Technology is making it easier to enforce the insurance ‘golden hour’ for fleets, significantly cutting costs.

FleetCheck MD Peter Golding said that recording and submitting details about an incident quickly to the insurer and accident management company can significantly cut claims costs

Peter Golding, managing director at fleet software specialist FleetCheck, explained if details about an incident can be quickly recorded and submitted to the insurer and accident management company, then large amounts can be saved in claims costs.

He commented: “The golden hour is a long-recognised concept in insurance. There are whole industries that exist to try and make money out of claims following collisions – with costs for replacement vehicles and injury claims being among the most onerous. However, these can be avoided by moving within the first 60 minutes or so.

“Historically, it’s been difficult for fleets to enforce any kind of guidance for employees in this situation. Drivers may not know what information to record or where to send it. However, that is now changing quickly.”

The first concern following a road collision for fleets is to ensure that the driver and other road users are not badly injured. But once that is established, there should be a concerted effort to gather as much relevant information as rapidly as possible.

FleetCheck has added collision recording facilities to its standard FleetCheck app and this walks the driver through the process and allows them to send details immediately to their fleet manager. Other companies have created products following a similar concept – and overall Golding says it’s “no exaggeration to say that these are revolutionising the process”.

This includes the ability to stop the uncontrolled costs, which Golding said could easily run into thousands of pounds if the ‘golden hour’ isn’t acted on.

“If you ask industry experts, there are all kinds of estimates about how much accident costs increase if you aren’t able to get on top of the situation but the very lowest are still well into four figures and some are much, much higher.

“These additional expenses add nothing to the process of dealing with the aftermath of the collision and exist only to artificially inflate the value of the claim. If fleets can successfully take control in this area, then very substantial savings can be made.”