This text is a part of a sponsored sequence by Threat & Insurance coverage Training Alliance.
As telematics adoption grows and information turns into extra out there, industrial auto insurers are exploring methods to assist fleets cut back danger earlier than losses happen. Loss management is rising as a key alternative for business differentiation.
For years, the dialogue round telematics in industrial auto insurance coverage has centered on its use as an underwriting device. The profit was clear — higher visibility into driver habits can assist insurers value danger extra precisely. That is still true as extra fleets undertake telematics and insurers turn into extra snug utilizing the info, shifting the dialog towards entry and insured participation.
The main target is altering, nevertheless. In response to SambaSafety’s 2026 Telematics Report, its fourth version based mostly on survey responses from 740 fleets, insurers, and brokers, loss management is now the most typical insurance coverage use case for telematics, cited by 63% of business auto insurers. Developed in partnership with the Threat & Insurance coverage Training Alliance for the fourth consecutive yr, the analysis tracks how telematics use is evolving throughout the industrial auto ecosystem.
Claims purposes and danger segmentation stay essential, however the prominence of loss management suggests insurers are more and more curious about what occurs earlier than a declare happens, not simply after the very fact.
The shift comes at a time when industrial auto continues to confront acquainted and rising challenges. Claims stay expensive, loss severity is elevated, and distracted driving ranks among the many business’s most important issues, with 82% of insurers figuring out it as a menace to profitability.
The stress on the business explains why telematics is evolving past the single-use funding it was initially supposed to be. Along with underwriting purposes, telematics offers a window into driver habits that will contribute to future losses, creating a possibility for insurers to have interaction with their insureds earlier than a declare happens.
It’s a possibility that comes at a time when fleets aren’t struggling to gather the info; they’re struggling to take advantage of use of it.
With 90% of fleets now utilizing telematics throughout most of their operations, greater than half of the surveyed fleets say decoding or performing on the info stays a problem — a barrier that extends past fleets.
Insurers are more and more capable of entry telematics information, with many making use of it throughout a number of enterprise capabilities. The entry alone, although, does little to enhance loss efficiency. The worth emerges when insurers translate danger indicators into proactive loss management suggestions, serving to fleets tackle danger by way of interventions resembling driver coaching.
The report signifies that the business is already shifting in that path, with brokers acknowledged as strategic danger companions for industrial fleets.
“The worth of telematics isn’t the info itself. It’s what you do with it,” mentioned William J. Maintain, CRM, CISR, President and CEO of the Threat & Insurance coverage Training Alliance. “When insurers and brokers can flip danger insights into significant motion, they transfer past merely pricing danger and turn into companions in serving to purchasers cut back it.”
As telematics matures throughout industrial auto, insurers will develop of their capacity not solely to entry extra information but in addition to assist insureds use it extra successfully. That reframing may form how insurers take into consideration the worth they supply slightly than seeing telematics as a device for underwriting or pricing.
The main target, consequently, will transfer from understanding driver danger to influencing it in significant methods. As pressures evolve and impression the business, insurers and brokers that leverage the info and assist their fleet companions apply it to create safer selections could discover themselves with a aggressive benefit that extends past the info alone.
About SambaSafety
SambaSafety is a acknowledged innovator and main supplier of cloud-based danger administration options for over 15,000 organizations with automotive mobility publicity, together with many on Fortune’s World 500 listing. Employers and insurers profit from SambaSafety’s steady monitoring, intuitive insights, danger discount instruments, and configurable pricing options. Via the gathering, correlation, and evaluation of federal, state, native, and telematics information sources, our versatile, end-to-end capabilities allow companies and insurers to raised consider and mitigate driving danger, speed up product growth, cut back crashes, and foster safer communities.
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