June 2018
The main goals of risk software have always been to provide claims handlers with the tools they need to process all sorts of claims, and accurately report financial data to accountants and upper management. If these were the only required functions for transportation risk managers, any claims handling package could work within a trucking company. Risk software for the trucking industry has always needed to do more. It must also address other industry functions not handled in general purpose claims systems. Trucking risk systems have always needed to gather data for other internal departments, i.e. safety, maintenance, recruiting, and marketing. They have also needed to gather the data to satisfy external reporting to federal agencies like the DOT and the FHWA. These legacy functions in trucking specific risk software have not disappeared, but they are so common that they are taken for granted and never discussed anymore.
Over the past decade, the emphasis has changed. Added to the common features like reserving, attachment of images, reporting, etc. are inbound and outbound data transfers. These systems must be able to receive data from the agencies like the CSA. They must also facilitate risk related data flow to and from distributed entities like corporate repair facilities and terminals. It has also became necessary to provide formatted out-going data transfers to reporting vendors like DriverIQ, DriverFacts, and government agencies like OSHA.
Today providers of risk and safety software are no longer in the quest to provide the users with a paperless risk file, automated reserving, payment interfaces, paperless DQ files, or data transfers. Those are in place. Their development dollars are now being directed into the development of secure remote data entry and incident reporting. In addition to the inflow of remote reporting from company-controlled mobile applications, risk and safety systems must now provide a central location and features to coordinate risk and safety related incoming data from third parties like ELD vendors, in-cab video vendors, and equipment location GPS sources.
Creation of official data records on events like unreported trailer damage, rider policies, OS&Ds, minor incidents, accidents, first reports of injury, etc. will be initialized via a remote mobile device such as smartphones or tablets. The days of initial reporting by voice are slowly coming to an end. At some point it the near future initial voice reporting will only be used in extreme exceptions for cases involving injury, fatality, or some other accident metric where the liability exposures or business relationships can quickly rocket out of control.
Successful systems of tomorrow will be securely open to remote users. They will provide controlled, distributed, data entry. They will provide a central consolidation repository for data feeds from multiple sources. But this is not the end. With rapid and distributed mobile event initialization, these systems will need to be smart enough to do triage of events and have the ability to speed up notification and communication on extreme events to prime decision makers. These systems will continue to aid productivity and efficiency within the risk/safety departments and the overall enterprise. They will be a more powerful tool in the reduction of internal department overhead and in the final cost of claim related events.