The New Jersey-based insurer hopes this new program will slash claims, improve safety and reduce costs for its customers. Fleet Management Weekly interviewed ProSight’s Transportation Executive, Jeremy Zottneck, and SmartDrive Systems’ CEO, Steve Mitgang, to learn the details.
FMW: Give us some background on ProSight and SmartDrive
Zottneck: ProSight Specialty Insurance® was founded by Joseph Beneducci. We are backed by affiliates of TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners. ProSight focuses on niche markets and partners exclusively with specialist distributors who understand their customers, including transportation. This founding model has demonstrated its validity through market leading growth, loss performance and brand leadership. We have no desire to chase the broad market.
Mitgang: SmartDrive® is an innovator in driving performance solutions that incorporate video analysis, predictive analytics and personalized performance program. These help fleets improve driving skills, reduce collisions and lower operating costs, all with a significant ROI. SmartDrive takes a different approach – it provides an open platform from the ground up to bring vehicle, driving and active safety system data together in a unified view of safety situations. This approach also enables the program to be tuned to the specific needs of a fleet. Fleets save time, materially reduce risk and generate more value from their existing safety investments.
FMW: Tell us about the components of SecureFleet – what was the impetus behind their development?
Zottneck: SecureFleet℠ is part of ProSight’s ongoing commitment to provide solutions that go beyond traditional insurance products to focus on unaddressed customer needs. SecureFleet is the only partnership between an insurance company and its customers to reduce risk with a complimentary video based safety system and driver coaching service. Our customers pay only for installation, roughly between $100 and 200, and a $50 annual connection fee.
The ProSight/SmartDrive partnership was a result of ProSight’s extensive search across the telematics industry to identify a leading provider of safety systems and software combined with the right infrastructure and servicing to help reduce customer risk.
FMW: What types of fleets are you targeting?
Zottneck: SecureFleet is accessible to ProSight clients in the Taxi, Charter Bus, School Bus and Trucking transportation segments via ProSight’s exclusive distribution partners. ProSight and SmartDrive developed SecureFleet to partner with customers on a comprehensive risk reduction program designed specifically for truck, bus and auto fleets with the best protection and customer service the industry has to offer.
FMW: What are clients telling you about their success with SecureFleet with respect to driver behavior?
Zottneck: It’s too soon to report back on the specific results of SecureFleet customers. We conservatively expect to see risky incident reductions of 25% or more in the first three months, as well as more efficient, safer operations for ProSight customers.
Mitgang: SmartDrive technology has yielded the following customer results with the implementation of the system in fleets: 70% reduction in collision costs in the first year; significant improvement in key risk areas like speeding, following too close, cell phone usage, stop sign and seat belt compliance; and overall improvement in driving skills with the unique insights video. Drivers use the video much like athletes use game films to continually improve performance.
FMW: Give use some idea of what a fleet could expect in cost savings.
Zottneck: When compared to retail pricing for the dash-cam equipment and accompanying service, SecureFleet℠ offers an average savings of over $950 per vehicle in the first year. For a 50 charter bus fleet, that’s a total savings of $47,500. With the SecureFleet℠ program in place, charter bus owners can expect to see savings in the first year with even greater returns in the future. A typical savings scenario for a 50 vehicle charter bus fleet is shown here.
FMW: What major trends are you seeing in this industry?
Mitgang: Fleets are challenged by increasing operational costs, particularly related to collisions. And, while these same fleets are investing in on-board safety technologies, the information that is available leaves many unanswered questions to understand what happened when an incident occurred. Fleets are struggling to make sense of the mountains of data coming from the vehicle so that they can identify risk and prevent it from happening in the future. Video, combined with an integrated safety program can help bridge that gap – materially improving driving performance while reducing costs at the same time.
Zottneck: The insurance industry is embracing technology in terms of both the use of telematics to manage their fleets and telematics and other technology for safety and accident management. ProSight is alone in offering a complimentary solution to accelerate these trends.
FMW: How do you set yourselves apart from your competitors; what are the key differentiators?
Zottneck: We don’t think about our business as product-based, or by lines of business. Instead, we focus specifically on customer segments and how we can build insurance solutions to meet the evolving needs of their businesses. Our specialist position enables us to develop tailor-made solutions to address specific customer needs that is price competitive and provides inherent value, where other carriers would prefer to address the basic needs of the general market.
ProSight only provides insurance solutions in industry niches where we can truly make an impact by applying expertise and insight to help evolve the insurance industry standard. Then we aggregate unaddressed customer needs in a particular industry niche and create responsive solutions that not only address their insurance and risk management needs, but also can help them enhance their overall business. This approach in the insurance industry is unheard of. It’s based on what a customer needs – not on what is just available to the agent.
