Ensuring Primo Drinks discovered the truth

An employee is involved in a serious road traffic accident: Primo Drinks CEO Brian Wright explains how Crystal Ball and SmartCam helped to resolve this distressing incident.


It is incredibly stressful for a business when an employee has been involved a serious accident. Colleagues are upset, the authorities turn up at the door and a company’s day-to-day operations can stall in the immediate aftermath.


Then, there is the ongoing disruption as bodies such as police and insurance try to ascertain the facts of the incident. Crystal Ball has seen this issue hundreds of times and its SmartCam system and the array of intelligent telematics technologies housed in it help streamline the process and turn what could be a very worrying and troubling period into one in which the issue is quickly and effectively resolved, through the use of on-board high-resolution cameras, a suite of incident measuring devices including G-force and speed, as well as telematics overwatch.


This was the case with Stockport-based Primo Drinks who had a driver, through no fault of his own, involved in a very severe, near-head on crash.

Primo Drinks CEO Brian Wright takes up the story: “We had an incident very recently, when a stolen car came around the corner too fast, swerved, lost control, missed the car in front and spun, hitting our van, which was only six months old.


“It was a very serious incident: our driver was trapped although fortunately not seriously injured, but air ambulances were involved for the occupants of the stolen car, and the crash was all recorded on the Crystal Ball SmartCam.


“Because it was a stolen car and the nature of the incident, your claim has to go through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, and because we had the video evidence and telematics data, it was clear cut and sorted very quickly. Without that evidence, it would have dragged on and taken many months, and been very time consuming before any resolution was reached.


“Straight away, they asked for the footage, and we sent that to them and they said ‘That’s easy, it ticks the box’, and less than two months later we have been paid out.


“SmartCam has proved where fault lies in a lot of instances. Before we had it installed, if there was doubt it was an easy option for the insurance company to say, ‘we’ll pay 50/50’ and that of course would affect our no-claims bonus.


Insurance Premiums Are Rising: Can you afford to sit by and do nothing?

Insurance premiums are now higher than they have ever been: according to the Association of British Insurers, the average motor premium paid rose by 9% in 2017 to a record high, and the average cost of motor cover has leapt by 29% since 2014.


Among fleets then, insurance is even outstripping fuel in terms of cost rises but Raj Singh, Crystal Ball’s managing director does not believe businesses should just accept these increases.


“There are, without a doubt, ways to fight these increases. We’ve seen a number of clients reduce their premiums by fitting our technology. We’ve even had insurers say ‘because this client fitted SmartCam, their premiums have fallen because now we can prove fault definitively, and process claims quickly.


“The roads are getting busier and more chaotic, and the number of accidents are on the rise, so it requires a proactive approach, working hand-in-hand with your telematics provider and your insurance company to ensure that the system you have in place works for you and them. Just doing nothing will undoubtedly see costs rise.”

“It’s so precise, and all the driving data and imagery is recorded and verifiable. We’ve been monitoring our fleet since last year, but one incident has paid for fitting it to the entire fleet. Since we fitted SmartCam, all of our claims have been resolved a lot faster because of its precision and the amount of data and video it provides, and crucially these incidents don’t end up unresolved in ‘claims pending’.


“For example, if there’s an incident and they are not sure of liability, insurance companies will put it against your account and say ‘Well, there’s a potential £20,000 claim here’, and if it’s not dealt with and concluded by the end of the year they will say there’s a potential claim pending and will put your premium up because it is not resolved.”


Thanks to SmartCam and Crystal Ball workforce management telematics, Primo Drinks was able to get back to doing what it does best with minimal disruption from the incident, and it has seen its insurance premiums reduced too.


Interested in finding out how SmartCam could help you discover more about your fleet? Click here to contact us.

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