eDriving: Toward a Safer, Crash-Free World with Better Driving Culture

Unsafe driving  behaviors are a growing concern across the world. Driving under the influence, distracted driving, fatigue and speeding contribute to over 1.35 million deaths annually across the world! That’s about 3,700 people, especially pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, dying every day in road traffic crashes (source: World Health Organization). Moreover, the number of people who suffer injury or are disabled amounts to several millions more.

While it does take a huge toll on the affected families, road traffic crashes also cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product. For companies, it means a lot of money in terms of compensation, lost work days and damage.

A lot can change by bringing awareness about safer driving behavior. A lot more can change with technology. It can help bring behavioral changes at a larger scale by gaining a deeper understanding into the risk causing scenario and enabling drivers to make the right choice at the right time in order to avert crashes.

eDriving: Where Data-Led, Proactive Risk Management Begins

Established in 1996 in Huddersfield, the United Kingdom, eDriving^SM got a breakthrough in 2002 when it launched Virtual Risk Manager^® (VRM) platform. This ultimately became the foundation of Mentor^SM , its smartphone mobile app that today caters to about 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries. The company’s patented “closed-loop” solution, VRM, captures data from multiple sources (Mentor, third party TSPs, MVRs, collision data, etc.), analyzes it, risk rates each driver, and provides real-time, monthly and quarterly reporting to fleet managers. It has seen fleets achieve a reduction in collisions of up to 67%!

Ed Dubens, Founder and CEO, eDriving, says: “eDriving’s is a data-led ‘proactive’ risk management approach to fleet driver safety. This approach is key to successfully reducing collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership.”

Mentor by eDriving: Your Perfect Driver Risk Management Partner
eDriving is uniquely positioned at the intersection of driver safety, risk management, telematics, data/analytics and insurance. Over the past 24 years, the company’s research-validated programs have been recognized with over 90 awards.

Mentor by eDriving^SM is a smartphone-based solution that uses telematic sensors available in iOS and Android devices.

At the driver level, Mentor uses the smartphone sensors to collect and analyze driver behavior data, most predictive of crash risk, including acceleration, braking, cornering, speeding and phone distraction. This is coupled with an analytics engine developed in partnership with FICO^® to score each individual driver based on those five attributes. This has been validated as being able to predict the likelihood of future crash involvement.

It helps remediate risky behavior by providing engaging, in-app, interactive micro-training modules directly to the driver’s smartphone. This application helps drivers practice decision-making in “real-life” scenarios.

To help fleets manage, monitor and optimize their reporting obligations, Mentor also incorporates in-app Driver Vehicle Inspection Reporting (DVIR), which guides drivers through a checklist inspection at the beginning and end of their day. Mentor also has 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”, by about 25-40%.

“As part of a broader risk management platform, VRM, 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^® ,” adds Ed.

At the Helm Ed Dubens, Founder and CEO

Ed Dubens is founder and CEO of Interactive Driving Systems. Ed joined the eDriving executive team in March 2016, with eDriving’s acquisition of Interactive Driving Systems.

Under Ed’s leadership, Interactive Driving Systems’ flagship product, VRM, has trained over a million fleet drivers, earned over  90 awards, and has worked with some of the world’s most successful businesses, including BT, Nestlé, Zurich, Cummins, Pfizer, Siemens, and Johnson & Johnson.

As a pioneer in the development of telematics-based safety solutions, and 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.

Andy Cuerden, Managing Director, Europe

Andy has been working with CEO and Founder Ed Dubens since 1994. Instrumental in the initial technical development of VRM, Andy has overseen the continued evolution of the platform from an offline CD-ROM to the cloud-based program of today.

In 2014, Andy led the team in achieving the British Standard Institute’s ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 standard for information security management and ensured the company’s comprehensive security systems continue to meet the highest standards, resulting in re-certification in 2018.

British Telecom Halves Collision Rate with eDriving

British Telecom, eDriving’s first customer to commit to the Virtual Risk Manager platform, went on to launch one of Europe’s biggest driver risk reduction programs.

Even today the internationally recognized program involves over 60,000 drivers.

• During 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 approximately £12M per year.

eDriving: At the Forefront of Driver Risk Management, Now and in Future

As transportation progresses into a hybrid period where human-operated and autonomous cars co-exist and at-work mobility is evolving to incorporate ‘on-demand’ travel options, such as ride-hailing, bicycling, car sharing and more, the environment for at-work drivers is set to change beyond recognition.

Andy Cuerden, Managing Director, Europe, eDriving, says: “As the environment continues to evolve for at-work drivers, incorporating greater autonomous features and even more mobility options, eDriving remains dedicated to developing new technologies and incorporating the latest eLearning and behavior-change techniques to remain at the forefront of driver risk management and help fleets proactively manage the safety of at-work drivers.”

In 2020, eDriving will launch Mentor VISION. This will add inward- and outward-facing camera options 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.

“While it is critical for risk management companies to evolve to keep up with the challenges drivers are facing, eDriving’s patented closed-loop approach to risk management will remain as effective in the future as it is today. By instilling a crash-free culture in companies and improving the attitudes and behaviors of drivers in order to avoid incidents from happening, the world can become a safer place to drive,” concludes Ed.