Trucking insurance in a digital mini-boom

As the trucking industry is looking to make the most of dashboard and road-facing cameras and telematics technologies to reduce risk and leverage collected data, their insurance partners are riding along.

Nearly three-quarters of private trucking fleets use multiple safety technologies, including 72% using in-cab cameras, according to the 2022 Benchmarking Survey Report, conducted by the National Private Truck Council (NPTC).

Trucking safety technology providers and fleet insurers have been partnering at a rapid clip recently to either promote devices or offer rate discounts. Recently announced initiatives include partnerships between Sentry Insurance and Motive and Nexar and Cover Whale, as well as HDVI’s reboot of its Shift commercial truck insurance and VisionTrack’s launch of an AI-powered video analysis solution for truck camera footage.

“About 50% of the fleets that come to us looking for insurance already had cameras installed,” said Reid Spitz, co-founder and chief product officer, HDVI. “As the risks out there on the road, with nuclear verdicts and plaintiff attorneys and so forth, continue to be a challenge for the trucking industry, more and more fleets and fleet owners recognize the need for and the value of cameras — especially road facing cameras. Where there might have been more resistance to putting cameras in trucks two or three years ago, we see virtually no resistance to that at all today.”

The percentage of trucks using cameras, whether inward, outward or two-way, may never be 100%, according to Thomas Bray, senior industry business advisor at J. J. Keller & Associates, a trucking industry management consulting company. “The only way you would see 100% use is if there was a mandate or regulatory requirement,” he said. “That’s not likely to happen.” The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does require outward-facing cameras in its Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program for drivers ages 18 to 20 who are in training.

Some camera initiatives have exonerated drivers wrongly charged with causing accidents or unsafe conduct, according to Bray. However, he said, there are other, more practical applications.

“Where insurers see the biggest benefit for insurance rates is having mechanisms in place to correct the near misses, not just deal with the crashes,” he said. “Correct the driver if it was a driver error, and then drive down the number of crashes and losses. That’s where you see the big benefit come into play. Exoneration is a little bit of a benefit. Being able to prevent crashes is a big benefit.”

VisionTrack recently launched NARA (Notification Analysis and Risk Assessment), a cloud-based AI solution that pairs truck camera recordings with AI that can sort and detect relevant images. “A happy fleet manager is a fleet manager who doesn’t have to sift through millions of videos,” said Matthew Ison, head of sales for North America at VisionTrack. “That’s some hyperbole to talk about millions – but if you have a fleet of 100 vehicles or more, that could easily become a full time job to have to see every time an event is recorded.”

Cameras can be just one component of a broader system, J.J. Keller’s Bray said. An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) using an outward camera combined with AI, could see that a driver has drifted over a lane indicator, and warn the driver, or even gently steer the truck back into its lane. This prevents leaving it to the driver to suddenly brake hard in response. Conversely, a camera working with AI could record that a driver had to brake hard in a different circumstance where another driver cut them off on the highway.

Bray sees using cameras and safety technology as a balancing act between beneficial actions like lane assistance and creating nuisances setting off warnings every time the truck goes through an underpass, because of misguided clearance thresholds in AI. “Give me a smart truck and a smart driver,” he said. “If you give me one or the other only, you cut my chances in half. Give me a smart truck but a not so smart driver, that’s going to be a problem. Take the smartest driver in the world, and give them a bad truck, we’re still having problems. So give me a smart truck and a smart driver any day of the week.”

For trucking companies that have gotten more cameras into their cabs, especially those with ADAS or AI systems, an “extraordinary” amount of data is being generated, said Chris Hayes, risk control executive at Travelers Insurance. Camera-generated data goes along with electronic logging device (ELD) and trucking telematics data. ELDs began being used in 2016. The cost of dashboard and outward facing cameras began dropping and their quality increased in the past five to 10 years, according to Hayes.

“From the insureds we speak to, there’s an increasing interest, now that they have the devices and are paying for them and paying for the data, in what’s there,” he said.

To benefit from the large amounts of data, fleet owners need “time and capacity for somebody to go through it, and the corporate culture and safety culture to communicate, coach and encourage behaviors,” said Hayes. The systems also have to present the data in a format trucking companies can use, he added.

Sentry Insurance partnered with Motive to offer policy discounts for truckers sharing EDL and dashcam data with the carrier. Nick Saeger, assistant vice president, transportation products, pricing and underwriting of Sentry, sees the data as useful for improving safety and handling claims. 

“Based on what we’re seeing in telematics data, where they’re having events, we can then use our own safety consultants to talk with our customers and say, ‘Hey, look at this particular area, you have a lot of events,'” he said. “Either make some changes or maybe avoid that area to avoid a potential catastrophe.”

With accident information, Sentry can speak to insureds both to resolve claims and help them mitigate their losses, added Saeger. 

Insurers have a different perspective on the use of camera and safety technology in trucking; their goal is to spend less on claims, Bray noted. “You’re starting to see insurance and trucking companies working together,” he said. “The insurance company’s saying if you put cameras in, you get this much. If you actually use them proactively, we’re giving you this much more. The underwriters look at cameras and see that’s leading to a reduction in loss.”

Commercial trucking insurer Cover Whale recently partnered with video telematics provider Nexar to offer inward and outward facing cameras to truckers it covers, as part of its Driver Safety Program. This partnership is one example of a growing trend, according to Dan Abrahamsen, CEO of CoverWhale.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship. Insurtechs are leaders in providing cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions to the industry, and insurers are eager to stay ahead of the competition and better meet the needs of truck drivers, a historically underserved portion of the population,” Abrahamsen wrote in a response to questions. “Partnerships between insurers and insurtechs have likely increased as a result since they enable two or three hands to work together and are sometimes better than one in finding solutions to specific or specialized risks.”