As a fleet operator, you’re likely collecting increasing amounts of data, primarily from telematic devices monitoring everything from vehicle performance and maintenance requirements to driver behaviour. But is your ability to use greater volumes of data smartly — to support safety, reduce risks and boost cost efficiency, to name some of the potential benefits — keeping pace?
Fleet operators using their data smartly are enhancing their operational risk management with data-driven insight, for example, by modelling claims data to help identify driver behaviours that can lead to losses. At an organisational level, they’re using fleet data to inform strategic and operational decisions that reduce systematic risk, positively impacting the expected cost of capital.
However, we believe more fleet operators could be getting more value from the sometimes vast datasets available to them, typically sourced from various integrated hardware and software as service (SaaS) platforms.
If you’re among those fleet operators underusing your data, you could be missing out on wide-ranging competitive advantages, including optimised route planning, improved driver safety and predictive maintenance, all of which could lower your total cost of risk.
Making your data work smarter can also help you get ahead of strategic scrutiny on whether your investments in data-gathering technology are justified, as well as demonstrate how increasing digitisation isn’t leaving your fleet operations vulnerable to increased cyber risk, but is actually strengthening organisational resilience.
So, in this insight, we provide practical perspectives on how you can make your data work smarter while mitigating the changing cyber exposures fleet digitisation can introduce.
Leveraging data and analytics smartly helps you move from reactive to more proactive risk management, enabling you to take more informed decisions aligned with your strategic objectives and anticipate risks before they escalate. Evidence of this proactive stance can positively influence conversations with insurers and potentially lower your expected cost of capital.
The first step to using data to help reduce insurance costs could be to better leverage your telematics and real-time data on driver behaviour, vehicle use and route optimisation. This may mean investing in diagnostic mapping of vehicles, monitoring tools and advanced analytics to visualise, quantify and assess the data collected from devices to better identify risks across your entire technological value chain.
Embracing digitisation in this way allows insurers to monitor vehicle performance, driver behaviour and maintenance needs more closely. This can enable them to offer you more customised policies and usage-based insurance (UBI) programmes. These are where insurers tailor premiums based on individual driving behaviours, offering improved terms for safer driving habits, for example.
Predictive analytics can also support UBI programmes by enabling more accurate risk assessments, informed underwriting decisions and optimised routes. This can also help reduce fuel consumption and emissions, supporting your sustainability efforts and long-term resilience.
In digitising fleet operations, you’ll need to understand the maturity of your own cyber controls, potentially investing in increasing your cyber risk awareness and that of parties across your value chain. To identify and mitigate any third-party security vulnerabilities and manage cyber risks effectively, you’ll need to regularly review your third-party stakeholders such as suppliers, partners and contractors.
Your first step will be to establish a clear inventory of your third parties, before evaluating their exposures and cyber security capabilities.
Managing increased data sharing with partners and customers is crucial to prevent cyberattacks that can disrupt your operations efficiency and reputation. This may mean implementing ‘least privilege policies,’ which give third parties the minimum access they need to access your IT systems for specific periods and purposes.
Robust and continuous monitoring and acting on cyber threat intelligence is also essential both for your business, your partners and third party providers.
Taking a comprehensive approach that combines the benefits of a human-led, risk-aware culture with technological advances and risk management expertise can help you navigate data-driven transformation more effectively and efficiently.
Fostering a culture of continuous improvement and training for drivers and fleet staff, for example, can help accelerate the benefits of technological advancements. Regular risk assessments using data analysis could enable you to introduce the appropriate driver training earlier, ensuring safe driving practices and reducing potential accidents.
Collaborating with risk and insurance experts, working alongside technology providers can provide a range of benefits. These include more efficient first notice of loss and streamlined renewal cycles that potentially minimise the need to remarket your insurance.
Incorporating risk and insurance expertise into a multi-layered approach can also strengthen your ability to identify and act on the latest cyber threats.
For specialist support to help make your fleet data work smarter, get in touch.
