The Blind Spot: Recent Episodes
SambaSafety
Thought-leading, data-driven, safety-focused. You're listening to The Blind Spot, a deep dive on the driver safety industry.
Jason Malpass, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Samba Safety, knows the secret to analyzing claims studies begins with the client. The building blocks Samba Safety needs to perform a claims study analysis are the information and data the client wants to measure. Are there specific measurements Samba looks for in a claims study?
“We look for areas of cost controls,” Malpass said. “We look for areas we can automate and drive some operational efficiencies. And as the name would suggest, we look at the claims history within our relationships and employers as they combat the rising costs of auto crashes and are looking for ways to reverse that trend of escalation.”
Malpass noted that Samba Safety has the claims study process down to a science and is available to use that expertise to help clients save money.
“Without a whole lot of heavy lifting from our clients, we’re able to go in, gather some data points from them, and then use that, balance it off of what we’ve learned from all of our other pre-existing client relationships, and come back with some findings,” he said.
With every claims study, Malpass said there’s always an opportunity to reduce risk for a client and provide cost reduction areas. “Leveraging some of the automation and the workflow that exists within Samba Safety’s tools, we’re able to drive efficiencies that otherwise are unrealized.”
Just about everyone on the world was thrilled to tear off the final page of the 2020 calendar and get a fresh start in the new year.
But, while there is light at the end of the tunnel as the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming year could have just as many twists and turns as the one that preceded it.
One of the things SambaSafety prides itself on is being a data-first company. Eric Waldinger, CMO of SambaSafety, said over its 22 years, SambaSafety’s collection of data gives them the ability to use this data to improve safety and the bottom line.
“We have an advanced data science team,” Waldinger said, “that focuses not just on analytics, but on predictive analytics. What the data tells us is when you put in driver monitoring, or a monitoring system, monthly violations reduce by 22%.”
So, how does SambaSafety leverage all of this driver data to create efficiencies in their processes, no matter the insurance vertical? Waldinger pointed to examples like employee driver’s licenses.
“Anywhere from 3-5% of employee licenses could be invalid,” he said.
And with nationwide accident fatalities caused by 19% of drivers with invalid licenses, having this information will help reduce a business's risk.
“26% percent of driving fatalities involve speeding,” Waldinger said.
Understanding what employee driving risks exist for those driving on behalf of a particular company is critical.
Frequency and severity are two data points that factor heavily into SambaSafety’s solutions.
“When these two points line up together, you get a better profile of those drivers,” Waldinger said. “Understanding these two elements gives a company the ability to understand their driver pool better.”
Pulling Motor Vehicle Records has become a time-consuming and costly process for many insurance providers.
Fortunately for insurance companies, said Eric Waldinger, Samba Safety’s CMO, what is often needed is a quick thumbs up or thumbs down, something that can be achieved through alternative data method like Samba’s Volta offering.
“You don’t always want to buy a Motor Vehicle Record through every time, so what we do is we provide, through our Volta product, the ability to look at those Motor Vehicle Records in a different way,” Waldinger said. “We have the ability to do a quick pull and just say, ‘Are they clean or dirty?’ And understanding if they don’t have any violations in three years, start rolling and start quoting.”
There not only is an increase in speed, but alternative data allows for an increase in accuracy as well - something that ultimately allows insurance organizations to up the profit they’re making on each driver and also overall.
“Our goal is to continue to continue make the combined ratio sub-1. Right now they’re running about 1.6 to 1, which means you’re losing six cents on every dollar you’re collecting. We wanted to get back to where it was about 10 years ago where it was in that .97-.98 to 1 ratio where this maybe isn’t going to be your profit center, but it’s at least going to be break even to slightly profitable, which means the rest of your book becomes so much more profitable in every area.”
Safer roads: It’s an idea almost everyone can get behind. But how do we make driving safer for both the commuters and commercial shipping carriers that share the same road? Eric Waldinger, CMO at Samba Safety, affirms that driver monitoring is the key to safer roads and saving lives.
When commercial carriers institute driver monitoring for a fleet, a domino effect takes place: insurance claims and premiums go down, liability lowers, safe and risky drivers are quickly identified, and human lives are saved from negligent driving. It is a bold claim, but Waldinger has the facts to back it up.
“When an organization puts in driver monitoring, they reduce their crash footprint by 14%," he said.
Driver monitoring gives a complete look at an organization’s driving behavior. It goes beyond pulling annual driving records by providing comprehensive and immediate data on behavior.
In turn, insurance underwriters have better information for accurately quoting customers at the right level, lowering self-insurance costs. Safer drivers can also save companies big bucks. But Waldinger said it is not just about saving money on insurance, but about optimizing that insurance coverage to work for your organization’s performance, allowing leftover money to go to higher risk areas.
Technology is undoubtedly changing our lives, and in the case of commercial shipping, it’s saving them with driver monitoring.
As Waldinger puts it, it is a “win, win, win, win.” All parties: businesses, brokers, carriers, and all the way down to everyday drivers are benefiting from safer roads and saving money.
The potential client fills out an online questionnaire and the insurer pulls their motor vehicle record and makes a decision, getting back to the client with a quote that reflects what they know.
But what about when the insurer doesn’t know enough? Like when the MVR reveals little, or when the client has altered a birthdate or has a U.S. license not showing on the report?
That’s where Volta from SambaSafety comes in as an alternative to the traditional Rate Call 1 process.
“We’re trying to make life easy on our clients. Using technology to optimize your spend is really the key component here,” said Rick Fendell, Vice President, Data Solutions and Channels at SambaSafety. “Depending on the clients you are seeking as an insurer, you may have 70% of those clients not have anything on their MVR, but it’s still a necessary step in the process just to confirm – is there anything on this record?”
Volta, SambaSafety’s insurance platform, helps detect if it’s even necessary to pull an MVR in the first place. Insurers also can tell if something goes above an insurers’ guidelines, uncovering issues that may indicate too much risk without purchasing an MVR.
“It’s not just a cost-savings tool, but for clients that compare it to a traditional MVR pull, we see anywhere from 30%-60% savings, which is pretty large once you look at the amount of dollars,” Fendell said. “That adds up pretty quickly.”
Volta is a tool that can help insurers throw off the burden of MVRs and start to explore other methods of evaluating whether a client is a good fit for their book or not, with all the potential financial rewards that come with that flexibility.
On this episode of The Blind Spot, a SambaSafety podcast, host Tyler Kern and SambaSafety CMO Eric Waldinger addressed the COVID-19 pandemic, its implications and the measures SambaSafety is taking to do its part during this uncertain time.
Waldinger said that many of SambaSafety’s customers in the transportation, grocery, and other “front-line” industries are working diligently to help the nation and world respond to this pandemic, and that SambaSafety wanted to extend its gratitude and support to each of those customers in any way that it can.
Waldinger also highlighted the company’s efforts to help not only these customers, but all of its clients manage the level of uncontrolled risk that’s been brought on by this nearly unprecedented disruption.
“First and foremost, let’s pause. Let’s identify that we’re in a very different environment – there is no playbook for what’s happening right now,” he said. “So, we’re watching organizations adapt faster than ever.”
That adaptation has been boosted by the state of modern technology, and, even in times like these, two things remain true – drivers will be on the road, and they will pose risk.
To that end, SambaSafety remains committed to helping its customers control the risk they can control, empowering them to be confident in adapting to new risks being posed.
Kern and Waldinger also touched on the hectic state of insurance in the wake of the spread of coronavirus, methods to optimize budgets as the world recovers from this pandemic, and how SambaSafety can attempt to ease that burden.
It’s hard to turn on the local news without seeing reports of the latest highway accident. Vehicle crashes happen every day, numbing the public to the severity of the issue. But the truth is, 94% of these crashes are preventable said Eric Waldinger, Chief Marketing Officer at SambaSafety.
A staggering number of people lose their lives on the road each year, affecting mothers, brothers, business owners, companies, and neighbors alike. Creating safer roads is a community effort and one that rises to the top of public priority. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom driving kids to school, or the owner of a nationwide trucking company, safe-driving habits affect everyone.
In the next 5 years, SambaSafety aims to reduce crashes by 20%. How? By using advanced data insights and predictive analytics, SambaSafety’s models assist in find risky drivers, and helps organizations enhance their culture of safety. Predictive models find risky drivers, and SambaSafety helps organizations train and talk to these drivers so accidents are stopped before they happen.
Using the power of data, SambaSafety is helping take back control of the roads again.