Fleet insurance costs are continuously rising, affecting the whole fleet operational costs. Actually, there are many reasons behind this surge and at the top comes the increased number of accidents caused by distracted driving besides other factors such as the high repair and replacement costs of vehicles.

A study by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration  (NHTSA) has shown that human error is the main cause of nearly 94% to 96% of auto accidents. This means that unsafe driving habits are the driving force behind rising insurance costs.

Indeed, the more claims and accident history you have, the higher premiums insurance providers will offer you. Even in some cases, businesses having very poor safety records can hardly find an insurance company to collaborate with as they seem unreliable and not trustworthy.

Therefore, keeping your drivers and fleets safe on the road is your gateway towards acquiring low insurance premiums and freeing up your budget for your other business needs. But how can this be attained? Adopting technology is your ultimate solution!

Using a fleet telematics system that integrates driver behavior analytics tools helps you monitor your drivers’ behavior in real-time and identify unsafe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, wrong cornering and handling, and excessive idling.

What is driver behavior analytics, and what is the role of fleet telematics in reducing fleet insurance premiums, we’ll answer it all in this article. Do not miss reading the following lines!

Table of Contents

·      Bad Driving Habits That Drive Up Fleet Insurance Premiums: The Driver Behavior Impact

·      Effective Strategies for Reducing Fleet Insurance Premiums

·      The Strategic Benefits of Using Driver Behavior Analytics in Fleets

·      Enhance Your Fleet Safety with AFAQY’s Cutting-Edge Solutions

Bad Driving Habits That Drive Up Fleet Insurance Premiums: The Driver Behavior Impact

Generally, insurance providers closely monitor driving records and accident data. Risky driving behaviors not only increase the number of accidents but also affect fuel consumption and vehicle’s wear and tear. These factors are taken into consideration when calculating insurance costs.

As stated by the Middle East Insurance Review, between 2011 and 2015, the number of motor accidents in Saudi Arabia tripled from 306,000 to over 962,000 annually, and one of the main causes is unsafe driving.

Below are examples of the most damaging habits:

Speeding and Aggressive Driving

When drivers speed or weave between lanes, accidents happen more often and become more severe. Insurance companies factor this higher risk of big claims into premiums. For fleets, one driver’s speeding can increase costs for everyone.

A Saudi study found that over-speeding accounts for 20.6% of traffic accidents nationwide.

Distracted Driving (Especially Mobile Phone Use)

Checking the phone while driving, even for a few seconds, means that drivers are essentially blind to the road. Additionally, eating or drinking or even talking to passengers can lead to serious consequences.

For fleets, this means huge liability exposure. Insurers see distracted driving as a red flag since it means frequent, preventable claims.

Approximately, 19.4% of traffic accidents in the kingdom were due to driver distraction.

Reckless Driving and Traffic Violations

Behaviors like sudden lane changes, tailgating, drifting, or ignoring traffic signals are classified as reckless driving. These actions not only cause accidents but also mark a fleet as high-risk in insurers’ records. Repeated violations stay on record for years and increase premiums.

Effective Strategies for Reducing Fleet Insurance Premiums

The first step towards keeping your insurance premiums in check is improving driver safety. In Saudi Arabia, this aligns closely with compliance requirements set by government authorities and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiatives, which emphasize safer roads, sustainable transport, and advanced fleet management practices.

Ensuring fleet safety is not only about protecting vehicles but also about safeguarding drivers, passengers, and the wider community.

Here are some strategies fleet managers in Saudi Arabia can adopt to strengthen compliance, improve safety, and contribute to Vision 2030 goals:

Implementing Driver Safety Programs

No matter how professional your drivers are, providing the necessary training in safe driving habits is indispensable to ensure that all of them follow the same drill.

Providing training sessions, defensive safety programs, and spreading safety policy among your drivers are the only way to ensure that all your drivers are well-equipped with the right safety procedures.

Using Driver Scorecards

As a fleet manager, one of the most effective tools to ensure safety and control insurance costs is the use of driver scorecards. These scorecards provide a clear, data-driven snapshot of each driver’s behavior.

They track patterns such as speeding, harsh braking, sharp turns, or distracted driving. Instead of relying on assumptions, managers can identify high-risk drivers and address issues through coaching, training, or even incentive programs for safe driving.

This not only reduces accident frequency but also builds a culture of accountability within the fleet. In the eyes of insurers, a fleet that actively monitors and improves driver performance through scorecards demonstrates lower risk, which can translate into substantial premium savings and long-term operational safety.

Adopting Telematics Technology with Driver Behavior Analytics

If you still think that following the traditional ways of monitoring driver behavior can help you improve fleet safety, you are missing out on great opportunities.

Driver scorecards become even more powerful when paired with telematics technology. A modern telematics system integrates GPS, dash cams, and sensors to help you establish the important metrics and benchmarks for evaluating drivers’ performance in real-time.

Telematics systems collect data from devices installed in fleets and turn them into valuable insights that fleet managers can receive through a software platform. This helps them detect bad driving habits like harsh braking, overspeed, excessive idling, and distracted driving and identify areas for improvement.

By taking proactive responses and alert drivers in case of violations, they can deter accidents and ensure that all drivers are on the right track.

For insurers, fleets using advanced telematics are seen as lower-risk clients, which not only improves safety outcomes but can also lead to reduced insurance premiums and operational cost savings.

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The Strategic Benefits of Using Driver Behavior Analytics in Fleets

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Driver behavior analytics isn’t just a tool, it’s a powerful safety and cost-saving strategy for fleet managers in Saudi Arabia. By collecting data about drivers’ behaviors in real-time and taking the necessary actions as a result, fleets can demonstrate strong commitment to safe driving practices and hence pay lower insurance premiums.

Let’s highlight some of the strategic benefits of driver behavior analytics:

Significant Accident Reduction

With risky behaviors reduced, fleets experience fewer accidents, leading to lower repair costs, less vehicle downtime, and fewer liability claims. The impact of driver behavior analytics on accident reduction has been proven across global and regional fleets. For example, fleets that adopted telematics and driver behavior monitoring reported a 40% decrease in incident severity.

By turning driver data into actionable insights, behavior analytics empowers managers to identify and address unsafe practices before they lead to crashes.

Real ROI and Cost Savings

A UK-based fleet organization saw a 26% drop in insurance premiums, made possible by a 43% reduction in collision incidents after implementing telematics.

Thus, fleets that use behavior analytics through telematics demonstrate a clear commitment to safety. This encourages insurance providers to offer discounted premiums and more favorable policy terms.

What’s more, saving costs does not stop at lowering insurance premiums; it also involves reducing fuel consumption and the costs associated with vehicles’ wear and tear, keeping your fleets working at their best capacity and efficiency.

Smart Coaching Leads to Rapid Behavior Change

One of the strongest benefits of driver behavior analytics is its ability to transform coaching from a generic process into a targeted, data-driven strategy.

Instead of delivering broad safety reminders, fleet managers can use analytics to provide personalized feedback based on each driver’s actual habits, such as harsh braking, speeding, or phone use.

This makes training more relevant and impactful, while also showing drivers exactly where improvement is needed.

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Enhance Your Fleet Safety with AFAQY’s Cutting-Edge Solutions

At AFAQY, we incorporate advanced telematics technology into our solutions to give you real-time visibility into how your drivers perform on the road such as tracking speeding, harsh braking, distracted driving, and more.

With clear scorecards and actionable insights, you can coach your team effectively, reduce accident risks, and demonstrate a strong safety culture to insurers.

The result? Safer drivers, fewer claims, and lower insurance premiums.

Talk to our experts today and start building a smarter, safer, and more cost-efficient fleet!

FAQs

1.   How does driver behavior affect fleet insurance?

Unsafe habits like speeding, distracted driving, and frequent traffic violations increase accident risk, leading insurers to classify the fleet as high-risk and charge higher premiums.

2.   How can fleets reduce insurance premiums?

Fleets can lower premiums by improving driver safety through training, using telematics systems to monitor behavior, reducing claims frequency, and demonstrating a strong safety record to insurers.

3.   What is telematics insurance for fleets?

Telematics insurance uses GPS, sensors, and driver behavior data to assess how safely a fleet operates. Safer fleets supported by telematics data often qualify for discounted insurance rates.

4.   How do driver behavior analytics save money on fleet insurance?

By tracking risky habits and enabling targeted coaching, driver analytics reduce accidents and claims. Fewer incidents make fleets less risky to insure, which lowers premiums and operational costs.

References

1.   IBM IoT Connected Vehicle Insights. (n.d.).https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/icvi/cd?topic=features-driver-behavior

2.   Arabiat, A., & Altayeb, M. (2025).Driving behavior analytics: an intelligent system based on machine learning anddata mining techniques. Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics,14(3), 2055–2065. https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v14i3.9095

3.   Shirole, V., Shahade, A. K., &Deshmukh, P. V. (2025). A comprehensive review on data-driven driver behaviour scoring in vehicles: technologies, challenges and future directions. Discover Artificial Intelligence, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-025-00244-6

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