eDriving – The Driver Risk Management Gurus

Originally published in The Enterprise World 5/26/2020

Driver risk management must become a way of life to be ultimately successful and create a crash-free operating culture. Generally speaking, even when taking the optimal route to a destination, in a well-maintained vehicle, driven by a fatigue and distraction-free driver, there will still be risks lurking in plain sight on route to manage. Precaution and prevention is always better than the continuous improvement discussion after an avoidable event!

Event outcomes for drivers can include incidents, collisions, license violations, injuries (slight to permanent disability) and in the worst case – death.  We know from research that ~94% of “events” are caused by some combination of driver error(s) typically brought on by poor attitude and behavior behind the wheel further exacerbated by distraction and fatigue.

Helping drivers and their managers’ task of risk-managing these inevitable driving encounters less problematic, is the award-winning global driver risk management company eDriving.

The Company-

eDriving helps organizations to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership through a patented driver risk management program.

eDriving is the driver risk management partner of choice for many of the world’s largest organizations, supporting over 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries. Over the past 25 years, eDriving’s research-validated programs have been recognized with over 90 awards around the world.

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.

During the early days of working with two of the largest logistics providers in Europe, the company was asked to look at some of the cultural issues surrounding the safety management of their professional drivers. The work led to the creation of the world’s first defensive driving CD-ROM: Interactive Defensive Driving, with the principal aim of reinforcing on-road driver training programs.

This led them into safe driving projects with the British Armed Forces (UK Land Command), Zurich Risk Engineering and the Institute of Advanced Motorists. eDriving’s commitment to road safety was further influenced by working with the UK Government in 1997 on the introduction of a CD-ROM to help learner drivers succeed with the new UK Government Driving Theory Test.

eDriving’s expansion into the United States resulted directly from their partnership with Zurich Risk Engineering, and their urging the company to establish an office in the U.S. to support their growing presence in the global motor insurance marketplace.

Their Products and Services-

eDriving combines its patented risk management approach with the latest in-vehicle smartphone telematics technology, proven behavioral change and risk reduction strategies, and successful micro-learning and gamification elements to provide a fully integrated driver risk management solution.

Mentor by eDriving^SM is a smartphone-based solution that collects and analyzes driver behaviors most predictive of crash risk and helps remediate risky behavior by providing engaging, interactive micro-training modules delivered directly to the driver in the smartphone app. As part of a 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®.

Mentor uses the telematic sensors available in iOS and Android smartphones to collect and 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.

Mentor delivers personalized insights to drivers after each trip, showing both positive and negative driving events and, for the driver’s eyes only, exactly where they occurred.

With the core aim of helping organizations develop a crash-free culture, Mentor is designed to attack the “94% problem”, namely, that 94% of collisions are caused by a driver’s attitude and 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, injuries and license violations.

Optional Mentor features include in-app Driver Vehicle Inspection Reporting (DVIR), which guides drivers through a checklist inspection at the beginning and end of their day, plus a First Notice of Loss (FNOL) application, 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%).

The Mentor app uses HTTPS / SSL encryption for data transfer from app to VRM-Mentor servers. Mentor is European GDPR- and California CCPA- compliant and incorporates additional privacy features for drivers, including no sharing of location data, no interaction with other apps and the ability for users to designate trips as Business, Passenger or Personal.

The recently launched Mentor TSP (Telematics Service Partner) enables organizations with an existing telematics solution to incorporate Mentor to provide one unique risk management approach. This means that data collected through hard-wired telematics devices including idling, seatbelt use, MPG and reversing behaviors can be combined with Mentor’s behavioral insights to create a richer driver risk profile.

“We provide organizations with everything they need to establish safety as a strategic imperative.”

Ed and the Team-

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.

As founder and CEO of eDriving, Ed led his team at the forefront of research and innovation in the field of road safety and culture change strategies. Ultimately the company’s tireless efforts led to the creation of its flagship product, Virtual Risk Manager (VRM). Under Ed’s leadership, VRM to date has trained over a million fleet drivers, earned over 90 awards, and enjoyed the privilege of working with some of the world’s most successful businesses.

“Client privacy and security considerations have always been built into everything we do as an organization.”

Their global Customer Success Teams supports their clients’ strategy, analytics and implementation support needs from beginning to end, effectively becoming part of their team. The company has a strong leadership team with decades of experience working with drivers across the world, including leaders in culture change, security and data privacy, scoring and risk management, behavior-based telematics, product engineering and operations.  

The entire eDriving team is fundamental to the success of our company – product, eLearning, engineering, customer success and risk engineering.