Reducing Auto Commercial Claims: 3 Tips From Insurance
When it comes to managing commercial auto insurance, one thing is certain: accidents don’t just happen overnight. They build up overtime through small gaps in visibility, delayed reactions, and missed opportunities to take preventive action. For many fleets, that lack of awareness can quietly drive-up losses, impact premiums, and create unnecessary stress when renewal season arrives.
In a recent conversation with the Embark Safety team, Tomas De Leon, Vice President | Commercial Lines Leader & Risk Management Operations at Brown & Brown Insurance, shared three key strategies that every fleet should follow to reduce claims, improve safety, and prepare for renewal time.
1. Analyze Where You Stand
Before you can fix a problem, you have to understand it. Tomas De Leon emphasizes the importance of conducting a loss analysis—a review of your past auto commercial claims and the underlying causes behind them.
Many fleets don’t actually know where they stand. They renew their policy year after year without truly understanding what’s driving their losses, whether it’s specific driver behavior, certain routes, or operational gaps.
A proper loss analysis helps you identify patterns and root causes, such as distracted driving, preventable collisions, or lack of driver training , and provides you the insight needed to take corrective action.
“Look at your loss history and ask: What’s driving these claims? “Rear-end collisions? Distracted driving? Speeding? That data tells you where to focus.”
This analysis should include:
- A review of all recent claims and incidents (including near-misses.)
- Identification of root causes (for example, if rear-end collisions or distraction are recurring.)
- A focus on patterns: drivers, routes, times of day, vehicle types, external conditions.
By identifying trends, you can target training programs and technology that directly address your biggest risks.
Safety Tip: Review losses on a quarterly bases at the minimum to give your team time to take corrective action and demonstrate progress to your carrier.
2. Create an Action Plan
Once you identify your risk areas, the next step is to develop a 12-month safety action plan. This plan should include clear goals, targeted training topics, and measurable outcomes.
Tomas De Leon recommends outlining your top priorities:
- Assign training tailored to your fleet’s specific risks (e.g., distracted driving, defensive driving, route-planning, etc).
- Set up monitoring tools such as MVR Monitoring, telematics, GPS tracking, and other safety technologies to help you stay proactive rather than reactive.
- Encourage driver engagement mechanisms, incentives for safe behavior, coaching for high-risk drivers, and enforcement for repeat offenders
- Establish Key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll track (e.g., reduction in claims frequency, MVR violation rates, CSA Scores).
It’s not enough to plan, you have to follow through, carriers notice when a company takes consistent, proactive action. Read more: Why Differentiation Matters in Commercial Auto Insurance World
3. Follow Through
Insurance carriers don’t just want promises; they want proof that you take safety seriously. Tomas De Leon, encourages fleets to frame safety as an investment, not an expense.
“When leadership sees the numbers, it changes the conversation,” he says. “If you can show that safety programs reduce losses, that’s money saved and carriers reward that.”
Tracking improvements in MVRs, CSA scores, or violation trends can help demonstrate your return on investment. Every reduction in crashes or claims directly impacts renewal outcomes.
The Bottom Line
Reducing auto claims isn’t just about reacting to losses; it’s about getting ahead of them.
By analyzing your data, building a proactive plan, and communicating your results to insurers, you can create a powerful safety narrative that benefits everyone: your drivers, your bottom line, and your insurer.
Looking to strengthen your driver safety program? Learn more about our risk management solutions. MVR Monitoring, Fleet Training, DQF Manager, CSA Monitoring, and more.
*We are not lawyers. Consult with your legal counsel to ensure your processes and procedures meet/ or exceed safety standards and compliance regulations. Please read our legal disclaimer.
