Volta Trucks - Thought Leadership - Driving a safer future; a real-time look at the next generation of insurance

Safety sits at the core of the all-electric Volta Zero’s design. In fact, it’s designed to be the safest commercial vehicle for one simple reason; Transport for London’s own statistics show that trucks are fice times more likely to be involved in a collision resulting in a fatality relative to their share of traffic. The Volta Zero has 220-degree visibility, a low and central driving position plus a 360 view camera system allowing drivers to feel connected with their environment and well equipped to spot and react to hazards. Safety also sits at the core of our insurance offering through Truck as a Service.

Truck as a Service (TaaS) is designed to reduce risk and accelerate the transition to electric trucks, and Insurance is one of its fundamental components. Every truck on the road must be protected by at least basic insurance cover. Through Trucks as a Service, operators adding any number of Volta Trucks to their fleets can seamlessly and quickly get insurance for their vehicles according to their needs, enabling reduced-risk customer operation.

Helvetia International Automotive, with over 160 years industry experience will underwrite motor insurance for the all-electric Volta Zero. Following appraisal of our development vehicles, certification and support network, Helvetia’s innovative approach aligned with our shared values of moving towards sustainable mobility. This will be delivered and operated by Qover, Europe’s leading Insure Tech for coordinating embedded insurance and simple, transparent customer experience at a pan-European scale.

Together with Volta Trucks, these leading partnerships present fleets with a compelling insurance proposition to meet the needs of electrification. Customers will be offered tailored insurance through both partners, with bespoke, adjustable levels of cover based on each fleets use-case. This flexibility is paired with a seamless end user experience, enabled through digital tools, from quote to subscription and claim. Uniquely, should a vehicle require a repair through a successful claim, this can be completed by specialist technicians through Volta Trucks’ dedicated service network.

“Just like the advanced technology of the Volta Zero, fleets and customers should expect the same level of innovation across all supporting products and services. Leveraging the data available from the vehicle, we have a real opportunity to reshape how insurance is calculated and risk levels assessed, to tailor premiums”

Alejandro Ortega Peniche
Insurance Lead, Volta Trucks

Helping Volta Zero Drivers become the safest truck drivers on earth

The all-electric Volta Zero not only helps fleets become sustainable, but also smarter and safer. Telematics, data and insight captured through the vehicle can be leveraged to continuously drive efficiency, and innovatively opens-up the real-time potential to shape the future of fleet operations.

We recognise through technologies and expertise; we need to begin moving towards a smart future for insurance. This means shifting from traditional insurance models and towards behavioural based telematics and data-led premiums, in real-time.

Like the Volta Zero, importantly this innovative approach to insurance puts the driver at the centre, providing visibility on performance like never before. The system in development uniquely amalgamates several key vehicle data points including speed, GPS positioning and other Volta Zero variables which are then intuitively overlaid with real-time data on driving conditions, typography, weather and traffic. This comprehensive insight is designed to encourage drivers to continuously review and improve their driving style to enhance theirs and the vehicle’s safety on the road.

“This transition from fleet-led insurance to driver-led insurance, puts the driver in full control; not only of the vehicle’s operation but also through providing useful insight to help drivers operate as safely as possible. In turn, this empowers drivers to avoid risks in the future and benefits fleet managers with less instances of vehicles off-road through repair or additional maintenance.”

Alejandro Ortega Peniche
Insurance Lead, Volta Trucks

Crucially, the technology does not stop there for drivers. Improving retrospectively is important, but proactively reacting to real-time information is a
genuine game-changer. Together with Nexyad – the AI on-board data-aggregating platform for real-time prudence assessment – the Volta Zero could take safety one step further by communicating with drivers, in the cabin, via a virtual co-pilot – acting as a ‘second set of eyes’, providing real-time insight and feedback on the vehicle’s performance vs. the road conditions so a driver can adjust, adapt and react accordingly.

This next-level information will also allow fleet managers to effortlessly observe drivers’ performance with greater precision. Importantly, helping to inform future training requirements or acting as a gamification methodology to encourage safer driving by rewarding drivers who consistently lead a fleet’s core safety- driven scoring metrics. In addition, insurance companies can use this data to accurately assess risk levels and offer tailor-made premiums based on behavioural data, which, for safe drivers, will result in reduced premiums

In general, safer drivers and more informed fleet managers, through the power of insight, can not only reduce the operational risk of a fleet but also recognise a further optimised TCO through dynamic premiums and a reduction in accidents whilst operational.

Promoting and rewarding safe, efficient and careful driving through TaaS

Truck as a Service (TaaS) is an end-to-end solution that simplifies, accelerates and de-risks commercial fleet electrification. Revolutionising the ownership, financing, and servicing of commercial vehicles, TaaS delivers a frictionless way to migrate fleets of all sizes to electric – maximising their uptime and operational efficiency.

The future of insurance consists of using driving data to enable dynamic pricing and to foster better driving. And these principles can be applied beyond insurance too. A driving score could measure efficiency on energy consumption and how careful drivers are with the truck itself while driving it. These data could be used to promote a more efficient and careful use of the vehicle and apply the dynamic pricing to other TaaS areas such as energy, maintenance and financing, with the ultimate goal of optimising the TaaS agreement.

“Through Truck as a Service, we are addressing two important challenges for customers and insurance. Firstly, we’re providing fleets an out-the-box turnkey insurance product designed specifically for electric commercial vehicles. And secondly, we’re using our leading product capabilities to define a smarter, more dynamic approach to insuring a vehicle in the future – which through safe driving, will be rewarded with reduced insurance premiums and operating costs”

Casper Norden
Chief Fleet Solutions Officer

Innovation sits at the core of TaaS and it’s leading range of turnkey enabling solutions which reduce the risk and accelerate the transition to electrification for commercial fleets.

Importantly, we recognise no one fleet is the same. This is why our full Truck as a Service solution is tailored to each business’s requirements. It’s designed as turnkey EV ecosystem that seamlessly enables fleet electrification at speed and scale. Within this EV ecosystem, insurance is one of seven components developed with best-in-class partners to provide customer’s with the infrastructure, services and support they need to transition with ease.

To read more about our partnerships with Helvetia and Qover, click here. Alternatively, to learn more about Truck as a Service, click here.