CAPE MAY, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / January 26, 2023 / eDriving's digital driver safety program, Mentor^SM, featuring the FICO^® Safe Driving Score, helps risky drivers become safer behind the wheel in just six months - and further improves behaviors over longer periods of time - according to findings from an analysis of the program. The analysis was performed after the program reached the milestone marking 3.5 billion miles driven in Spring 2022.

The eDriving^SM study identified the initial risk level of active[1] business drivers using the Mentor app (i.e., Very High Risk, High Risk, Medium Risk, Low Risk or Very Low Risk[2]), based on their first month's FICO^® Safe Driving Score - a score derived from smartphone-based driving behavior telematics. It then measured progress[3] over periods of six months, 12 months, and 18 months of using the app.

Over a six-month period, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to a 51% increase in their FICO^® Safe Driving Score, moving them up into the Medium Risk category. Over a longer period of 18 months, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced an even greater average increase in their FICO^® Safe Driving Score of up to 70%, moving them up into the Low Risk category.

While FICO^® Safe Driving Score improvement was the most significant for drivers who were initially identified as Very High Risk or High Risk, those identified as Medium Risk also improved, and Low-Risk drivers maintained their good performance levels.

The study also showed there was a significant decrease in the negative driving behaviors measured by Acceleration, Braking, Cornering, Phone Distraction, and Speeding events for business drivers using Mentor's patented approach involving driver scoring, eLearning, gamification, and coaching.

Speeding Reduction

• Over a six-month period, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to a 57% decrease in Speeding events.
• Over a period of 18 months, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to an 85% decrease in Speeding events, confirming a sustained improvement in driver behavior when using the Mentor app over a longer period.

Distraction Reduction

• Over a six-month period, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to a 60% decrease in Distraction events.
• Over an 18-month period, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to an 88% decrease in Distraction events, again demonstrating a significant and sustained improvement in driver behavior when using the multi-faceted Mentor program over a longer period.

Other significant findings:

• Mentor use showed a reduction of in-vehicle calls among Very High-Risk or High-Risk drivers by up to 53% over a six-month period and 85% over 18 months. Phone manipulations (i.e., texting or handling the phone while driving) were reduced among these risky drivers by up to 62% over 6 months and 89% over 18 months.
• Over a six-month period, those initially categorized as Very High Risk or High Risk experienced up to a 62% decrease in Hard Acceleration, Hard Braking and Hard Cornering events, with up to an 89% decrease over 18 months.

'Mentor was designed from the ground up to support our global clients who made the safety of their employees driving for work purposes a strategic imperative.' said Ed Dubens, Founder and CEO of eDriving. 'Over 20 years of driver risk management combined with the FICO^® Safe Driving Score, delivers the perfect combination of leading and lagging indicators to help Mentor proactively identify the most at-risk drivers for further support and coaching. 3.5 Billion Mentor miles later, it is incredible to see how quickly we have been able to turn smartphones from villains into catalysts for positive change that can save the lives of not just drivers, but also those they share the road with including pedestrians and cyclists.'

Launched globally in 2018, Mentor by eDriving^SM is used by organizations around the world to help improve driver behavior among employees driving for work purposes, and has been shown to reduce collisions by up to 67%. The digital program uses smartphone sensors to collect and analyze data on the driving behaviors most predictive of risk. These include Acceleration, Braking, Cornering, Speeding, and Phone Distraction, one of the biggest threats to road safety today.

Through eDriving's partnership with industry analytics leader FICO, driver on-road performance is converted into an individual FICO^® Safe Driving Score, which has been validated to help predict the likelihood of a driver being involved in a collision. Personalized insights are provided privately to drivers after each trip, showing both positive and negative driving events and exactly where they occurred. Additionally, engaging, interactive micro-training modules are delivered directly to the driver in-app to help promptly remediate identified risky behaviors. At the time of the 3.5B mile analysis, over 7.7 million eLearning modules had been viewed by Mentor users. Gamification and rewards are also employed by Mentor to promote driver engagement and friendly competition, while coaching support is included to help sustain behavior improvements over time.

'The FICO^® Safe Driving Score continues to provide a consistent and objective measure of driver risk,' said Rachel Bell, Vice President of Scores and Analytics at FICO. 'We are pleased to see that the FICO^® Safe Driving Score continues to help organizations keep their drivers safe and limit risks on the road.'

About Solera

Solera is the global leader in vehicle lifecycle management software-as-a-service, data, and services. Through four lines of business - vehicle claims, vehicle repairs, vehicle solutions and fleet solutions - Solera is home to many leading brands in the vehicle lifecycle ecosystem, including Identifix, Audatex, DealerSocket, Omnitracs, LoJack, Spireon, eDriving/Mentor, Explore, cap hpi, Autodata, and others. Solera empowers its customers to succeed in the digital age by providing them with a 'one-stop shop' solution that streamlines operations, offers data-driven analytics, and enhances customer engagement, which Solera believes helps customers drive sales, promote customer retention, and improve profit margins. Solera serves over 300,000 global customers and partners in 100+ countries. For more information, visit www.solera.com.

About eDriving

eDriving, a Solera company, helps organizations around the world improve safety, reduce injuries, license violations, carbon emissions, and total cost of fleet ownership through its patented digital driver risk management programs. These include the Mentor by eDriving^SM smartphone app with FICO^® Safe Driving Score; the patented, five-stage Crash-Free Culture^® risk reduction program; and the Virtual Risk Manager^® platform, all designed to work together within a privacy-first, data-secure environment that supports drivers and their managers every step of the way. eDriving is the digital driver risk management partner of choice for many of the world's largest organizations, supporting over 1,200,000 drivers in 125 countries. Over the past 25 years, eDriving's research-validated programs have been recognized with over 125+ awards around the world. For more information, visit www.edriving.com.

Press contact, eDriving:
Sheila Leverone
press@edriving.com

About FICO

FICO (NYSE:FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail, transportation and supply chain, and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at https://www.fico.com/.

Press contact, FICO:
Julie Huang
press@fico.com
+1 925-405-7803

[1] At least one trip per month

[2] FICO^® Safe Driving Scores were initially categorized as Risky, Poor, Average, Good and Great. These were updated to the new corresponding categories on July 29, 2020.

[3] Analysis used data from trips classified as ‘Business' only (no ‘Passenger' or ‘Personal' trips)

Mentor Product Sheet

SOURCE: eDriving