European Insurance Technology Awards 2022: Best telematics solutions provider – Redtail Telematics

Redtail Telematics continues to be a pioneer in insurance tech – after almost 30 years of providing technology into the automotive aftermarket.

Cambridge-based Redtail, which shares its heritage with sister company Plextek, the communications technology design house, has been a stalwart of the insurance industry – providing services for usage-based insurance, automotive, fleet tracking and stolen vehicle recovery sectors globally.

To date, the combined business – which also has a US office – has supplied more than six million devices to the auto aftermarket in more than 30 countries since 1993, placing Redtail in the rarified position of being a profitable IoT insurtech.

The firm is among those set to benefit from the shift in telematics usage, from rating driver risk to addressing the priorities and concerns of the increasing number of drivers of electric vehicles.

The growing cost pressure on insurers is also leading to greater demand for what it describes as its ‘full-stack’ offering – starting with a professionally fit black box, designed in-house, which provides customers with the most accurate data, thanks to more reliable connectivity and permanent power supply.

Enhancing the service is Redtail’s in-house created DataWarehouse and cellular protocol – tech that means the company never loses data, even if a vehicle remains parked below ground for weeks.

Redtail has continued to innovate, analysing the data with its own machine learning, for requirements from incident classification for crash or no crash, to driver behaviour and eco-driving.

Meanwhile, its incident wallboard serves as a claims department workflow system that avoids dependence on insurers’ internal IT teams, solving a significant resource issue for UBI.

Its apps cover fleet, driver facing and installer facilities – something the business offers as a white label product.

It also provides expert witness services, including in-court situations in the event of catastrophic injury cases.

Cost savings

Redtail has helped some of the biggest names in the industry save substantial sums. It said: “Our claims operations platform has saved ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ in fraud, liability and management time.”

The success stood out to the judges, particularly since about a third of claims include a fraud element.

Recent wins

Redtail’s successes over the past year include its agreement with Ford Motor Company in February to become a technical partner and reseller of connected vehicle data to motor insurers for personal and commercial lines in the UK. As part of the deal, Redtail created bespoke processed data streams from Ford vehicles’ multiple sensors.

It comes amid the continued uptake of connected vehicles – a potential game-changer for insurers, enabling them access to data directly from a vehicle without the cost of installing a telematics device.

Most connected insurance operations have remained small scale to date but Redtail has set itself ambitious plans to grow this internationally to a larger scale.

The boon to business followed Redtail’s agreement in 2021 with Australian insurance pioneer KOBA as the latter launched its first connected pay-by-kilometre car insurance in its home country, bringing a fairer, UBI to Australia’s 10 million low mileage drivers.

KOBA’s adoption of the tech is notably based on Redtail’s offering to By Miles, the mileage-only insurance start-up servicing the UK market.

On the horizon for Redtail is an increase in business in the stolen vehicle recovery market, addressing the growth in GPS jamming in vehicle theft.

Judges’ comments

“Redtail has an impressive pedigree and continues to innovate in this highly competitive part of the market.”

“Telematics is some way from being a mainstream consumer service but the advent of connected cars brings a wealth of opportunity for providers. Redtail is well positioned to ride that wave.”

To find out more about the winners of the European Insurance Technology Awards click here

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