As insurance costs balloon for motor carriers in the age of nuclear verdicts and reptile litigation, Jean Gardner and Schuie Yankelewitz, CEO and COO of the Central Analysis Bureau (CAB) respectively, told attendees at the CCJ Solutions Summit last week the secret to keeping insurance underwriters on your side: Tell your story before the driver data tells it for you.
An affiliate of CCJ parent company Randall-Reilly, CAB has performed financial analysis in the insurance industry for motor carriers for 85 years. Together, Yankelewitz and Gardner have combined decades of experience in helping carriers get insured and push down costs by leveraging driver data and getting the right message across to underwriters. In that time, Gardner said much has changed, and that now the issue has become more important than ever.
"Years ago when there was a truck accident, it was a truck accident," Gardner said. "Insurance companies could look at the information and particulars of the case and price it appropriately."
But now, with an explosion of data streams generated from trucks, cars, mobile devices, record keeping and cameras, "every claim is being paid at much higher potentials," she said.
Gardner pointed to a recent example of a truck-involved accident where the plaintiff pulled up 10 years of violations records on the driver.
"You're sitting before a judge that doesn’t know what you know," about the driver, the driver's history, or the violations or accidents listed, said Gardner, "but the judge said that’s enough to keep this case going against the driver for punitive damages that aren’t covered by insurance."
The role of driver data has certainly empowered plaintiffs to seek massive payouts, but according to Yankelewitz, if played correctly, driver data can also empower carriers to get coverage and to get coverage more cheaply.
