tie together with your other services?
Within LeasePlan, we have what is called a “pursuit of safety.” We provide services that help our clients not only look at their fleet policies today but we also provide a gap analysis and look at best practices to help them. Within the pursuit of safety, we also have driver training programs. Those driver training programs, along with insurance, tie together to help mitigate risk, ease costs and maximize the efficiency of the fleet as it relates to the total cost of ownership.
Can you give us an example of how these services would be used?
We have had several clients that have asked us to look at their fleet policy. We do an analysis of the main topics within the fleet policy. We also have some case studies and what we have determined to be best practices regarding fleet policies within the industry. We will then provide the client with a gap analysis and guide them towards implementing and initiating programs such as MVRs, point assignment and things along the line of risk profiling. Once you identify a driver is high-or medium-risk, it is about reeducating that driver to get them to comply with the company’s fleet policy to make sure they can stay in his or her company vehicle. There are so many policies that we see that are very well written. Unfortunately, not all of them have very high adherence rates. That is one area where we can help our clients.
The second area really is twofold – driver training and getting drivers to read the fleet policy and score 100 percent when they are tested on it. They need to know it to the point where there is no ambiguity. The second piece is the driver training itself. Many clients used tohire an employee, get them a car and hand them the keys. Now it is more about making sure that the drivers know what is expected of them. Not only within the fleet policy but also what is expected of them in terms of distracted driving, especially these days. Also, they need to know what is expected of them in terms of care of the vehicle, not only from a maintenance perspective, but from a driving perspective as well. That is where driver training can really help out. It sets a baseline for drivers to know what is expected of them.
Do you have any sense of what kind of cost savings that a fleet can enjoy with a program like this?
Those savings can vary. First, you have to benchmark where you are in terms of a loss ratio. You have to look also at the total cost of a claim. It is not just the physical damage and bent metal; usually that represents a very small portion of the total cost of a claim. So, when you look at first benchmarking where you are, then you can start to devise the types of programs to reduce those losses. Typically, when you reduce any single collision, you have the ability to lower your cost on the collision and the physical damage side. But you can also reduce costs associated with liability, worker’s comp. etc., which represent a much higher percentage of the total cost.
How does the insurance work for a fleet?
Through our broker, we will provide clients with insurance coverage just like they would go and get through an insurance broker. Typically, a client today is bundling all of their coverage whether it is auto, auto liability, physical damage, worker’s comp., etc. It could be other types of umbrella policies all bundled together. What is important these days is that fleet and risk managers are really looking at the total cost of ownership of a vehicle. When you have all of your insurances on the side with all of your coverage, it is hard to get a full picture of your total cost of ownership. With LeasePlan, when we provide this insurance product to our clients, everything in terms of billing comes to that client so that they can get the full cost of ownership. There are certainly concerns with unbundling your insurance coverage. Our advice typically is to review it and ask your current broker to price that product out with and without the auto portion of the policies. That is the best way to look at it. The other thing is that with LeasePlan’s insurance, we also provide the services around it including accident management and risk mitigation. We go through the process of evaluating the drivers with our clients and our broker. We get a profile on each driver based on the severity level of their motor vehicle records and violations as well as their accident history. From there, we take it a step further. We look to reeducate that driver through driver training and other measures to get the driver to really understand that, first and foremost, they are important to the company, but that their driving behavior needs to start changing in a positive way.
BIO
Dan Shive serves as vice president, risk management services in LeasePlan’s Chicago office. In his role, he is responsible for the sale and retention of Accident Management services, the introduction of Risk Management services to current and future clients such as policy review/revisions and implementation of safety services. He also streamlines service offerings as it relates to claim handling. During his 19-year tenure with LeasePlan, Dan has served in several other roles including assistant subrogation manager, insurance rental manager and implementation manager. His previous industry experience includes five years in fleet at Great White where he managed 450 vehicles nationwide. Dan is also active in many local and national industry organizations, such as NAFA and RIMS. He frequently serves as a speaker and subject matter expert for industry events. Dan earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.