Solera on Wednesday announced it had bought eDriving, a smartphone telematics software provider allowing “most of the world’s largest commercial fleets” to watch and improve driver behavior.
“eDriving identifies and remediates risky commercial driver behavior,” Solera wrote in a news release. “The business's flagship product, Mentor by eDrivingSM, provides a unique smart-phone-based driver safety solution that utilizes telematics to analyze operator behavior instantly, improving roadway safety. Additionally, it generates a FICO(R) Safe Driving Score to benchmark drivers against their peers and deploys safe-driving e-Learning programs in an easy-to-implement, highly secure environment.”
Solera said eDriving “helps organizations in 125 countries improve road safety and lower the all inclusive costs of fleet ownership.”
Telematics technology matters to collision repairers, and Solera’s reach with insurers and fleets might make this particular telematics product much more highly relevant to the industry.
“Solera is dedicated to advancing digital fleet management through cutting-edge technology and real time data that improves business outcomes,” Solera CEO Darko Dejanovic said inside a statement. “eDriving's suite of driver safety and risk reduction solutions will further enhance our existing products in addition to uniquely bridge the space between vehicle and driver performance on a global scale.”
Repairers that do lots of fleet business might see a little a smaller amount of it if their customers’ employees improve as drivers.
“From 2021-20, 240,000 drivers have driven in excess of 1.7 Billion miles and viewed 2.7M micro-training modules, and the results speak for themselves – 32% and 38% risk reduction among high-risk drivers over 6 and 15 months, respectively,” eDriving boasts.
Insurers who can offer telematics-based insurance actually know whether their customers are good or bad drivers — actuaries no longer have to apply generalizations to guesstimate the danger a particular customer. Such carriers therefore know who’s a secure bet and may offer lower rates to lure away policyholders from rivals who lack such intelligence. Conversely, they can also charge more to customers whose employees are bad drivers and don’t improve, potentially driving those clients to other insurers. All this could have ramifications for commercial insurance direct repair programs.
eDriving says commercial auto premiums keep increasing but losses “have persisted within the last 7 years.”
“Partner with eDriving to address the profitability issue from a different perspective, attacking the real issue – losses – head-on,” the company’s website tells insurers. “Risk Managed Insurance by eDriving uses sophisticated strategies to find out the scope of the risk, and subsequently deploys state-of-the-art risk mitigation tools to reduce collisions, incidents, injuries and near-misses. The combination of clearly identified exposures and reduced losses, in conjunction with accurate pricing, can dramatically improve performance at both the customer and portfolio levels.”
Finally, telematics permits insurers to offer the same crash detection and repair center recommendation feature as an OEM, that also has ramifications for DRP and non-DRP shops. eDriving’s Driver Event Reporting tool doesn’t have the symptoms of this capability — instead, it coaches the driver regarding how to record and submit details on claims — but this could be something to look at.
Asked if Solera had such a product already web hosting passenger auto insurance, it replied Friday: “Solera may be the largest provider of driver monitoring solutions to U.S. P&C carriers today. eDriving's complimentary products, has the potential to greatly extend that capability.”
The Audatex and Qapter parent company said hello was indeed prone to apply eDriving to that particular market. This might come with an even broader impact upon the collision industry.
“Yes, it seems sensible to take advantage of our strong position in P&C and adapt servings of the eDriving product suite to be used in Personal Auto,” Solera wrote in an email.
“This is a strategic next-step within our long-standing partnership with Solera and creates tremendous global market opportunities for both companies,” eDriving CEO Ed Dubens said inside a statement. “New and existing customers may have access to innovative solutions that improve road safety and protect their employees.”
In other Solera fleet news, the information provider on Monday announced it had closed on its acquisition of the fleet management platform Omnitracs and also on eDriving. It said hello also had finished buying DealerSocket, which is known for a suite of merchandise targeted at dealerships, including dealer and customer management systems.
