Issue 3 2021

6 Acquisition International - Issue 3 2021 Jan21373 Driving Force Helping organizations to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership through a patented driver risk management program, eDriving SM is a clear market leader in its field. As the global enterprise celebrates twenty-five years of growth since its inception in Huddersfield, 1996, we take a more in-depth look at eDriving and find out the key to its success. Driving SM is the driver risk management partner of choice for many of the world’s largest organizations that include big brand names such as BT, Nestlé and Pfizer, supporting over 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries. Over the past twenty-five years, eDriving’s research-validated programs have been recognized with over 100 awards around the world. Shortly after its inception in 1996, following an intensive research program with universities in the UK and overseas, eDriving concluded that taking a data-led proactive risk management approach to fleet driver safety was the key to successfully reducing collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership. To help fleets achieve this, it developed and patented its pioneering closed-loop solution, Virtual Risk Manager ® (VRM), that has since seen fleets achieve a reduction in collisions of up to 67%. Today, its team having grown from just seven in Huddersfield in 1996 to a company of 120 ‘Wizards’ located in nine offices around the world, this risk management approach remains at the heart of everything eDriving does. It is also the backbone of its smartphone- based driver behavior improvement program, Mentor by eDriving SM . Launched globally in 2018, this smartphone app was created in partnership with industry analytics leader FICO and operates on iOS and Android devices. The app provides a solution that collects and analyzes driver behaviors that are linked to greater crash risk and helps remediate risky behavior by providing engaging, interactive micro-training modules delivered directly to the driver in the smartphone app. e Using telematics-based driving data collected by Mentor SM , the FICO® Safe Driving Score can help predict the likelihood of future driving collisions by evaluating driver behaviors most predictive of risk such as Acceleration, Braking, Cornering, Speeding, Phone Distraction – the latter being one of the biggest threats to road safety today - and assigning a personalized score. Detailed trip feedback and engaging micro-training modules are delivered to drivers’ phones, helping them understand their risk exposures and make safer decisions behind the wheel. “The FICO® Safe Driving Score was developed to address the ever- present issue of commercial fleet losses caused by collisions, and Leading his team in research and innovation in road safety, Ed’s leadership has been pivotal in eDriving’s establishment of industry benchmarking initiatives, which have in turn earned the firm its international acclaim for mitigating risk on the roads and consequently saving lives.