Distracted Drivers are Seeing the Effects on Their Insurance Premiums
Whether it’s talking on a mobile phone, text messaging, eating, changing the radio station, or even yelling at the kids in the back seat it - it's distracted driving.
Distracted driving will drive up a motorist’s auto insurance premiums by an average 16% or about $226 a year, according to a study conducted by the car insurance search engine The Zebra.
"Speeding, drinking and driving, disobeying traffic signals – those violations have (unfortunately) been around since the advent of automobiles. Distracted driving is really the only new dangerous behavior to affect your driving record," explains The Zebra’s director of market insights, Alyssa Connolly, "The insurance industry and regulators have to ensure any rate changes they make are justified, so even though cell phones aren't new to you and me, the risks and dangers they pose for drivers have only recently been substantiated – and now distracted drivers are really seeing the effects on their premiums."
Read the article at Forbes.
The Advantages of Outsourcing Subrogation to an Experienced Team
Outsourcing subrogation provides fleets with a dedicated team whose sole focus is on collecting every dollar that is rightfully owed to the fleet.
By Chris Villella, Vice President, Strategic Relationship Management, The CEI Group, Inc.
Subrogation can be a great tool to ensure fair compensation after an accident, but many fleets end up leaving money on the table; money that the fleet could have collected if they had an experienced team pursuing every possible dollar that can be collected from the at-fault third party.
The process of collection through subrogation is often complex, time-consuming, and riddled with obstacles that make it difficult for a fleet to "dabble" with subrogation. Luckily, there are experts to help fleets through the process.
Uncertain Consequences Make Mundane Questions Difficult to Answer
A lot of discussion and ethical thought about self-driving cars have focused on tragic dilemmas, like hypotheticals in which a car has to decide whether to run over a group of schoolchildren or plunge off a cliff, killing its own occupants.
In a future where all cars are self-driving, small changes to driving behavior would make a big difference because decisions made by engineers today will determine not how one car drives, but how all cars drive. Algorithms become policy.
"Self-driving cars shouldn’t drive like people. Humans aren’t actually very good drivers. And they drive in ethically troubling ways, deciding whether to yield at crosswalks, based on pedestrians’ age, race and income. Self-driving cars should drive more safely, and more fairly than people do."
Read the article at The Daily Beast.
U Drive. U Text. U Pay.
This April, as part of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, NHTSA is again teaming up with State and local law enforcement to save lives and make our roads safer by combating distracted driving through our U Drive. U Text. U Pay campaign.
The number of fatalities due to distracted driving in 2016 was 3,450 people - an increase of 17 percent since 2014 - the number may well be higher due to difficulties identifying distraction-related crashes.
"If you’re driving attentively, you’re giving yourself that extra time you might need to avoid a crash and stay safe. If you’re driving distracted—because you’re on the phone, texting, checking your hair, or reaching down for a burger or fries—you’re robbing yourself of the split second that can be the difference between a close call and a serious and possibly deadly crash."
Read the article at NHTSA.
Is Your Company’s Fleet Policy Out of Date? We Have a Solution for You!
By Janice Sutton
The pace of change in today’s fleet industry is unparalleled, but keeping your fleet policies up to date, ensuring both safety and cost effectiveness, is a challenge.
For those corporate and government fleet professionals who are planning to attend NAFA Institute & Expo and are seeking to write or modify their fleet policy, there is a session that will help you do just that -- and point you to some strategies to reduce costs while increasing safety.
Build and Enforce Fleet Policies That Reduce Costs and Increase Safety
Tuesday, April 24th – 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM – Room 210A -- Anaheim Convention Center
The session is moderated by Ed Pierce, Communications Director at The CEI Group.
