Can your phone tell if you're a good driver? Yes, telematics specialist The Floow can. In fact, it even helps insurers encourage better habits among their policyholders. Tim Green, a mobile phone expert and influencer, sat down with Rebecca Bell, Marketing Director at The Floow, to find out how A2P SMS is enabling insurers to insure for the first time.
"How's my driving?" is a question typically displayed on the back of commercial vehicles, next to a phone number. The idea is to make roads safer by encouraging people to report irresponsible behavior.
A laudable idea. But is it effective? How often do people call? And are they always honest?
Fortunately, there is now a much better way to evaluate safe driving: get a smartphone to do it.
A phone sitting in a driver's pocket can collect a huge amount of data that, when aggregated together, can provide an accurate and unbiased assessment of their driving.
This simple insight was the spark that led to the creation of British specialist The Floow in 2012. The founders observed the rise of telematics in new vehicles, the emergence of public data sets (related to weather, traffic, and so on), and the smartphone becoming ubiquitous.
They recognized that collectively these factors could lead to a revolution in safe driving.
“We saw an opportunity to transform the telematics industry by using data and social science in ways that could change driver behavior and reduce risks on our roads.”
Aldo Monteforte, CEO of The Floow
So The Floow created a software system that could be coded into an app to collect data on the following safe driving indicators:
Speed (including contextual speed relative to other drivers)
Smooth driving (acceleration and deceleration)
Mobile phone use while driving
Fatigue (by trip length)
Time of day (late night driving is statistically more dangerous)
These innovations quickly attracted insurance companies. Today, The Floow works with Direct Line and many other insurers in multiple regions.
The result? Fewer accidents and fewer complaints.
The second benefit is less obvious. Historically, insurance companies have had no visible dialogue with customers after purchasing a policy—unless there was a complaint. With a safe driving app in place, they can stay in constant contact.
Here, finally, is the opportunity to develop a real relationship with the customer. But which channel should you use? Well, there's email, of course. But for more direct and immediate use cases, a more effective option is the SMS: the universal channel that everyone understands.
"The challenge for many of our customers is that drivers don't really think about insurance. Using text messages and apps, insurers can engage their customers for the first time. They can ask drivers to review their data, evaluate their scores, and see what premiums they can redeem."
Rebecca Bell, marketing director of The Floow
In most cases, insurers offer Amazon vouchers or similar as rewards. However, there's always the risk that scammers could steal the codes and claim these rewards. To combat this, The Floow has chosen to use SMS as an authentication method. Therefore, when the driver redeems a reward, The Floow sends a one-time access code via text message, which the recipient uses to prove their identity.
The first time a customer requested this type of feature, they wanted it live within days. To meet the deadline, The Floow utilized the SMS APIs provided by messaging specialist CLX. They simply incorporated these APIs into their own systems using a "communications platform as a service" (CPaaS) model.
According to Bell, messaging has helped insurers achieve their twin goals of staying connected with drivers and making premiums more secure. Now he hopes to go further with chatbots.
