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Mentor TSP: Enhancing Your Existing Telematics Solution to Boost Your Company Safety Culture

Originally published in Fleet Management Weekly 11/13/2019


Q&A with Ed Dubens, CEO/Founder of eDriving

In advance of eDriving’s release of Mentor TSP (Telematics Service Provider), CEO and Founder Ed Dubens explains how eDriving’s latest solution provides fleet managers/operators with the option of adding Mentor’s risk management suite to their existing telematics solutions to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations, and total cost of fleet ownership.

What safety data is typically collected by telematics devices?
Hard-wired and OBDII telematics solutions can collect a wide range of fleet efficiency and productivity information that is incredibly useful and profitable for Fleet Operators. However, the safety metrics are typically limited to an understanding of the harsh acceleration, braking, cornering and speeding information associated with the “vehicle”. Such data may or may not be able to be linked to a specific driver at any point in time.

Does this kind of data address ALL the fleet operators’ safety and risk management concerns and create opportunities for improvement?
Not totally! The kind of additional data that is missing from a telematics-only solution includes knowing WHO is driving 24/7; positive information on behaviors like smooth maneuvers; risky information on drivers who are using their cell phones for voice calls, text messaging or emails; the crash and license checking history of all the employees driving for work purposes; and the ability to “crunch” all this data together in real time and compare your drivers’ performance against each other, as well as globally recognized benchmarks, to pro-actively identify drivers most in need of coaching support.

How does Mentor TSP work?
Mentor TSP helps organizations with an existing TSP solution plug into eDriving’s patented, proven and award-winning driver improvement program, Mentor by eDriving. It combines your 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 to identify Great, Good, Average, Poor, and Risky Drivers. The Mentor TSP FICO® Safe Driving Score is then combined with a driver’s collision and MVR license violation history in one performance management system for enhanced risk management opportunities including Driver Coaching and eLearning.

Is the FICO® Safe Driving Score predictive of collision involvement?
Yes. The FICO® Safe Driving Score has been validated using data from the 2nd Strategic Highway Research Program, a large driving study with 3,500+ participants and nearly 32 million miles of driving data. Drivers with low scores (below 710) have been shown to have a much higher crash involvement rate than drivers with high scores (above 710).

How does the Mentor TSP program address risky driving behaviors?
A variety of options are available to clients including interactive, engaging micro-training modules that are delivered directly to drivers via the Mentor smartphone app. Additionally, targeted professional and manager coaching is available to help drivers develop low-risk attitudes and behaviors that will keep them incident, collision, license violation and most importantly – injury free, while driving for work purposes. All Mentor TSP subscriptions include eDriving’s award-winning eLearning strategy that targets training to address specific risk patterns identified by the combined telematics data capture.

What Mentor TSP features specifically address the creation of a crash-free culture?
Mentor TSP has at its core a gamification/ communication/ recognition toolkit called “Circles”. Mentor Circles allows managers and their direct report drivers, as well as employees from across the organization to form teams or “circles” with each other to securely share a limited set of driving data that includes overall FICO Safe Driving Score and individual behavior risk ratings. Mentor allows “pokes”, “teases” and “claps” to be shared in real time when employees are not driving and encourages friendly competition and discussion between colleagues about the company’s safety mission. This kind of “informal” activity can make a critical difference when working to create a sustainable crash-free culture.

What else can Mentor TSP do?
Mentor TSP incorporates many other optional features including Mentor FNOL (First Notice of Loss) that enables drivers to complete and submit to their Employer, eDriving, Fleet and Accident Management, Insurance and Risk the information and photographic evidence required after a collision, license violation or near-miss to aid the risk management process and minimize total cost of ownership. Mentor DVIR (Driver Vehicle Inspection Report) includes an in-app checklist to guide drivers through inspection of their vehicles before and after their shift starts and ends to minimize collisions caused by vehicle condition issues. Mentor VISION will add (Q2 2020) 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.

When is Mentor TSP available?
Mentor TSP proudly launches in January 2020 at Geotab Connect in San Diego.

 

About eDriving
eDriving helps organizations to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership through its patented driver risk management program. Mentor by eDriving’s comprehensive solution provides actionable behavioral insights to help organizations build a total view of driver risk within a company-wide crash-free culture® to ensure all drivers return home safely to their loved ones at the end of each day.

eDriving is the global risk management partner of choice for many of the world’s largest organizations, supporting over 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries. Over its 23-year history, eDriving’s programs have been recognized with 75+ awards around the world. For more, visit www.edriving.com