"How on earth can I
pull all this risk data together to come to some sensible business conclusions".
This is so often the comments we hear during an initial meeting with a new
prospect. In truth, of course, this is a real problem if you are now dealing
with a claims company, a licence checking company, a driver training company
and also doing on line assessments. There are two ways to tackle this problem:
1) Do
it yourself
2) Get
somebody else to do it
Do it yourself
Fleet Managers have many
other functions to perform as do Health & Safety and HR Managers therefore
it is not a priority for a fleet operator to bring all of these elements
together in a way they should be if a road risk program is to be effective. Indeed, very often these
three departments will share the responsibilities for different elements of the
road risk cycle. Typically HR will look after licence checking and grey fleet
as they cut across personal data. Health & Safety will have responsibility
for all training matters including risk assessments in most cases. Also, the
fleet manager may oversee claims due to their impact on operational effectiveness
and fleet costs.
In larger companies it may
be possible to create a committee made up of various departments in order to
meet regularly, consolidate results and set strategy. In smaller companies this
is not quite as easy because invariably each risk supplier will deliver high
risk alerts and periodical reports that need analysis and action within
timescales that can sometimes be short due to the urgent nature of some of the
alerts.
An additional concern for
fleet operators is how to assess the severity of a risk and what remedial
action should be instigated. So often fleets will under or over assess a risk
and as a result create wasted expenditure or insufficient expenditure as a
result of lack of experience in this area. The consequences of this are that a
fleet concludes the risk program has been ineffectual or the costs of the
program outweigh its benefits.
Finally, it is unlikely that
a fleet operator will have internal software capabilities designed to collate
risk data, analyse it and make suggestions regarding appropriate remedial
action. Such software would also normally solve the problem of how to pull risk
data together automatically and in a way that offers accountability for what
has been done, with what results and with what future plans for remedial
action.
In order for a fleet to pull
all of the elements of the risk program together itself, the following
resources therefore need to be in place:
1)
Inter-departmental communication
2)
Road risk management skills
3)
Internal
risk-specific software
Get somebody else to do it
Assuming the fleet does not
have internal resources, the range of external options available to fleets in
order to pull road risk data together from several suppliers can be
bewildering. In simple terms they can be categorised as follows:
1)
Specialist road risk suppliers
2)
Leasing and fleet management companies (with
in-house risk skills)
3)
Insurance companies and brokers
4)
Risk management consultants
Each of these will vary
according to their angle of view, their cost structure and the level of detail
and involvement they will have with the fleet organisation. Therefore it is
critical in selecting the right supplier that the fleet operator can ensure
there are no conflicts of interest, unreasonable pricing mechanisms or
inadequacies in skills.
When choosing a suitable
external resource, the fleet operator will need to ask itself the following key
questions
·
What is the pedigree, history and level of in-house skills employed?
·
How flexible and innovative is their approach?
·
Is an ability to tailor their solutions included as standard?
·
Do they display an ethical stance and ability to offer transparency in
all dealings?
·
How sophisticated is the risk software?
·
Can real-time risk data be viewed on-line?
In pulling risk data
together the fleet operator should always have in mind the objectives of
reducing claims frequency and cost and also the need to demonstrate a compliant
approach to road risk policy. Visit us online to find out more about our Fleet Risk Management and other
services http://www.rvmfleetservices.co.uk/
