Unlocking Telematics: Identifying and Coaching Risky Drivers for Safety

Telematics is revolutionizing the way companies assess driver safety. In this video, we delve into the world of telematics and how it rates drivers on a scale from 0 to 100. Discover how higher scores translate to safer driving.

But the real game-changer is how telematics helps companies identify the riskiest 20% of their drivers. These individuals are often just one trip away from a potential collision. We'll discuss the importance of pinpointing these high-risk drivers and how coaching and rehabilitation can make a significant difference.

In today's challenging job market, finding and retaining good employees is tough, whether you're in trucking or any other industry. We'll also explore how coaching can yield similar results whether you take a tough-love or supportive approach.

Andrew Chermark: 
andrew@ensureanalytics.com
www.ensureanalytics.com

John Farquhar
Summit Risk Solutions: summitrisksolutions.ca
1 226 802-2762
John@summitrisksolutions.ca


Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc: safetydawg.com
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
1 905 973 7056




Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Do you need a "Truck Driver Safety Policy?" Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy

Transcript

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 0:00

and this week on the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast, we have Andrew Chermark from Ensure Analytics. And Ensure Analytics is really interesting because Andrew gets to talk to us about how we can use the different analytics or the different data sources that are available to you in the trucking industry. Join us. Andrew, welcome to the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Can you please start off by introducing yourself and your company to our listening and viewing audience?

Andrew Chermark: 0:41

All right. Well, thank you, Chris. And thank you, John, for having me on today. Uh, my name is Andrew Chermark. I'm from a company called Ensure Analytics. Uh, we're based in, uh, New Jersey, uh, along the beach, uh, New Jersey.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 0:56

Nice. Is there any sand on that

Andrew Chermark: 0:59

beach? Well, you know, we're, we're, we're, there is some sand, there's still some sand left. Um, and it's, uh, it's pretty nice, but, uh, the summers unfortunately are short here in the Northeast. Yeah,

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 1:11

no doubt. Hey, we're a little bit further north than you, so we understand. Give us some insights into the telematics industry and what's been changing in, in telematics.

Andrew Chermark: 1:28

Thanks. Thanks. Well, thank you for that question, Chris. Yeah, it's, um, it's amazing how life in general is changing, as well as technology, uh, with, with introductions of, of different, um, machine learning and, and all kinds of different stuff. But what I see, and I lived it, uh, started doing telematics in the early 2000s. And when we first started, um, they were hardwired devices, guys. Hardwired devices were typically, you know, red was your power. White was your ignition and black was your ground. So we were just kind of pulling power and a box that would track would be able to triangulate from satellites, you know, um, and then they would use the satellites to put them, put where that vehicle was and then transfer that information. Through cell towers to computer service, which obviously people are accessing on the internet. And when we first started, it was all just big brother. It was really companies wanting to know, you know, where, where are my employees? Are they getting to the jobs? And then as the business changed a little bit through the years, they started to say, Oh, wow, this is a great productivity efficiency tool. Um, not only can I do that, but I can confirm my payroll, my billable hours. Um, you know, a lot of companies love to use it for billable hours because, you know, during those times, uh, when, when times were tough for all consumers and people in general, you know, consumers were calling these, uh, home service contractors or delivery companies saying, Hey, you're, you know, your guy was only here for an hour. Why are you billing me for three hours? So companies were using this to, um, to kind of confirm how long guys were there and to get paid timely. Um, sure. What's kind of transpired over the last couple of years, say the last five years or so, is that the units have changed. Um, the actual units now plug into the diagnostic port of a vehicle. Now, if it's a light duty vehicle, they call it an OBD2 and it's a little square plug that mechanics plug into when you bring it to a car dealership for like light duty vehicles. For your heavy duty vehicles, like your tractors that are truck, you know, tractors for Big trucks or, um, yellow equipment. They call them J Buses. Uh, and if anybody on the call knows, um, they kind of look like, uh, heavy duty extension cords where the plug is circular. It's a circular plug and it's either a six or a nine pin plug. The point though, guys, is that because we're able to plug into the diagnostics and the brains of a vehicle, we're actually able to pull diagnostic information, not only the health of the vehicle, but the actual driver behavior, such as harsh braking, rapid acceleration on their cornering. accelerometer now in the actual GPS telematics device. Yep. With those changes, um, the introduction of safety started to kind of get implemented through these Telemax companies, and I know we'll talk later about some of the advantages of how that involves around safety, but that's kind of how it changed. Um, you know, companies are now implementing, uh, you know, driver safety programs. Uh, they have maintenance programs where. You know, if a guy of a check engine light comes up on the main dashboard, um, it instantly sends an email notification to the fleet manager, letting them know something's wrong with their vehicle.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 4:52

Well, yeah. And I mean, some of the other things, um, you alluded to it, but let's jump into driver scorecards, uh, because I really believe that is one of the huge advancement, uh, of telematics of ELDs is that we can now start. Educating the driver on some different habits.

Andrew Chermark: 5:16

Absolutely. And you know, the biggest thing, you know, they say nowadays, you know, 90% um, of a lot of the accidents is, is behavior and attitudes of drivers. And, you know, people have the way that they drive and repetition. And, you know, these scorecards, um, it's an algorithm that these telematics companies put together on four, maybe five, And these elements are, uh, harsh braking, rapid acceleration, uh, hard cornering, um, and some other factors, seatbelt, um, if they're wearing a seatbelt, they're not wearing a seatbelt. And then what they do is, uh, each company, and then obviously miles driven, because we all know that the more miles that you drive. And depending upon what time of the day you drive, uh, that's how the risk profile gets created by an insurance underwriter. So they take all those different elements and they put it in what they call their secret sauce, their algorithm, and then they spit out a score. So we all were in school, right? I'm not sure what kind of, uh, class, um, what kind of student you guys were, but I was one of those C minus guys. Um, however. Um, it, it kind of, most of the companies rate from zero to a hundred in the telematics world. You know, obviously the higher the score, the safer the driver. But what it really has really helped companies is, it's helped companies really identify the bottom 20% of their most riskiest drivers. And typically within a company, those risky the, um, Are the next trip away from having a potential collision. So again, I think the most important thing that, you know, to educate the folks on this call today is that, you know, identify the most riskiest drivers, um, and rehabilitate and coach them, you know, in today's world, you know, it's very hard to find good. Employees, um, whether you're a truck driver or a home service contractor. Um, it's, you know, when you find really good people that are good people, they just need help. They just need coaching. And you know, listen, we all, we all know that you can, you get, you get similar results. Whether you get, you kick someone in the butt or you pat them on the back. And what I found is that patting people on the back and rewarding them for, you know, for their good attitude and their good behavior goes a lot longer and it's really become a retention tool. For a lot of companies nowadays these scorecards because I'll give you an example one of the companies that are out there Bridgestone Mobility One of their subsidiaries, they actually tie these safety rewards Into electronic gift cards that can actually be sent out directly to the mobile app of a driver So all the telematics companies have mobile apps where the drivers can see where they rank And that's fantastic because it's creating camaraderie, they're gamifying it, and they're getting people engaged, right? Engaged in safing drive, driving safe. That's what we talked about earlier, you know, getting everyone home safe to their families. That's, that's the number one thing. Um, what Bridgestone has kind of done is they kind of take it to the second level. Uh, they're one of the only companies that actually implemented in a rewards program where these electronic gift cards can be used at big boxes such as Walmart, um, Home Depot, Starbucks, Burger King, Amazon. And what it does is, um, it, it gets people, you know, listen, most people do what they get rewarded for, you know, it's, let's face it, right? I mean, so I think, um, not only can you use a rewards program, uh, to retain your drivers, but you can also do it to rehabilitate and coach them as well.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 9:00

And just to further that from a risk point of view, I would love it if the company would send to the spouse notification that that electronic gift card went out, because Asking the driver, Hey, where's my quarterly gift card or something? Now we've got real incentive.

Andrew Chermark: 9:30

Yeah, I tell you, no, it's great. It's a, it's, it's become, um, like I said, that that's some of the changes going on and it's, uh, it's a positive thing guys, cause you know what? You know, people, people respond differently. I mean, you got managers out there and you can't manage people the same way. You know, you need to manage people as individuals and, and just again, try to, try to change their behavior and attitude in a positive way to get the results that companies are looking for. Um, ultimately you talked about it, Chris, right? A risk profile, right? So, so how does a company change their risk profile? How do they? Try to, um, get some sort of consideration or credits from an insurance company. Well, the way to do it is share your telematics data. You know, if you do, you know, you don't need to deal with a, you can deal with a company like ours or anybody out there that's, that's selling telematics or risk services. The bottom line is you need to, uh, clean the data obviously first, right? Cause we can't share data. That's not good data, right? Um, but what's nice is it can help you, um, offset your loss runs. Uh, with your, uh, cost of claims and frequency by showing historical good safe driving data. And that's what these scorecards do. And that's what insurance companies want to see. They want to see historical trends going like this, guys. Going up. Now it doesn't necessarily need to go like this, right? But Mm hmm. It needs to be historical and it needs to show a behavior pattern that is showing it going in the right trend and that you, um, that you are addressing these safety measures, uh, not only on a monthly basis, but we're seeing companies doing a biweekly now because the data is there. So the more that the owners pay attention to, uh, to driver safety, um, the more impact it can have. on the actual driver. I got a question for you, Andrew.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: 11:19

With your organization and whatnot, um, what percentage of your business would you say is probably more aligned to that lighter commercial application versus the heavy tractor trailer type

Andrew Chermark: 11:30

business? So in, in our particular industry, we have a sister company called Smart Fleet, um, that they've been around for about 15 years, um, in that particular, uh, vertical, we, we do sell, uh, construction companies and we do have maybe a, a couple of dozen trucking companies, but the majority of our customer base is home service contractors, which is your HVAC contractor, um, when what we're finding at is that, um, Those particular industry is not as heavily regulated as the trucking industry where, as you guys know, when a heavy duty truck, whether it's a truck driver or construction vehicle, anybody that has a heavy duty vehicle, the cost of the claims is severe and there are some There's some serious nuclear verdicts going on right now around the world. And, um, that particular industry has a lot of regulation. They have a lot of risk. Um, and a lot of people focus on that, and as they should. Um, but I'm here to tell you that, you know, just because you drive a lighter vehicle doesn't mean that you can't get in a severe accident, collision, like a truck can as well.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: 12:49

Right. Well, one of the, and it's interesting cause I've worked with a lot of light commercial operations in the past. And, uh, one of the things that's interesting is you're usually hired for your skillset to do a particular job, not to drive that panel van, you know, or that vehicle or whatever it be. It's more to go, Hey, I need you to work on HVAC systems. I need somebody that's certified in that process, you know, a pipe fitter, a plumber, electrician, all that stuff. Um, and. Usually the companies forget about the fact that they're driving a small billboard around town, you know, so all the more reason to have a telematics program to measure, monitor, and change behavior, uh, and get it going the right way. And, and, If we don't help those drivers that are operating that, and the sad part is those drivers don't think they're drivers. They think they're an electrician or a tradesman or something along that line. But if we can bring to their attention your driving aspect. in my little billboard going around town is going to cause us great grief with our reputation. Um, you know, not to mention the fact our insurance program and whatnot. So, those type operations usually have a much smaller severity level, uh, when it comes to claims, but a much bigger impact when it comes to frequency. So it's, it's telematics is a great tool to be able to help those smaller operations. Um, which, you know, some of them are not so small, really when you got like a national operation going on. Uh, but it's a small vehicle. So they, they, they don't think big concept because it's just a small vehicle. It's just a passenger vehicle. And the sad part is we hire that. That skilled person to do the job, but we forget about, we need to train them on how to operate that vehicle safely, professionally, you know, and, and telematics is a great tool to be able to kind of go, let's measure this so we can better

Andrew Chermark: 14:44

manage it. Absolutely, John. And it's funny you bring that up because we, that, that's. Part of our sister company, when they go and they're, they're presenting the telematic solution, you know, the first thing we say to them is, you know, they say, Oh, yeah, my tech, my tech. And we're like, Oh, yeah, because when you're in the trucking world, it's drivers when you're in the home service contractor business, they're, they're, they're named as tech. Text and I say to them, yeah, you, you, you interview them about their skillset to your point, John, and then you hand them this 75, 000 missile, we call it with your name by your billboard name on it. And I gotta tell you, um, there's been a lot, I mean, you guys would know this and I, and I've seen it firsthand because I have customers in 46 states and you can't go a mile or two in Florida. Louisiana and Texas without seeing a personal attorney, uh, personal injury attorney on billboards. Yeah. And they're slowly starting to make their way into Tennessee now. And it applies to any commercial, uh, driver, regardless of what. And we're finding that people are, um, are, are unfortunately, uh, not doing the right thing, so to speak. And they're, and they're, they're causing insurance for fraud by pulling out in front of these companies and slamming on their brakes. Uh, you know, a couple of our customers are in some, some lawsuits right now, uh, down in those States and we're trying our best to help them with data. Um, but to answer your, to, to talk to you about that, you're absolutely right. Um, you know, we're trying to make them aware that say, Hey, you know what guys? Yeah. It's not just Big Brother anymore. You know, look at your driver's scorecards. Look at, look at how you can rehabilitate and coach. You know, again, it's all about, you know, we, we talk about safety, safety, safety, and ultimately these small businesses and even trucking companies, regardless of what it is, everybody wants to, everybody wants to get these, these, these folks and gals home to their safe, to their families, right? And, and obviously the way to do that is to be more involved and be engaged because I know that, listen, whether you have a thousand vehicles or you have 50 vehicles on the road, whoever the boss is that signs the checks, if that boss is not involved in that bi weekly or monthly meeting., it won't work. Right. It won't work. I mean, I know they, they got these fleet managers and safety managers and listen, they're, they're great and they're, and I'm not, I'm not, um, putting them, uh, in a different light. I mean, they have a, they, they provide great services and they do good, but you need the person that signs the checks mm-hmm. to be right alongside his feet manager saying, this is important to me. Sure. To my company and to your families. Yep. Andrew, that, that, that you do this. Say

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 17:31

that one more time again, because that is

Andrew Chermark: 17:36

so important. I tell you, I don't know when I go and I do my fleet risk with, with small business owners and even some business owners that have two, 300 vehicles. Um, I say to them exactly what I just say it again, if you need to be involved, you know, you need to be at these meetings and you need to pay attention to this because, you know, you have one nuclear verdict. Um, It is. It's a, it's, it's terrible. I mean, it's, um, it could, it could be devastating to your business and, uh, you'll spend years, uh, trying to use good data to outweigh all those losses. Um, so again, that's, I'm, I'm really, um, I'm a big, big component on going to, I always ask when I make these calls, you know, because sometimes it isn't, it isn't the, um, you know, the, the guy sitting in the corner, it's the guy in the middle that's signing the checks that everybody expects and knows he's the real boss of the place.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: 18:33

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 18:36

No, I, I think that's gold that, you know, what the owner pays attention to, everybody else tends to pay attention to. So if the owner says, Hey, this stuff's important. Gosh darn it. Um, you know, then everybody pays attention. Let me ask you a different question now. How is AI affecting your business? So artificial intelligence, just to be clear, how is that affecting the telematics industry?

Andrew Chermark: 19:05

Well, it's actually, um, the telematics, uh, we call them TSPs, telematic service providers. They're embracing that technology along with a lot of other businesses around the world. Because they're able to use, um, artificial intelligence and machine learning to. Obviously create services that can help them, uh, be, be, be much safer on the road, uh, use the data, uh, to learn from each other. Um, it's funny how, um, I'll give you an example of AI and, and how it's helping not only drivers, but also helping companies, uh, these new, um. Commercial, uh, telematics dash cams, right? We call them safety cams, dash cams. Um, the new, uh, the new types of AI is that they're using, um, infrared on the eyes of the driver to provide In cab coaching. You know, it's not about just recording events. It's about trying to prevent accidents. So, um, that's the newest type of technology out. Most of the TSPs are using similar cameras with this artificial intelligence because what it does is, you know, accidents happen in a second, guys. We all know that, right? Boom. You have a collision, your eyes, take your eyes off. So the, like you, what happens is when you have your hand, you know, you're looking at the front windshield. When you Take your eyes off the road, whether you have sunglasses on or not, and for more than two or three seconds, the camera recognizes that. Okay? And it's immediately now creating some sort of audio tone or actually saying words. Put your eyes back on the windshield. Uh, wake up. I mean, whatever, however you want to customize the words. But the point is, I have it in my car and I, and listen, I, I'm human too. And, you know, I try not to text and drive and I try to drive safe, but I'm like everyone else, you know, in America. We, we, we have, we're overworked and, uh, we, we, we're, uh, we're, we're doing things we shouldn't be doing. But I gotta tell you, the camera... The cameras helped me many times. I put my eyes back on that road. And, um, and one other thing with, uh, AI and machine learning, um, I said earlier about these driver scorecards, right? With, um, with the algorithms and the secret sauce on how they, um, how they kind of come up with these, these driver risk scorecards, um, we'll talk a little bit about Milliman, which is an actuarian company. Um, they, um, they have a thing called Accurate. Uh, Milliman is a 90 year old, um, actuary company based out of Seattle, and their Accurate has been approved by regulators, because they're taking it a step further than TSP's. TSP's are doing driver behavior and things like that, and using a little bit of weather and third party apps. You know, it's sunny, 50 degrees, not raining, is raining, snowing, not snowing. But the Milliman folks are, um... Are really taking it a step further with, uh, you know, kind of doing a joint venture with Bridgestone Mobility, where they're actually creating a risk score similar to like a credit check, you know, like you do, you know, because we all know, you know, insurance companies do do credit checks on people, uh, as well as other historical and, you know, motor vehicle records and things like that. But again, AI, machine learning, um, um, It's all about using third party data and trying to, you know, I tell people the simplest term, like I said earlier to you guys, I'm an ex football player with a few concussions, okay? Let's just keep it simple here, right? They put it in a big pot, right? And they boil it, right? And then it boils it down. And then when they boil it down, they have the secret sauce with algorithms and AI and machine learning, and they spit out actionable business intelligence that not only commercial underwriters but also brokers and agents and people in loss control that can use that, um, through their business workflows to help them improve safety across the board. So, um, and to keep, I try to keep it simple for people because you know what, we'll never figure out, um, how, how, how they do it, but we don't, we don't necessarily need to know how they do it. We need to know how it helps people drive safer and prevent collisions.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 23:20

All we need to know is information like that can help us the best insurance rates possible, which for a lot of companies, insurance is certainly in their top 10, but normally in their top five expenses. So if they can control insurance rates and drive it a little bit lower, that's giving them a huge advantage. And how do you drive it lower? Yeah. By helping your underwriter, your insurance provider, understand your business as best you can. Which is exactly, I think, what you do. Isn't it,

Andrew Chermark: 23:55

Andrew? Absolutely. And you know, like I said, you know, as the business has evolved, telematics, you know, like I said, I started with, um, you know, years ago with GPS on, on NexTel phones, and then we went into these black boxes and now the business has evolved to where Bridgestone, I say Bridgestone again, because they are, um, you know, they're, they're doing a lot of different tire sensors, uh, so that, uh, you know, the, you know, the, we, The correct pressure of a tire has a lot to do with the safety of a vehicle, as well as miles per gallon. Um, they're also focusing on, um, a product they, they own, which, uh, which we have the authority to help people use. And basically what it does is it aggregates TSP data. So whether you use Verizon, Geotab, Simcera, Azuga. There's, you know, there's 50 plus telematics companies out there nowadays, you know, but the point is by aggregating this data, right? They harmonize it, they enrich it, and they analyze this connected vehicle data. And what it does is it allows an underwriter to use well established, well known technology, right? It's been out over 20 years, telematics, to be able to identify opportunities for risk and be able to in there and the insurance size, because remember, you know, You got three players, right? You got the carrier, the brokers, and the, and the policy holder, right? The insurer. So each one kind of can, can use data to, to help them, to help all of them. Right. But from the insurance carriers perspective, you know, is a lot of turnover going on with underwriters. They're just checking boxes, right? So we're trying to give them data, real time data that shows what the risk profile is of a. Uh, of a company from real time information from their TSPs, uh, well, technology, but more importantly, be able to find. Profit in these premiums. So with good data and as far as the brokers go, I mean, listen, insurance brokers, there's a, um, you know, they need to differentiate themselves. They need to change the way they do business and they need to embrace technology and, um, and be able to offer value to their customers during renewal and, and prepare them for renewal. Whether it's a, whether it's annual and safety inspections of their vehicles or offering some sort of risk assessment to be able to improve their, their portfolio. Because again, unless you can make an insured, unless a business owner, right, can take the data he has and make that data Substantially good in the eyes of an underwriter, then, you know, the main thing is they all pay for it right now, but nobody does anything with it. They don't do anything with it. And we're here to, and we're here to tell them, look guys, listen, we're, we don't know a lot about a lot of things, but what we do know is that you already pay for the data. And there are many risk, fleet risk safety specialists out there that can help you develop a driver safety program to improve that data, make yourself look attractive, right? You have to look attractive to an insurance company, right? And use the data to, to, to be able to, I don't want to, I don't want to say leverage, but it is the right word to leverage these insurance carriers on your good data to outweigh your losses. Yeah. Uh huh.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 27:18

Andrew from Ensure Analytics. I think that is a great place to wrap that up. Did we cover everything you needed to cover?

Andrew Chermark: 27:28

I think we did. I did. And I thank you, John and Chris, for the opportunity to, um, to get the message out to all your listeners. And, um, I would like to just leave with this, um, you know, it's a very short... short lifespan we all have and you know, spend time with your family. Um, be kind to people and um, just try to drive safe. I mean, listen, I, as I said earlier, I, I'm not, we're, we all do it, but you know what, just think of your family and, and, uh, and try to get home safe to them. And, uh, thank you again guys for, for the opportunity.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: 28:05

What a great interview this week. Andrew Chermark from Ensure Analytics, uh, giving us an insight as to all the different data sources that we can use. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. John and I appreciate you. Give it a like and a thumbs up. Leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you. That's it for this week.