CONSTRUCTION GENERAL LIABILITY HEALTHCARE INSURANCE CLAIMS MANUFACTURING MARKET TRENDS PROPERTY & CASUALTY RISK MANAGEMENT UNDERSTANDING INSURANCE WORKERS COMPENSATION
DEC 16, 2020 Best Gifts for Workplace Risk Managers risk management, technology Companies can put safety first by investing in wearables and telematics for their employees this holiday season! These tools can be a major asset in helping drive down the cost of work-related injuries. Learn more below: Employee wearables Wearables are evolving. While consumers have generally embraced smart watches and fitness-tracking technology, industrial applications are still viewed with some skepticism by employees. Nevertheless, industries that have traditionally suffered from high injury and fatality rates know they must look beyond traditional accident-trend analysis and reactive safety programs. In a 2018 study on the use of wearables in construction, titled “Wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending: Review of applicable devices” by Ibukun Awolusia, Eric Marks and Matthew Hallowell, the authors found limited use of personal automation devices to support worker safety. The full study is available here. These technologies are evolving rapidly and as usage expands, costs are dropping. One other consideration for implementing wearables in any industry is coupling the program with transparent communications that put the focus on worker safety rather than productivity. Employees may worry about their employer tracking personal data, but when they understand the application is designed to improve their safety, they tend to be more accepting. Telematics Another technology that can make commercial drivers “smarter and safer” is telematics. Used primarily by personal auto carriers, Amerisure evaluated whether the technology was applicable to commercial drivers. The company conducted a two-year pilot that involved 1,800 vehicles and drivers from 26 different fleets with more than 35 million miles driven. FleetAlliance®, Amerisure’s telematics program, focused on driver behaviors that correlated to higher frequency and severity of loss by monitoring driving behaviors such as acceleration, deceleration, and fixed and posted speed events. The vehicles were also equipped with a GPS to identify specific locations for these events. Participants could access a customer dashboard which was continuously updated with driver trip behavior. As a bonus, they had access to Amerisure’s partnership with Lifesaver ® cell blocking technology to help prevent/limit distracted driving from cellphone use. “A Fleet Manager could view their drivers’ trips on a real-time basis and could provide immediate coaching, if warranted,” noted David Galbraith, Amerisure’s Assistant Vice President, Risk Management Technical Lead. “We found Fleet Managers moving from being reactive users of historical data like Motor Vehicle Records and past accidents, to becoming proactive coaches who watched the dashboards of drivers during their actual trips.” Amerisure proved its pilot hypothesis that by actively monitoring driver behavior, both operating and insurance costs could be reduced over time. Safety events in every category, from speeding and fast acceleration to hard braking, were reduced up to 20 percent, as compared to behaviors between the first month of the pilot to the last month. For additional information on putting safety first, contact an Amerisure Partners For Success® agency. ◀ Previous Next ▶
DEC 16, 2020 Best Gifts for Workplace Risk Managers risk management, technology Companies can put safety first by investing in wearables and telematics for their employees this holiday season! These tools can be a major asset in helping drive down the cost of work-related injuries. Learn more below: Employee wearables Wearables are evolving. While consumers have generally embraced smart watches and fitness-tracking technology, industrial applications are still viewed with some skepticism by employees. Nevertheless, industries that have traditionally suffered from high injury and fatality rates know they must look beyond traditional accident-trend analysis and reactive safety programs. In a 2018 study on the use of wearables in construction, titled “Wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending: Review of applicable devices” by Ibukun Awolusia, Eric Marks and Matthew Hallowell, the authors found limited use of personal automation devices to support worker safety. The full study is available here. These technologies are evolving rapidly and as usage expands, costs are dropping. One other consideration for implementing wearables in any industry is coupling the program with transparent communications that put the focus on worker safety rather than productivity. Employees may worry about their employer tracking personal data, but when they understand the application is designed to improve their safety, they tend to be more accepting. Telematics Another technology that can make commercial drivers “smarter and safer” is telematics. Used primarily by personal auto carriers, Amerisure evaluated whether the technology was applicable to commercial drivers. The company conducted a two-year pilot that involved 1,800 vehicles and drivers from 26 different fleets with more than 35 million miles driven. FleetAlliance®, Amerisure’s telematics program, focused on driver behaviors that correlated to higher frequency and severity of loss by monitoring driving behaviors such as acceleration, deceleration, and fixed and posted speed events. The vehicles were also equipped with a GPS to identify specific locations for these events. Participants could access a customer dashboard which was continuously updated with driver trip behavior. As a bonus, they had access to Amerisure’s partnership with Lifesaver ® cell blocking technology to help prevent/limit distracted driving from cellphone use. “A Fleet Manager could view their drivers’ trips on a real-time basis and could provide immediate coaching, if warranted,” noted David Galbraith, Amerisure’s Assistant Vice President, Risk Management Technical Lead. “We found Fleet Managers moving from being reactive users of historical data like Motor Vehicle Records and past accidents, to becoming proactive coaches who watched the dashboards of drivers during their actual trips.” Amerisure proved its pilot hypothesis that by actively monitoring driver behavior, both operating and insurance costs could be reduced over time. Safety events in every category, from speeding and fast acceleration to hard braking, were reduced up to 20 percent, as compared to behaviors between the first month of the pilot to the last month. For additional information on putting safety first, contact an Amerisure Partners For Success® agency. ◀ Previous Next ▶