Telematics and the year ahead…
A belated but genuine Happy New year – all best wishes to you and yours for a healthy and prosperous 2023. Please forgive me for being a little self-indulgent in offering a few personal reflections how the year might shape up from a business perspective.
Stolen vehicle recovery
There is no sign of a let-up in instances of car theft. REDTAIL has a strong track record in this space through a 30-year relationship with LoJack, Tracker and now CalAmp. In 2022 alone, Redtail Telematics customer Tracker UK recovered 488 vehicles at a total value of £11.8 million.
There are a number of factors influencing our future vision for products and services. Our customers have identified demand at the OEM line fit level which we are fulfilling initially with a well-known German manufacturer. This is combined with the second need, which is an increasingly robust and complex police computer.
Our joined-up technology will enable the swiftest and most secure recovery capability yet, and we look forward to launching that technology in both the UK and European territories.
Usage Based Insurance (UBI)
A few months ago, I wrote an article titled ‘the tipping point’. Telematics-based insurance has promised for many years to be the future of motor but has remained confined (in the main) to young drivers paying thousands to justify the cost of the black box. In the last couple of years, not least prompted by a pandemic-driven clamour for ‘fairer’ car insurance, pay by the mile policies have seen unprecedented growth. This proposition is undoubtedly at top of mind for new incumbents to UBI, for reasons of cost, simplicity, and consumer appetite. By Miles in the UK and KOBA in Australia are certainly leading the way in this area.
A second aspect to look forward to is our well received App’n’Tag proposition, which reduces the ‘black box’ cost by some 80% and also offers a simple consumer experience for immediate use.
These two initiatives may lead us a little closer to the tipping point. However, the last innovation I will comment on is perhaps the bigger initiative…
Connected Vehicle data for UBI
REDTAIL has been appointed Reseller of Connected Vehicle data for UBI for Ford Europe. We said a lot about this in mid-2022 and have continued to evolve our view of this opportunity for both OEMs and Insurers. In the next twelve months, I expect that a couple of narratives will develop:
- The data platforms will be found out: they need IoT insurtechs like REDTAIL to turn their junk food data into value for insurers.
- We will continue to explore the diverse datasets available from Auto OEMs, deploying a proof-of-concept approach to help insurers and their actuaries, propositions and claims teams scrutinise sample data and discern value.
- We will continue to work with OEMs to help them understand the size of the opportunity and their positioning within it, the technology roadmap to embrace, and not least, the commercial models available.
So REDTAIL has much to do!
We remain committed to innovating with and beyond customer needs to grow existing and new sales. Furthermore, REDTAIL continues to lead in telematics in all aspects, from black boxes and their descendants to insightful analytics, data platforms and apps.
Looking forward to 2023!