Usage based insurance to become fleet norm by 2021, says VisionTrack

The growth in telematics technology will mean usage based insurance (UBI) will become the fleet norm by 2021, says VisionTrack.

The video telematics provider says that the sophistication of technology in vehicles giving ‘live’ insight into driver behaviour is enabling insurers to price individual driver and fleet policies.

A report published by US business Aite Group, states that the number of commercial-insurance-related installed telematics devices is projected to increase from 2.5 million at the end of 2017 to 120 milllion by 2021.

Simon Marsh, managing director of VisionTrack, said: “We’re seeing record levels of connection with our technolog. In August alone we saw more than 6,000 vehicles adopting our technology for commercial applications.

“This generates vast amounts of data on how the drivers are behaving on the road so UBI in commercial is a natural ‘next step’ in this evolution.”

He added: “With extremely accurate pricing based on live data, it’s no surprise that it’s predicted to move so quickly into the market.

“There are obvious benefits in cost saving but also the potential prevention of incidents with monitored driver behaviour, ADAS features and live footage in the event of an incident.

“One of our insurer clients has seen a 24% reduction in frequency of incidents and as a result, an 18% reduction in claims costs since introducing this product on like-for-like customers.

“The technology is incredibly sophisticated and is saving adopters and insurers thousands of pounds.

“By combining behavioural metrics, driver risk scoring, contextual data and video systems, insurers can build the next generation of insurance solutions for commercial fleets, not only offering a complete picture of fleet performance but an accurate assessment of risk per mile.”