Mercia Fleet Management has reduced its insurance costs by leveraging AI-enhanced driver profiling and accident damage assessment, amid rising insurance premiums, the company reported.

Mercia cited an unspecified insurance comparison website, to suggest that premiums have surged by 43% over the past year in the UK. Against this trend, the company said it has decreased its insurance expenses by up to 25%.

It said this was achieved through a collaboration with London-based broker Konsileo Commercial Insurance and by analysing data from a client’s fleet of 1,000 vehicles, Mercia, the fleet management division of EV salary sacrifice specialist Fleet Evolution, identified several best practice interventions crucial for reducing insurance costs.

Key measures included driver profiling and remedial behaviour training, spatial awareness training for drivers involved in car park or kerbside incidents, licence checking, and vehicle risk management and assessment.

Given the high number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the fleet, Mercia also examined the impact of EVs on accident statistics. The analysis revealed that EVs had a lower accident rate than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Although the repair costs per EV were slightly higher, the overall repair expenses were lower due to fewer incidents.

This reduction in accidents is attributed to the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) commonly found in the latest EVs. These systems include lane departure warning, lane assist, automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, parking assistance, and blind spot monitoring.

Head of Mercia Fleet Management and founder of Fleet Evolution, Andrew Leech, said: “We worked with Konsileo and adopted an innovative approach, looking at the analysis cost-by-cost, to identify the interventions that were most likely to impact on the accident levels and repair costs on the fleet.

“High on the list of best practice interventions was AI-enhanced driver profiling using a traffic light and points-based system to identify the most at-risk drivers and to implement remedial training where appropriate.

“The carefully selected interventions across the fleet led to us securing a 25% reduction in insurance premiums – at a time when insurance costs generally are on the increase.

“These interventions work for fleets of all sizes, and we would be happy to discuss with smaller clients how these processes and interventions can help them reduce the cost of their insurance premiums,” he added.