Nationwide is trying to address the challenges faced by human services organizations that try to keep a close eye on fleet vehicles and driver performance that not only can be critical for ensuring client safety, but also can boost business performance and reduce costly interruptions.

The insurance company acknowledged the technology needed to track vehicles and driver safety in real time often can require significant investment and multiyear contracts, putting these tools out of reach for budget-strapped business owners.

As a result, Nationwide has established a telematics partnership program to reduce the cost barriers associated with exploring telematics and fleet management solutions. Now available in New York, New Jersey and Texas, the Vantage 360 Premium Partner Program offers comprehensive fleet management and GPS tracking for qualifying human services organizations at little to no cost.

“Employee and customer safety are top priorities for any business, but for those managing fleet vehicles, the cost of telematics equipment can often prohibit implementing solutions to monitor safe driving and vehicle efficiency,” said Pete Frey, director of commercial telematics and connected business at Nationwide.

“By helping to ease the cost burden for telematics solutions, we feel business owners can more realistically embrace telematics and fleet management and learn from valuable insights that will ultimately help them boost performance and improve the safety of both drivers and customers,” Frey continued in a news release.

To kick off the new program, Nationwide partnered with two telematics solution providers — Azuga and Zubie — to offer customers advanced telematics systems with fleet management and GPS tracking capabilities.

With the partnership program, human service organizations can:

• Track fleet vehicles in real time

• Find the closest driver to respond to client needs

• Monitor vehicle health and receive immediate notifications of engine or battery issues

• Measure mileage and vehicle utilization

• Monitor driver performance, including hard braking, speeding or rapid acceleration

• Verify arrival and departure from client sites

“At a time when many carriers are limiting insurance coverage, limits and services for human services businesses, Nationwide is elevating its solutions by making it easy to prioritize driver and client safety with telematics,” said Cheryl Tamasitis, associate vice president of human services at Nationwide.

“We want to give business owners and fleet managers peace of mind with a solution to ensure the safe and efficient use of their vehicles so they can continue to focus on serving those in need,”

Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Azuga is a global provider of connected vehicle and fleet technologies. Azuga’s safety-driven telematics solution can impact fleet efficiency and driving behavior improvements.

Through the company’s work with insurance companies, officials said Azuga has proven the value of telematics by reducing frequency and severity of accidents by as much as 50%.

Zubie, based in Minneapolis, is a telematics provider committed to providing smart, easy and simple solutions for businesses with small and medium-sized fleets. Since 2012, the company’s end-to-end connected-car technology has delivered real-time information about vehicles and drivers to help businesses manage and optimize their fleets.

Nationwide’s Vantage 360 Premium Partner Program builds on its Vantage 360 suite of telematics products. Vantage 360 Fleet, launched in July of last year and currently available in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and South Carolina, is a mobile app telematics solution available for small market customers.

Nationwide said it plans to expand the new Vantage 360 Premium Partner Program and Vantage 360 Fleet to additional states and industry segments in the near future.