The Sunday Mail
Golden Sibanda
Zimbabwean tech-solutions provider, Fanset International, says it is ready to roll out a new innovative insurance product — the Fanset Usage Based Insurance (Fanset UBI) — which will help insurers cut losses from fraudulent claims.
The Fanset UBI enables insurance firms to accurately assess risk and set premiums based on driving habits of clients as opposed to conventional methods that rely mostly on age and experience, which may create false impressions.
Fanset chief operations officer, Spencer Matonhodze, who is in his early 30s, said in an interview the Fanset UBI was developed to help insurers manage their data more efficiently in order to reduce the incidence of costly false or exaggerated insurance claims.
Mr Matonhodze said Fanset had, previously, been focusing on providing solutions to
help companies monitor and reduce diversion or
pilferage of fuel from vehicles, and other key equipment.
He said the fuel monitoring solutions were conceived after the realisation that the commodity was the biggest cost on vehicles. Lately, Fanset said it had identified maintenance as the next biggest cost when running vehicles.
As such, the company now provides technological solutions that enable insurers to better manage data relating to vehicle usage by clients and the critical habits of those whose vehicles are insured, which helps grow the top and bottom lines.
The latest product rides on the back of related technology-based solutions Fanset has been offering for fuel monitoring for trucks, buses, light motor vehicles and agricultural equipment.
“Insurance firms, not only in Zimbabwe but across the world, always say a lot of claims that they settle are fraudulent.
“A car may probably be broken just the rear lamp, but the insurance claim is made as if the whole vehicle was damaged.
“So, we then came up with a product that we call Fanset UBI and what this seeks to do now is to reduce fraudulent insurance claims.
“How we do it is that we put a blackbox and if a vehicle is involved in an accident, we measure the impact in gravitational force; if the impact (to scale) measures anything from 0 to say 1,9, we know that the vehicle probably, has just hit a pothole.
“So, in such instances, we just filter that out and do not act on it to check if the vehicle has been involved in an accident or not.
“But if the impact measures up to 2.5, we know that it’s likely to be a minor accident, and we register this as an accident.
“We can (using Fanset UBI technology) do vehicle damage hit mapping and the insurance firm is able to undertake over the air (virtual) assessment of the damaged parts of the vehicle and the angle of attack,” Mr Matonhodze explained.
Based on the information gathered by Fanset UBI, the insurance company will be able to form a conception of the extent or gravity of an accident before it is reported, and when the claim is finally made, the insurer can easily verify if it is justified.
Mr Matonhodze said the Fanset UBI can inform, for instance, an insurance company that an insured vehicle has been damaged on the rear fender, long before the accident report is filed and or claim is made.
“So, if you see someone who is insured coming to make a claim for damage on the front bumper of the vehicle, then automatically you know that this claim is fraudulent,” he said.
The Fanset UBI can help insurance firms organise other critical emergency services such as ambulance or towing for impacts that measure gravitational force above 12.
“If the gravitational force is around 18 to the maximum that we measure — 24, then automatically we know that the vehicle is probably a write-off. The insurance company can then immediately calculate the salvage value based on the impact recorded.”
The Fanset UBI software box is installed by specialists in such a way that it cannot be removed or tampered with. In the event that the software box is removed or tampered with, a message is immediately sent to the insurance company.
Mr Matonhodze said the Fanset UBI incorporates what is known as the usage based premium model, which enables insurers to judge the driving ability of someone whose car is insured, and then charge premiums that match the level of risk.
“It’s not necessarily true that the older you get, the better driver you become; there are 50-year-olds who drive like 22-year-olds.
“And there are also some 22-year-olds who drive so well you would think they are 50, so in instances there are good young drivers who get disadvantaged because their licence is still very new,” said Mr Matonhodze whose firm has some operations in the region.
Based on a score of 100, Mr Matonhodze said an insurer can therefore be able to determine the threshold of discount that a client deserves, based on data that tells the quality of their driving regardless of their age.
