How to avoid a disjointed Fleet Risk program?

You may also ask; Why is a joined up risk program so important? 

In the same breath you may even ask; What business risks am I running if my risk program is in fact, disjointed?

So, the simple answer is to say that a joined-up risk program gives you the best chance to protect your drivers, your brand and the public.  Additionally, your business will operate more effectively and fleet-associated costs (such a fuel and fleet insurance premiums) will be reduced. 

However, if you have risk data stored in separate clusters, in different departments, in different formats, then poor decision-making can follow, which will undoubtedly scupper any chance of capitalising on these important benefits. 

Whilst poor decision-making can be caused by a lack of risk management expertise, bad timing and inaccuracies, many bad decisions (about who constitutes the risk, why and what to do about it) very often stem from a lack of joined-up thinking between different departments such as HR, Transport and Health and Safety.

For example, in practical terms, it would be unwise to invest in driver training based purely on licence check results.  Training may be a Health & Safety issue whereas HR tends to look after licence checking.

Similarly, if you don’t use Telematics you may wish to do Online Driver Assessments before choosing individual drivers for remedial action. These two functions may also be governed by two separate departments.

In a similar vein, why don’t more fleets look at claim causation factors more closely before spending hundreds of pounds on training drivers and how many fleets actually ask drivers about why they think the incident occurred before spending money on training?  Same issue again.

Generally speaking and from our research, it seems that the Fleet department still points the way when it comes to how much and what kind of risk initiatives a fleet should invest in. 

However, both HR and Health & Safety have a major input and influence as driver performance is being monitored.  In truth, whichever department takes the lead role has the job of avoiding this costly and disjointed approach.

Of course, as a combined claims and risk reduction specialist, RVM Assist can supply and manage all risk-related functions whilst being accountable to all departments so avoiding the chance of waste time, effort or funds that could occur through a disjointed approach to fleet risk management.

Why not take a closer look at what we’re up to?

Call Diana or Angela on 0113 224 8800 or email enquiries@rvmassist.co.uk

At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs

The love of reducing fleet risk - is in the eye of the beholder

As in life generally, the level of attraction you feel towards a good looking fleet risk profile may depend on your mood, whether you’re a newcomer to the art of risk reduction and how much pain you think will be involved in keeping that profile looking at its best!   

Of course, we’ve all dabbled with risk, maybe had some success and yet, somehow, it’s never really worked out as perfectly as we were originally promised!  In fact, what looks so very fabulous from the outside so often disappoints once the business partnership matures. (……we’re still talking about fleet risk by the way!) 

So success is measured by whether the fleet perceives it is getting what it wants, but if that doesn’t happen, is it the supplier or the fleet who is responsible?  Is the shortfall in expectations due to a failure in inter-departmental co-operation caused by the broad nature of the activities that a fleet risk program should encompass? 

Is it because there’s so much accumulated driver risk data that neither internal departments nor external suppliers can offer the vigilance required to keep on top of the discovered unacceptable driving risks and take timely and appropriate action? 

Is it because the expectations of the fleet are mismatched with the service expectations of the risk supplier so in reality the fleet thought the supplier would do certain things, which the supplier didn’t think was within their remit? 

Or is it simply because, the chosen supplier (or suppliers) is not structured in such a way as to properly deliver all aspects of the program due to inadequate knowledge, systems or a desire to support the needs of the fleet in a proactive manner? 

In truth, managing fleet risk is still an evolving aspect of fleet management and for some suppliers (such as insurance brokers and fleet leasing companies) it is just a by-product of their core business. For other suppliers who specialise in one element of risk, the demands upon them of supplying a ‘full’ spectrum risk program is just too big. 

Fleets are definitely doing more than ‘flirting’ with risk reduction.  Many are looking for suitable long-term partners but, as also in life, it can be two-steps-forward-one-step-back process.  Relationships with risk suppliers can be characterised by broken promises, disagreements and meetings with alternative providers, which can of course result in a parting of the waves.  

By contrast to all this, RVM Assist was designed from the outset with the kinds of credentials that any self-respecting fleet would find irresistible!  We think that to be attractive you need to stand out from the crowd by displaying the kind of raw materials that could last a lifetime such as integrity, originality, experience and of course, mutual respect.   

So, as a specialist fleet risk supplier, the prospect of walking hand-in-hand with our customers whilst developing goals and aspirations, represents the start of a dream relationship that in our view holds the best chance of being long-term and mutually fulfilling! 

Why not contact us now or give us a call on 01132248800 for a date!


At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs

“In-vehicle Telematics” – New solutions prompting new questions?

It seems there’s been a renewed and increasing interest in Telematics as technology develops and the need for greater road safety becomes mandatory for fleets.

Of course, like any technology, its invention prompts new questions for Fleets as they wrestle with the best way to use the information that is now available.

These new questions might be:

• Which department should take responsibility for this technology – Transport, Health & Safety, HR, Finance or Operations?
   
• What information, that we can now see, should we use and what does it actually tell us about our drivers?
   
• How often should we review the information being collated and how do we make sure that the data is reviewed at the intervals we agreed.
   
• At what point should we become unhappy about the level of risks being displayed and how often should we be unhappy before we take some action?
   
• What action should we take, who should take it, when should it be taken and how do we measure if the action we took actually worked?

This could be the recipe for the ‘perfect storm’ as fleets invest in expensive technology to ‘solve’ a safety issue and actually end up being potentially liable because they didn’t read or act upon the high risk data that was available to them via the Telematics system in which they’d invested.

If I had £1 for each of the fleets I’ve visited who admit to not really using the data being provided by the expensive Telematics system that had been fitted to the fleet, I’d be a wealthy man!

In truth, fleets don’t always know the answers to these new questions, which is why all Telematics systems should be provided with a management service that can answer them – but they’re not.  So, the fleet is left alone to decide what to do.

The Broker doesn’t know the answers and nor does the Insurer and that’s because the answers depend on three key factors that are pertinent only to the fleet:

• In terms of driving safety, how risk-averse does the fleet wish to be?
• Where does the fleet sit already on the risk management scale?
• What appetite (and budget) is there to tackle the adverse data that is discovered?

The difficulty arises where the fleet doesn’t even know the answer to these three questions and yet someone has already invested considerable sums into acquiring the Telematics system in the first place.

At RVM Assist we monitor any Telematics system and we answer all these questions on a daily basis on behalf of our clients.  Why not check with us (confidentially) to see if our answer sheet is the same as yours?


Call 0113 224 8800 and speak to Angela today.

At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs.

HOW CAN A FLEET RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM SAVE MONEY FOR THE FLEET?

As we present to fleets, this question comes up regularly because, quite rightly, any new investment needs to be cost-justified and in the area of Fleet Risk, many decision-makers still view this kind of program as a ‘nice-to-have’ as opposed to an essential aspect of running a fleet.

 

In overview terms, RVM sees four main areas of potential savings and several smaller areas that are available (to greater or lesser degrees) as a result of choosing our “Full Circle” solution:

 

Fleet Insurance Costs – Typical Insurance Savings: 10% to 25% of Premium

 

First; we see an opportunity to reduce fleet insurance costs from many angles of view. Clearly premiums are partly determined by both claim numbers and costs incurred so by reducing frequency of claims and managing accidents more closely, both these areas can be reduced.

 

The fleet insurance broker can also play a key role in helping negotiate down the premium by explaining the aims, scope and depth of the risk program to the Insurer, who would be keen to encourage any proactive risk reduction initiative the fleet decides upon.

 

As confidence in the fleet’s ability to control risk increases over time, the fleet may choose to buy less insurance by taking cover based on Third Party Only or a bigger policy excess, which will also result in a smaller premium.

 

Accident Management Costs – Typical Claims Savings: 15% to 30% of Costs

 

Second; a repair bill that lands on a fleet manager’s desk isn’t the only cost arising from an accident. There are lots of hidden ones too, such as employee time lost and administration. In theory, including accident management within your fleet risk management program should be able to minimise some, or all, of the hidden costs associated with an accident.  By offering vehicle downtime control, pre-negotiated supplier terms, engineering assessments to agree the most cost effective method of repair, third party intervention and effective uninsured loss recovery, lots of savings can be made.

 

Savings By Outsourcing: 50% to 100% of current in-house spend

 

Third; much time and money is spent by fleets in trying to carry out certain risk functions in-house and alongside other duties.  These functions could be much more efficiently carried out by a specialist supplier delivering a tailored solution to the fleet.

 

Examples of potentially outsourced functions might include the delivery of the risk products to the drivers, the consolidation of accumulated risk data, the analysis of what represents high risks, the decision-making around what remedial action to take, the measuring of how effective the program has been.

 

Many fleets tend to have more than one supplier when it comes to managing risk.  This automatically builds in extra costs as the fleets pays more than one profit cost, holds several supplier review meetings, pays more than one invoice and negotiates several contracts.

 

By placing all aspects of the risk program through one supplier, the data is automatically consolidated, there’s only one price, one meeting, one bill, one set of management reports, one account manager and one contract. This represents a potentially large saving compared to dealing with several suppliers.

 

Savings from finding undiscovered high risks: 10% to 30% of accident costs

 

Four; currently there may be several high risk aspects to running a fleet that are going undiscovered and that therefore represent a higher risk that extra cost will be incurred compared to what would be the case if they were discovered and rectified.

 

Clearly the opportunity cost of eradicating high risk situations is difficult to measure and is driven partly by how the fleet risk is currently being assessed.  However, for a fleet that doesn’t assess fleet risk, this could be significant source of savings.

 

 

At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs.

 

Call us at RVM Assist Ltd on 0113 224 8800 or visit our website at www.rvmassist.co.uk if you want to save money through our “Full Circle” program.

 

How best to blend internal and outsourced fleet risk reduction strategy

As we constantly speak to fleets it is clear that everyone has differing views on what fleet risk functions should be performed internally and what might be suitable to outsource.

In addition, it seems HR, Health & Safety and Transport can easily conflict with each other as they wrangle over what elements of risk relate to employment, to safety and to vehicles.

Some businesses form a committee of all three in order to overcome these conflicts and map out a strategy that suits all three departments but this is just for oversight and doesn’t overcome the question over who is actually going to perform the operational tasks involved.

That’s when the question of available internal resources becomes relevant, so….

“WHO DOES YOUR RISK MANAGEMENT?”

A good question to ask.  Who does indeed do it? Which department and which supplier?

The problem here is that Fleet Risk Management is not a weekly or monthly task.  It’s constant.  People are driving for business and under the fleet policy every day of the week.

That means information about what is happening on the road is coming in all the time.  Some of that data needs addressing straight away, other matters can be dealt with later.

So whatever resource is utilised to deal with this issue, it needs to be both specialist in nature and constantly available.  On that basis an outsourced solution would be perfect if such a supplier could link in seamlessly with the strategic risk reduction objectives of that particular fleet.

If that link is perfect then the Fleet can simply appoint the committee of three departments to use their oversight abilities to control the quality of the risk management supplier’s work. 

However, if elements of the strategy need outsourcing to different suppliers there is an immediate job required internally to ‘consolidate’ the risk data from the different suppliers and the benefit of outsourcing is immediately weakened.

It is for these reasons that RVM has constructed its Full Circle fleet risk program to include ALL the elements that a fleet would outsource so that no data is excluded.  Also the Full Circle program is always constructed to match the strategic goals of the fleet so we’re all pulling in the same direction.

RVM manages claims, driver training, grey fleet and telematics data using only in-house teams.  The in-house teams also co-ordinate the supply and analysis of the online products and licence checks.

 

The scope of RVM’s Full Circle risk solution makes it the most comprehensive on the UK market and all 6 elements are brought together via our online portal that gives access to driver safety records that include detailed data on all aspects of the program.

If you are considering how to optimise the way you control the cost of your fleet risk then why not give RVM a call.

If you would like to know more about creating, implementing or administering a risk redcution stratergy then call RVM on 0113 224 8800 and speak to our head of risk, Angela Sorley.

At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs.

Vehicle checks can’t be done from a remote location!!

In order to comply with UK legislation, employers need fleet drivers to adopt and apply their vehicle safety policies when driving on business.

In practice this means sticking to some straightforward rules whether driving a company vehicle or indeed a private vehicle being driven for business purposes.

These rules will include (amongst other things) routine safety checks, which the employer reasonably expects the driver to carry out.  After all, in the eyes of the police, such checks will be the responsibility of the driver, as opposed to the fleet operator.

So now we have a potential dilemma because although drivers are responsible (and may receive points and a fine), the impact of poor vehicle checking may impact the fleet in terms of increased risk of claims, downtime and cost.

So how could a fleet make sure these simple checks actually happen?   Well, here at RVM Assist we have decided to help by creating a checklist using the name of our business as a mnemonic device!  

·         Remember

·         Vehicle

·         Maintenance:

·         ACCIDENT Damage (dints, scratches, etc.)

·         SERVICING (fluid levels, scheduled checks)

·         SCREEN CHECKS (damage, wiper performance)

·         INDICATORS & OTHER LIGHTS (working, clean)

·         SEATBELTS (webbing, buckles, retractor, adjustors, markings)

·         TYRES (wear, damage, pressure, spare)

We appreciate that although these checks need to take place, many drivers cannot find time to complete them according to the detail and accuracy laid down in the safety manual.

So how do we create more time for fleet safety?

Well, at RVM we believe one of the problems is that Fleet managers are too busy dealing with matters that could be offloaded to outsourced providers, which results in them not having time to do those things that can only be done at a local level.

In other words, we can’t do certain functions from a remote location so part of our job is to take on work from fleets that can be done away from the coalface leaving local staff to focus on those tasks that can only be done locally.

This may seem to be a glimpse of the blindingly obvious but having the confidence to outsource or delegate requires the confidence to admit that you need help and not many people who are under pressure remember to use a white surrender flag when it’s appropriate because they think it’s a sign of weakness.  We don’t think that way at RVM Assist – you see……it’s in our name!

Driver Safety Incentives

Ensuring your drivers are safe while working

It’s probably true that in the broadest terms there are certain driver types.  If I were to label them they might range from the timid, to confident, to over-confident!  We all know the types.

Much is the same for driver safety incentives in that they need to vary according to those driver types.  Some drivers may pay more attention to safety if they’re threatened with disciplinary action.  Others may be motivated by more positive sentiments.

The trick here is to get the balance right.  Clearly we should aim to get all drivers engaged and focused on the need for safe driving without risking any of the unwanted negative side effects.

Such side-effects can be as follows:

• Drivers can decide not to report accidents if the scheme is too generous or too onerous
• Apathy towards the scheme if it is not sufficiently meaningful to drivers
• Too expensive or time-consuming for the business

Overall, the aim should be to integrate a driver incentive scheme within a fleet’s corporate risk management strategy.  This because the initiatives (in terms of assessments and training) will be seen as the company’s investment in the driver and the natural consequence of that is the driver’s increased responsibility towards safety, the company asset and other road users.

A key decision is whether to implement an incentive scheme or indeed a disincentive scheme. Of course it will usually be a fleet-wide initiative so if you look to reward those who only react positively to threats, the scheme will fail.  Equally, threats made to drivers who would drive more safely with encouragement will have a negative effect.

Some of the best schemes we have seen involve differing arrangements per driver or per group of drivers so the business can flex the details according to driver types.  What is certain as far as incentive schemes are concerned is the need to celebrate them by publicly rewarding those drivers who have understood what the business needs and have taken successful steps to drive more safely.

If you would like to know more about creating, implementing or administering a driver safety incentive scheme then call RVM on 0113224 8800 and speak to our head of risk, Angela Sorley.

At RVM our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs.

Protect Your Drivers with a New Year Resolution

As we embark on a new calendar year, what better time to look again at whether your fleet risks are being managed in the best way.  This is a prime trading period for business so the roads are full, they’re also still dark and very slippery.

Do all your drivers possess the skills and awareness required to stay safe at this time? If you’re not sure about the answer then it is probably true to say that your driving safety program needs some attention.

Taking this a stage further; do you know which of your drivers might be the most likely to have a problem on the roads?  If you’re sure you know the answer to that question, then do you know why those drivers present that higher risk? 

How much is guesswork and how much is real?  Do accessible risk-based facts back up your thoughts on who your worst drivers might be?  Also do those facts show what might be the best way to rectify poor driving habits?  What would the course content be for each driver training course?

The point being made here is that many fleets use risk management tools but not as many use them in the right way.  For example, through research, it appears less than 20% of SME fleets use claims statistics when planning a driver training program.

Additionally, our research indicates that less than 50% of those fleets that have invested in Telematics actually use the data to help reduce accidents by linking historical driving behaviours with future planning of driver training courses.

So, now is the time to act.

If you’re struggling to fully manage the data and decision-making in this area then outsource to a fully managed service provider.  Make sure the provider can absorb multiple sources of risk data, automatically check which elements are outside acceptable parameters and alert you accordingly. 

Finally, your provider should be capable of designing suitable training solutions and implementing them on your behalf.

Driving safety should command at least an equal ranking when compared to the commitment to health and safety in the rest of your business.  If that is not the case then you need to act now because driving for work is probably the most dangerous thing your staff do for you.

For these reasons, driver safety should be one of your top new year’s resolutions.

• Don’t assume that just because nothing serious has happened in several years of running the fleet that your luck will continue
• Why not arrange to see where your current efforts to reduce risk rank on a spectrum of other fleets.  Benchmarking is usually a ‘no obligation’ process

Call RVM Assist on 0113 224 8888 or go to our website for more information, www.rvmassist.co.uk 

At RVM Assist Ltd our integrated approach allows us to help fleets to implement effective safety policies, analyse trends and identify high risk drivers. Our Driver Training program is targeted, timely and appropriate.  The result is lower accident rates, improved driver safety, and reduced costs.