Telemetrics are offering exciting opportunities in the insurance industry to reduce premiums, improve claim outcomes and perhaps reduce risk of injury for drivers. 

Telematics began as very straightforward systems to track and report the positions of vehicles, but it has since gained more features. Now, telematics encompasses a wide range of characteristics. 

Telematics may also provide route planning, consignment/task tracking, pre-start inspections, work diaries, fuel consumption tracking, driver behaviour scoring, and vehicle location tracking. 

While the term “black box” in the truck was once used to describe telematics, telematics providers are now positioning themselves as software firms. With the option of running their systems on hardware they provide, hardware that is already installed in trucks, or other devices like tablets or mobile phones. 

Ausure Fleet Partners 

NTI, Ausure’s valued Key Partner for vehicle, vessels and equipment insurance has seen technology like Truck GPS Apps to Fleet Telematics already improve Driver and Community Safety. 

They cite the Telematics Benchmark Report that lists enhanced driver behaviour and safety as among the top advantages, along with increased customer service and peace of mind knowing where vehicles are at all times. 

NTI have also entered a number of technological partnerships aimed at actioning insights they gained including Seeing Machines Guardian Driver Fatigue partnership. 

Fleet Insurance Trends 

Andrew Rossington Teletrac Navman’s Chief Product Officer in a recent article identified Top fleet technology trends you need to watch in 2023.

Businesses process a huge amount of data every day, whether it comes from reports from a fleet management system or manual entry into spreadsheets. Given this, it’s essential to have an AI-powered solution that analyses data in addition to collecting it, which is why all types of fleet technology will eventually combine Telematics, AI and Machine Learning (ML). 

He notes “According to Berg Insight research, video telematics is now in a growth period. We’ll see strong uptake of video telematics solutions in all geographies, including Australia, in 2023 as barriers and concerns related to driver privacy are gradually overcome.” 

Insurance Premiums 

OnStar Insurance, a motor insurer based in California, tracks drivers and sets prices that consider their behaviour. In an interview with McKinsey at InsureTech Connect 2022, Andrew Rose President – OnStar Insurance recently said – “We saw credit come to bear in the early part of this century, and now the next big transformation (in Insurance) is telematics data—how you operate a vehicle has become a bigger part of how insurance prices products. How can you make it more causal and less correlative? That’s where the future is.