Why is average repair cost so important?

Typically, 20% of Fleet drivers will be involved in a road traffic accident every year.  The knock-on effect of these incidents involves a lot of time and money for drivers, fleet managers, insurers and other people linked to the event.

Usually the largest element of cost is the damage repair itself and this is the first reason why Average Repair Cost should be an important focus for the policyholder.

Incredibly, for normal fleet cars and vans, the Average Repair Cost can be as high as £1,500 or as low as £800 according to a number of interesting factors:

1. Who is responsible for estimating the damage?
2. Who checks how the estimate was prepared?
3. Who is ultimately responsible for paying the bill?
4. How is Average Repair Cost calculated?
5. What repair method is being used?
6. What quality of repair is required?
7. Whose repair network is involved?
8. What terms are in place with the repairers?
9. Does the final invoice match the estimated cost?

Insurers calculate fleet premiums based on what they have to pay out plus what it costs them to manage the claims so Average Repair Cost is intrinsically linked to fleet insurance costs.

So, if your average repair cost is towards the top of the scale, you may wish to ask yourself why that is the case and what can be done to lower it.  The answers may be surprising to you.

If you don’t know your average repair cost and realise that you should know, why not bring in RVM Assist for a free analysis of your last 12 months claims on a confidential basis?

You can find us at www.rvmassist.co.uk or call us on 0113 224 8800 and ask for Angela or Diana.

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 accident season is here with three months of high risk

According to statistics we’ve gathered (over nearly 20 years of managing fleet accidents), your fleet drivers have a 20% increased chance of having an accident in the next 3 months compared to the rest of the year.

This begs the following three important questions:

1. Which drivers are most likely to have a problem?
2. Why do we know (for a fact) that those are the drivers most at risk?
3. What can we do to minimise the likelihood of an incident occurring?

Our research also indicates that:

• less than 20% of fleets use claims statistics when planning a driver training program
• less than 50% of fleets that have Telematics actually use the data to help reduce accidents
• less than 10% of fleets know whether drivers who had training went on the be involved in an accident

The truth is that implementing fleet risk tools is easy

but using risk data to reduce accident frequency is not.

If, like most fleets, you want to see results in terms of reduced accident costs (both insured and uninsured) and better safety for drivers, then the management of your fleet risk program needs time, systems and experience.

Talking the safety talk is easy if you know your onions whereas walking the safety walk is rather more difficult and many fleets are only just realising there are actually 2 stages to success in this area.

If you’d like the full story……and a happy ending then call RVM Assist on 0113 224 8800 or go to our website for more information, www.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

 

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.