Insurance FAQs
In general, how do Insurance Telematics Programs work?
Insurance programs work by insurers getting a data stream from their policyholders that give them facts about driver behaviour and the relative risk that each driver represents. This can then educate the insurer which policyholders in particular need to be encouraged to change their driving to lower their risk and also, by using pricing, to encourage or discourage the policyholder to stay with the insurer in subsequent policy periods. The data stream also includes information valuable to the claims department and which can increase its effectiveness in expediting claims accurately and quickly – it is well known that time causes claims costs to escalate. It is for an insurer to first select its high risk policies such as young driver or passenger carrying, where there is more at stake and the relative cost of implementing the telematics solution is lower.
What types of Insurance Telematics programs does Redtail Telematics offer?
Redtail offers devices and data that can be used for Pay As You Go programs that measure basic parameters such as miles driven up to the most complex Usage Based Insurance. Usage Based programs include a wide variety of means for risk assessment and combines crash detection, alerting and accident reconstruction.
What are the benefits of implementing a Telematics program at my Insurance Company?
UBI is being used by leading insurance companies for a reason – Insurers are achieving better loss ratios and improving their business. In a competitive market it is imperative that all insurers start to introduce UBI at the right time for their market.
How is the success of a particular Insurance Telematics program measured?
Ultimately by reduced loss ratios, but these are measured as a combination of:-
- Good policyholder selection
- Reducing driver risk by educating the insured out of bad driving styles
- Assisting the claims department to be more effective at settling claims quickly
- Identifying and managing fraudulent claims.
Does the Insurance company have to pay up front for the telematics program? GPS devices? Data costs?
It is normal to pay for devices up front and pay for data as it is supplied.
When will my insurance company see a Return on the Investment?
An insurance company will see return on investment in UBI when: – The program it is able to persuade policy holders to change their behaviour – When policy holders can be selected or priced on the basis of the risk they represent, or – When claims can be more efficiently managed. All these can start very quickly after the program begins. Where the benefits end is not yet known.
Do you have driver scoring?
Yes. Some of our customers perform their own scoring but Redtail also offers its own scoring system.
How does the driver scoring work?
Redtail devices monitor basic driver behaviour such as speeding, harsh acceleration, braking and cornering. Scores are developed to measure risky behaviour. Scores need to be normalised to the relevant population and geographic region. For example, there is a stunning difference between the measured driving styles seen in rural England and those of the taxi drivers of New York City. It is the differences in the groups that Insurers will be trying to evaluate.
Do you offer pilot programs?
Redtail strongly encourage insurers to engage in pilot programs, as much to pipe clean their own operational systems as to test the telematics.
Do you do crash reconstruction?
Redtail’s VAM device is constantly watching data for signs of impacts. Severe impacts are classed as likely accidents and the information kept separately and made available both immediately and after the fact. The information can be viewed graphically via a private portal and includes time, place, and magnitude and direction of impact.
What is the granularity of your data?
For insurance applications we offer data rates from once per fifteen minutes up to 1 once per second GPS plus 10Hz continuous accelerometer and gyro data, and up to 1kHz impact data during crash events.
Can you provide references from other insurers?
References are provided upon request.
Do you have a solution already in place that is not customized or only requires slight modifications?
Yes. Redtail Telematics has solutions out of the box. However it is normal for the insurance company to ask for a degree of customisation, such as tailoring exactly how the data is delivered and how devices are configured.
What are the pros and cons of using an installed GPS device? A DIY device? Mobile app?
Professionally installed devices will always give the best data. They will usually be out of sight and out of mind of the driver, giving the best driver behaviour results.
- DIY or self-install devices can give almost as good results, but a proportion of these will get unplugged accidentally, either by the policy holder or during vehicle servicing
- Mobile apps for data recording are very popular as they are very low cost. However the data quality is the lowest and phones are not safely affixed to the vehicle, prone to battery drainage and can be turned off by the user
What type of GPS devices do you offer?
Redtail has GPS devices for professionally installation, 12V cigarette lighter do-it-yourself plug in and OBD plug-in. There is also a rugged GPS device for industrial applications that includes IP67 environmental sealing and long life battery.
Do you offer tech support?
VAM devices, data warehouse and analytics are all fully documented. Redtail offers full technical support to qualified customers and ticket systems for active programs.
Do you have direct relationships with installers?
Redtail has relationships with installer networks in the UK, EU and US.
Do you supply your own airtime?
Redtail has relationships with multiple airtime providers to achieve worldwide coverage at competitive rates.
Do you use only your own hardware?
Redtail’s VAM is designed to be perfectly suited to our datawarehouse and analytics. It is completely re-configurable in order to keep up to date with developments in analytics. Redtail can easily integrate other non-Redtail devices as desired, although the same data richness cannot be guaranteed.
Can we get data via an API?
Access to data warehouse is supported by fully documented APIs.
What is the lifetime of your devices?
VAM devices have been installed in cars over the last four years and there is no perceptible limit to their lifetime.
Can you upload revised firmware Over The Air?
Absolutely. This essential service is managed by the Redtail data warehouse and is fully error checked to take account of transmission faults. It maintains device configuration through the upgrade. By design the firmware is extremely compact resulting in very low airtime charges for each upgrade.
Can you do custom developments?
Redtail Telematics endeavours to supply standard products and data streams to optimise pricing. However every customer has its own requirements and these can be met from simple configuration changes through to full custom developments of hardware, User Interface or analytics.
What is stock lead-time?
Redtail Telematics holds modest stocks for small orders but larger volumes are built to order, please check with your local sales professional for details on lead-times.
Do you have worldwide coverage?
Yes, although airtime prices vary by country.
How many devices have you built?
Prior to the Redtail Telematics spin-off, the design and manufacturing teams delivered over 6 million automotive telematics devices.
What is your standard warranty?
Standard device warranty is 1 year.
Do you use your own GSM and GPS technology?
Redtail Telematics uses Telit GSM modems and GPS chipsets from U-blox and Furuno.
The REDTAIL Management Systems
At Redtail Telematics, we care about the quality and security of the products and services we offer to our customers. That's why we have created a Quality Management System that is ISO 9001 certified and an Information Security Management System that is ISO 27001 certified. Redtail's QMS and ISMS play crucial roles in ensuring the quality of products/services and protecting sensitive information for all involved.
For more information about our ISO 9001 Quality Management certification or our ISO 27001 Information Security Management certification, please visit the NQA website.
