eDriving – Innovating to Save Lives

Originally published in CIO Bulletin 12/13/2019

Habits shape our lives and if we can identify the errors and follow a new healthy pattern it naturally becomes a routine. This applies to almost all spheres of life. Unsafe driving habits are a growing concern around the world and it is an issue that needs to be addressed smartly.

When it comes to unsafe driving behaviors, the World Health Organization, (WHO), reports they are contributing to over 1.3 Million deaths annually across the world – that’s nearly 3,700 people dying every day in road traffic collisions! Tens of millions more are also injured or disabled every year, taking a huge toll on families globally. The WHO also reports there are many reasons for this trend including people driving distracted, fatigued, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, speeding and a failure to wear seatbelts!

Changing driving behavior is a tricky and complex business involving a deep understanding of not only human behavior and motivations, but also organizational behavior and how individuals and groups act within the organization. With the core aim of helping organizations develop a crash-free culture, eDriving has introduced its telematic app ‘Mentor’ which is designed to attack the “94% problem”, namely, the 94% of collisions that are caused by a driver’s attitude & behavior behind the wheel! Mentor helps drivers understand their risky behaviors, and ultimately make the right choices when faced with decisions behind the wheel, leading to fewer collisions, license violations and injuries.

Inception

It was 1996 when eDriving began its journey in Huddersfield in the United Kingdom where the company helped more than 200 organizations on the journey to successful IS09000 registrations. They were also the first company in the world to introduce a Defensive Driving CD-ROM. In 2002, the company had a major breakthrough by launching its Virtual Risk Manager platform which ultimately became the foundation from which Mentor grew.

Within a decade the company grew exponentially, connecting with global partners and creating applications and methodologies that helped their clients in managing risks associated with driving for work purposes.

By 2007, eDriving was supporting enterprise clients in 96 countries and 45 languages, and the years marked numerous milestones when in 2017, they launched their advanced product Mentor — a smartphone mobile app. The company has headquarters in both the UK and the US and has a Global Customer Success Network that engages about 1.2 million drivers across 100 countries.

Risk Managed Insurance

Insurers are always looking for new methods by which they can reduce claims and the in-vehicle telematics technology enables them to analyze driving behavior more deeply and provide accurate claims more easily. This helps both the insurer and their clients save money. But turning raw driving data into actionable information is a difficult process and is dependent on various factors like trip overviews, event-related data as well as behavior-related information. To have a proper understanding one must cross-reference this data with driver’s historical on-road performance.

And eDriving perfectly fits into these requirements with its “Risk Managed Insurance” approach as it does a lot more than measuring, analyzing and scoring risk but also provides pointers on how the companies and their drivers can better manage and reduce their road risk exposures.

“We’ve spent more than 20 years refining our patented approach with some of the world’s largest fleets and insurance partners. This approach allows us to transform these complex data sets into actionable information for both insurance providers and their customers,” says Ed Dubens, the CEO and Founder of eDriving. “Using a combination of leading indicators obtained from telematics as well as traditional data sources such as MVRlicense checks, and collision data, (lagging indicators) we create a holistic view of risk.”

eDriving is profitable for both insurance companies and their clients as they help to reduce risks by reducing collision, injuries, and license violations as well as the total cost of fleet ownership. This leads to a better and prolonged relationship between the insurer and client.

Journey from VRM to Mentor

Virtual Risk Manager (VRM) was launched by eDriving in 2002, a first—of-its-kind fleet risk management platform and soon became the company’s flagship product. The platform delivered behavioral insights and actionable intelligence to help organizations build a road safety management strategy within their fleets and create a crash-free culture.

eDriving has contributed to the overall development of principles and processes to address the issue of driver risk management and developed a patented closed-loop methodology originally embodied by its Virtual Risk Manager program.

“Today, we now combine our patented risk management approach with the latest in, vehicle smartphone telematics technology, proven behavioral change and risk reduction strategies, and successful microlearning and gamification elements to provide an integrated driver risk management solution, Mentor by eDriving^SM,” says Dubens.

Mentor uses the telematic sensors available in iOS and Android smartphones globally to collect & analyze data on the driving behaviors most predictive of risk. These include Acceleration, Braking, Cornering, Speeding, and Phone Distraction, one of the biggest threats to road safety today.

Thanks to eDriving’s partnership with industry analytics leader FICO^®, driver on-road performance is converted into an individual Safe Driving Score, which validation studies have shown to predict the likelihood of drivers being involved in a collision. Personalized insights are then provided to drivers after each trip, showing both positive and negative driving events, and, for the driver’s eyes only, exactly where they occurred.

Prepping the world for a crash-free culture

eDriving made its mark in the industry with its cutting-edge technology and world-class customer service which made the company one of the most preferred partners for some of the world’s largest fleets and organizations in the world. The company’s programs have been validated by more than 70 client and partner awards around the globe.

With their holistic solution in hand, eDriving also reminds clients regularly of the need for leadership commitment and support to reduce driver risk. “For driver risk reduction programs to be effective, it needs to take place within the context of a wider culture of fleet safety that guides employees to safer attitudes and behaviors behind the wheel, and reminds them regularly—both formally and informally—that their safety is important to the organization,” states Dubens.

Carving a place in the Industry

eDriving earned its place in the industry with the irrevocable conviction of serving their clients to the full. The company helps the insurers in reducing their risks and liability exposures through their Risk Managed Insurance (RMI) programs which in turn helps their clients reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO) — a win-win for both the client and the insurer!

In terms of fleet management, the client drastically reduces collisions and physical damage which means fewer injuries and lost working days. Every collision costs the client a lot of money in terms of compensation, lost work days and damage. eDriving specializes in avoiding all these unwanted complications by rating the driver which helps both the driver and the company simultaneously.

By partnering with eDriving, an organization can profit from several facets like better brand and community profile, lower collisions and injury rates, as well as better fuel efficiency for the vehicle. Also, by avoiding reckless driving and crashes the resale value of the vehicle increases!

Working with BT (British Telecom)

eDriving’s first customer in the world to commit to the Virtual Risk Manager platform was UK headquartered BT (British Telecom), who went on to launch one of Europe’s biggest driver risk reduction program. Even today the internationally recognized program involves over 60,000 drivers.

• In early 2000s, collisions and other road incidents (e.g., thefts) cost $25 million in direct losses and 3-4x more in indirect costs
• In business terms, it took approximately 600,000 product sales to cover the annual cost of fleet claims
• 13 years later. BT had halved their collision rate and cut costs by over $13M per year

Driving into the Future

eDriving is busy expanding its MentorMobile App across 50 countries in 14 languages, including Japanese and Mandarin, to support their customers and protect the lives of their employees who drive for work purposes across the globe.

Additional Mentor features launching in Q4 2019 include an in-app Driver Vehicle Inspection Report, (DVIR), which guides drivers through a checklist inspection at the beginning and end of their day, plus a First Notice of Loss, (FNOL),that allows a driver to submit collision information and photos directly through Mentor to Fleet and Accident Management as well as Insurers to minimize “total claims cost”, (25-40%).

Already have a Telematics solution? Not a problem. QI 2020, eDriving launches Mentor TSP and in Q2 2020, Mentor VISION.

Mentor TSP (Telematics Service Partner) helps organizations with an existing telematics solution also take advantage of Mentor’s patented, proven and award-winning driver improvement program. It combines the existing TSP’s acceleration, braking, cornering and speeding signal capture with Mentor’s smooth maneuvers and distraction to create the Mentor TSP FICO^® Safe Driving Score.

Mentor VISION will add an inward and outward facing camera option to further enhance the risk and claims management functionality of the Mentor eco-system that reacts to the FICO^® Safe Driving Score behaviors triggered by the driver.

Mentor is so much more than a Mobile App! As part of eDriving’s broader risk management platform, VIRTUAL RISK MANAGER, eDriving provides organizations with everything they need to establish safety as a strategic imperative, and support drivers and managers as they strive to create a crash-free culture@ – zero collisions, injuries, incidents and license violations.

At the helm

Ed Dubens, Founder and CEO

Ed joined the eDriving executive team in March 2016, with eDriving’s acquisition of Interactive Driving Systems. A pioneer in the development of telematics-based safety solutions, Ed is leading the eDriving Team in synthesizing and commercializing innovative ways to help corporations large and small take advantage of cutting-edge technology, as well as continuing to grow eDriving’s presence in global safety solutions.

Under Ed’s leadership, eDriving to date has trained over a million fleet drivers, earned over 70 awards, and enjoyed the privilege of working with some of the world’s most successful businesses, including BT, Nestlé, Zurich, Cummins, Pfizer, Siemens, Johnson & Johnson, ECOLAB, GSR, Merck & MSD, Transport for London, ASDA (Wal-Mart), TNT, Sanofi, Iron Mountain, Royal Mail, and many more.

As a veteran of the fleet risk management industry for over 20 years, Ed has helped transform the way companies proactively manage risk and prioritize the safety of their employees on a daily basis. His passionate advocacy and leadership efforts have been instrumental in initiating and maintaining collaborative industry benchmarking initiatives.

Ed grew up in the United Kingdom, studied Marketing and Engineering at The University of Huddersfield, became a US citizen in 2010, travels the world regularly for business and pleasure, and is a fishing and wildlife photography enthusiast.

“Helping organizations to create a crash-free culture.”

“We help fleet drivers and their families in nearly 100 countries get home safely every day.”

“eDriving’s mission is to help our clients reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and Total Cost of Ownership, thereby ensuring that all drivers return home safely to their loved ones at the end of each day.”

“Our unique, patented, continuous driver improvement program combines the latest smartphone telematics, proven behavioral change techniques, microlearning and gamification to provide an integrated, driver risk management solution that achieves lasting change.”

“Mentor by eDriving^SM combines the company’s patented, proven, continuous-improvement methodology for driver risk reduction with a unique smartphone app that not only identifies risky driving behavior, but also remediates it with in-app micro-training.”