While many professional couriers, delivery drivers and taxi operators have made good use of dashcam recording technology to protect themselves from bogus third-party claims for many years, 2018 is set to see the first of many fleet insurance underwriters implementing a dedicated combination of telematics and camera technology to drive the overall cost of policies down for seasoned, accomplished drivers.
Digital eye for a digital age
Camatics, a brand-new insurance company, is thought to be the first of its kind to comprehensively integrate technology more than any other underwriter on the fleet insurance market. Under these innovative new policies, the firm intends to connect insured vehicles directly to a UK-based claims team. The handler of the claim will have immediate access to vehicle CCTV, as well as accident telematics such as the speed the vehicle was travelling at during the collision and the exact location of the accident.
The idea behind this technological implementation is to enable proactive handling of claims, which will result in significant savings for policyholders. Each policyholder has their own dedicated portal from which they can remotely access onboard cameras of each vehicle named on the policy. This allows fleet bosses to track their vehicles and monitor the performance of drivers, as well as providing peace of mind in the event of an incident.
Widespread use
Given the potential to drive costs of fleet and HGV insurance policies down for commercial companies, it should come as no surprise that many big-name haulage and courier firms are considering implementing the innovative combination of technology and insurance as soon as is feasible. Naturally, several other UK insurance providers are currently trialing similar offers, with the potential for a price war among some of the UK’s largest fleet insurance providers on the cards.
Benefitting the policyholder
While critics may find new telematics-based policies invasive, proponents of such new courier fleet insurance policies agree that faster accident reporting and quicker delivery of CCTV to the claims handler will undoubtedly help to control costs involved with claims – something which will benefit fleet operators all over the United Kingdom.
