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2021 Innovation Awards: Mentor by eDriving

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2021 Innovation Awards

eDriving
Mentor by eDriving

Telematics technology aimed at improving driving habits has been in use for several years, but developers continue to strive to enhance the tools to enable fleet managers to monitor drivers more effectively.

That’s what inspired the development of Mentor by eDriving, a smartphone app that identifies risky driving behaviors, recommends training modules and acknowledges safe driving habits.

To accomplish this, the FICO Safe Driving Score, a standardized scoring format for telematics, was developed in partnership with the credit-scoring company. The app evaluates and scores driving behaviors after each recorded trip with a 1-to-850 score. 

Recent upgrades have been made to improve the effectiveness of Mentor, a winner of a 2021 Business Insurance
Innovation Award. Now it can report on a portfolio basis for risk managers and insurance companies. “That is a big development,” said Jim Noble, chief risk officer at Cape May, New Jersey-based eDriving.

Other additions include crash detection, driver event reporting and vehicle inspection reports, he said. Also being released is an emergency crash response feature “that detects crashes and rolls emergency equipment to the scene when a driver is in distress,” he added. The function has an SOS feature that can be employed if a driver feels threatened.

Data collected through the app is compared with crash information to ensure that it can identify drivers who need improvement. The system also assigns training modules based on their driving patterns. 

“If they are weak in braking or speeding, they get training in those areas. Or if they are a very good driver, it focuses on defensive driving techniques that will benefit them,” Mr. Noble said. “That is a huge lift for risk managers to be able to do that without having to develop their own spreadsheets as well as incentive and risk improvement programs.”

Another update enhances the app’s privacy protocols, Mr. Noble said. To ensure privacy, an opt-out button was developed, so that, “the app can measure, but it won’t score if you’re not at work,” he said.

Andrew Barratclough, vice president, insurance, for the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Africa at eDriving, noted that the only pushback he has had regards location data. “We’re very clear that we don’t share that information with management or insurers,” he said.

Another recently launched feature enables fleet users to see how safer driving can improve the sustainability of their fleet by reducing fuel use and emissions. “We see Mentor having a role in sustainability,” Mr. Barratclough said.

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