DKG Group (DKG) has launched a behaviour-based insurance offering for the motor fleet market. Fuse Fleet uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology and telematics in what is believed to be a first for the Australian market.
“Our mission is to transform the way fleet operators manage risk by rewarding safe driving with our digital insurance offering for safer fleets and lower premiums,” said Sydney-based Luke Kelly, DKG’s managing director, in a media release.
DKG says the predictive capabilities of this technology mean it could “revolutionise” the Australian motor fleet market. Rather than linking premium amounts to driving history, the technology used by Fuse Fleet bases premiums on assessing a driver in action and judging how safe they are.
The firm expects to distribute their new offering through brokers, fleet management companies (FMOs), fleet operators and telematics partners.
“We can now provide fleets, FMO’s, brokers and telematics partners with deeper risk insights including crash probability,” said Simon Donovan (pictured above) to Insurance Business. “These insights benefit fleets through risk mitigation and accurate, transparent insurance premiums.”
Donovan is executive general manager of commercial for the new DKG firm rolling out the offering: Fuse Fleet Underwriting. He said the first challenge is dealing with a product that is brand new.
“We are effectively having to create the market,” he said. “There isn’t any Australian insurance company in this space today that integrates GPS data to price premiums.”
He said, until now, behaviour-based insurance (BBI), also known as usage-based insurance (UBI), has failed to gain traction in the consumer fleet market in Australia. However, Donovan said, these AI driven offerings have seen steady growth in the US and across Europe and Asia.
“Insurance companies have looked at ways to reduce risk and stem rising premiums using data and analytics,” he said. “It was only a matter of time before we did the same in Australia.”
Donovan said the fleet telematics industry is growing locally with an estimated market of nearly three million vehicles. These are the vehicles targeted by the new AI-based insurance offering.
“We feel confident we can make an impact on the fleet market now because we understand the data in more detail,” he said.
One focus of that understanding concerns using AI technology to divulge behaviour-based driving patterns from GPS data.
“The technology works by analysing real-time driving data to identify and compare patterns against billions of trips that have been trained with actual insurance claims,” said Donovan.
The AI, he said, converts GPS data into “crash probability scores” for each driver. This information, said Donovan, can help reduce crashes, prevent losses and enable his firm to price fleet insurance premiums more accurately.
“The AI measures approximately 3.6 billion data sets per hour, which is around 24 million more times per hour than traditional event-driven measures of road safety,” he said.
Donovan said the local driver data is then processed and verified with driver data originating from 1,600 cities across more than 100 countries.
“The experience is equivalent to 855,000 man-years of driving,” he said.
In the media release Fuse also said it was the first insurance agency in the motor fleet space using telematics data to facilitate dynamic pricing.
“Using data analytics, we gather fleet, claims and general insurance information for quotation purposes, then via the telematics provider and the power of AI, we convert fleet GPS data into crash probability scores to determine the insurance premium,” said Donovan.
He said customers can see data and management insights on their dashboard.
The company that developed Fuse Fleet’s AI technology and facilitates the data, is Greater Than. The global firm is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
“Our vision is to enable all users of GPS data to see the future and, in this partnership with DKG, we’re delighted that our Crash Probability Score is facilitating a dynamic insurance offer that delivers road safety benefits and enables fair insurance pricing to the Australian market,” said Johanna Forseke, Greater Than’s chief business officer in the DKG media release. “With no additional technology required, telematics providers and their fleet customers can benefit from new risk insights to support safety goals as well as reduced insurance premiums for lower risk driving.”
What do you think of this new insurance offering? Could it “revolutionise” the motor fleet market? Please tell us below
