Fleet insurance, but done right

New business model with adesso: From retail motor insurance to fleet insurance

With fleet insurance, motor insurers benefit from market growth

The mobility market is changing. The needs of younger mobility customers (millennials) in particular are shifting from vehicle ownership to pure usage, partly due to the mega trends known as ‘C.A.S.E.’: Connected (IoT), Autonomous, Shared and Electric. This means that the fleet market is growing, and with it the demand for fleet insurance.

In Europe, significantly more new cars are already registered to fleets than to private individuals on average – and this proportion is rising steadily. (Re)entering this market can help insurers maintain their overall profitability over the coming decade.


Customer-focused offerings. Efficient processes. Damage prevention.

Younger customer groups prefer offers such as full-service leasing, car subscriptions, car sharing and ride hailing. The new business models of fleet operators and mobility service providers are challenging motor insurance companies to adapt their value chains accordingly. This means, among other things, revising underwriting and service models and promoting partnerships with technology companies, mobility service providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). By rethinking their approach to motor fleet insurance, insurers can tap into new market potential.

The success factors for winning and retaining fleet customers are customer-centric insurance offerings, transparency, fairness and communication. Insurers need to convince fleet customers to work with them to implement efficient processes and establish proactive measures to reduce claims. This is the only way to reduce the total cost of ownership or total cost of mobility.

Necessary adjustments to the business model for the fleet compared to motor vehicles

What should a business model for fleet insurance look like? It should definitely be fundamentally different from the business model for insuring individual vehicles, as it requires different skills, competencies, and processes. The focus must be more on financing future claims than on risk transfer. This is usually done via a unit premium, part of which should be calculated for future claims and part for administration (known as a cost-plus-administration-costs system).

The motor insurance business is often divided into two areas: production (the general management of the entire risk portfolio) and claims. Three areas play an important role in fleet insurance: sustainable risk financing, efficient claims management, and an overview of business performance.

If a claim is reported, a smooth process with clearly defined roles must be ensured so that the claim can be processed efficiently and quickly. Retail customers, for example, do not usually complain about repair times or the success of recourse claims, whereas fleet customers do. Dashboards with different views and, if possible, benchmarks for comparable fleet risks are also required. This enables insurers to take immediate effective action in response to changes in the business.


Successfully implement the three most important processes with adesso

Together with motor insurance companies that decide to work with adesso, we analyze three main processes in detail and jointly develop a new value chain for fleet insurance:

Risk financing

The result is coordinated multi-year strategic goals between insurers and fleet owners (e.g., target loss ratio, loss frequency, and automatic renewal conditions), an underwriting policy (risk management), and suitable risk financing models (usually efficient loss cost financing in accordance with legal requirements, loss cost sharing per claim or per vehicle, with captive or own reinsurance where applicable).

Operations (service level agreement)

We clarify responsibilities, i.e., who does what (fleet customer, brokers, insurers, service providers, etc.). In doing so, we focus on efficiency, for example by integrating the systems of insurers and customers and incorporating new technologies. Examples include telematics for software-based vehicles (SDVs), embedded insurance in TAA routes, value-added services for fraud detection and recourse, and big data and AI in underwriting. Traditional actuarial techniques are being used less and less as real-time data collection and integrated systemic networking with customers offer new and profitable opportunities.

Risk management & risk control

Compared to retail motor insurance, fleet insurance has different OPIs and KPIs. We offer insurers a dashboard developed in-house that is tailored to these key figures. It reflects the cost-plus-administration-costs system of fleet insurance, whereby claims costs account for the largest share and claims frequency represents the greatest lever. The dashboard gives insurers a constant overview of their fleet business and enables them to manage it optimally.

Unser Angebot

We support motor vehicle insurers who want to enter the fleet insurance business on a long-term basis or who are already active but want to improve their processes. Our offering and approach are based on these five milestones:

  • Milestone 1 – Creating the baseline: We analyze your existing strategy, goals, processes, and structures.
  • Milestone 2 – Discovery workshop (business case): We work with you to define the strategy, identify target groups, estimate the change effort (GAP/target/actual analysis), and calculate future scenarios.
  • Milestone 3 – Fleet insurance operating system specifications: Selecting a suitable operating system forms the foundation for a sustainable fleet insurance program. Together, we define the requirements for your market (make or buy).
  • Milestone 4 – Offers: We explore the various offers and make a concrete offer for the implementation of the operating system and our dashboard.
  • Milestone 5 – Next steps: We set the start date and milestones for the project and agree on methods and structures. The project can then begin.

Benefit from the industry and technology expertise of the experts at adesso. Arrange a no-obligation consultation on fleet insurance now. We look forward to talking to you.

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