DriveWell Fleet Brings Full Telematics to Commercial Motor Insurance
Commercial fleets keep the modern economy moving, yet the insurance industry that underwrites them has often had to price risk with only partial visibility.
Underwriters have traditionally relied on claims history, vehicle type, route profiles, and broad fleet characteristics to estimate exposure. That approach has worked well enough to keep the market functioning, but it leaves plenty of uncertainty on the table, particularly in a world where driver behaviour, traffic density, delivery pressure, and vehicle connectivity are changing at speed.
That’s why the launch of DriveWell Fleet by Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) matters well beyond the arrival of another telematics product. It represents an attempt to pull commercial auto underwriting into a more data-led era, where fleets can be measured with consistent signals across connected and unconnected vehicles, and where insurers can scale telematics participation without redesigning their entire operating model.
At its core, the challenge is simple. Commercial auto insurers want more accurate risk pricing and better segmentation, but the telematics ecosystem has been messy. Fleet operators have adopted dozens of different devices and platforms, and not every vehicle comes with the same level of built-in connectivity. As a result, insurers have often struggled to apply telematics across an entire book of business. DriveWell Fleet is positioned as CMT’s answer to that gap, bringing together normalised telematics service provider data for connected vehicles and proprietary hardware for those that aren’t connected, with the stated aim of enabling full fleet coverage.
Why Commercial Auto Pricing Has Lagged Behind Telematics Adoption
Telematics has reshaped personal auto insurance in many markets over the last decade, particularly as usage-based insurance and behaviour-based scoring proved their ability to improve pricing precision and incentivise safer driving. In theory, commercial insurance should have been the obvious next step. Fleet driving is repetitive, exposure is high, and losses can be severe. The economics are compelling.
In practice, commercial fleets have been harder to standardise. Some operators run a handful of vans in one city. Others run thousands of vehicles across regions, with mixed drivers, variable routes, and constant pressure to deliver on time. That operational complexity has meant data collection tends to be inconsistent, and insurance pricing models often fall back on broad categories rather than detailed behavioural insight.
CMT’s announcement makes the scale of the gap explicit. The company notes that fewer than 5% of commercial policies are priced with telematics data, even though more than 30% of vehicles are already connected to telematics service providers. The implication is clear enough: the market has connectivity, but insurers have struggled to turn that connectivity into a consistent underwriting advantage.
That mismatch is not just an insurer problem. When risk is priced with limited behavioural insight, safer fleets often end up subsidising riskier ones. Over time, that can undermine incentives for investment in driver safety systems, coaching tools, and operational improvements. The wider transport ecosystem then carries the cost in crashes, disruption, and avoidable human harm.
A Push for “100% Telematics Coverage” Across the Fleet
CMT is presenting DriveWell Fleet as a way to bring telematics to the full commercial book, rather than limiting programmes to a small subset of participating fleets. The solution aims to cover both connected vehicles and those without existing telematics infrastructure, which is where many initiatives tend to hit a wall.
For connected fleets, DriveWell Fleet uses a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model that integrates with existing telematics service providers. CMT says the platform connects directly with major providers including Samsara, Verizon Connect, Lytx, Netradyne, Linxup and GPS Insight. The goal is for fleets to join without ripping out existing hardware or layering on additional systems, which can be a deal-breaker for time-poor operations teams.
CMT also states that this approach already covers more than 80% of the connected commercial vehicle market, with 90% coverage expected later this year. If that prediction holds, it would give insurers a practical path to scaling telematics-based pricing without restricting programmes to only a narrow set of compatible vendors.
But connectivity still doesn’t reach every vehicle. Plenty of fleets remain partially unconnected, especially those with older vehicles, lower margins, or dispersed operations. That’s where CMT’s proprietary hardware enters the conversation, offering two “stick-on” devices that don’t rely on phones, external power, or a cellular plan owned by the policyholder.
Hardware That Removes the Usual Barriers to Adoption
One of the reasons commercial telematics deployments stall is friction. Traditional installations can involve wiring, vehicle downtime, workshop appointments, and contract admin around connectivity. For small fleets, that can be enough to discourage participation entirely. For large fleets, it can still slow rollouts and create uneven data coverage.
CMT’s answer is two devices designed to make adoption more straightforward.
Tag Pro is described as a low-cost Internet of Things device that adheres to the windshield and uploads data through CMT’s proprietary mesh network. Crucially, it requires no phone, no cellular plan, and no external power source. That configuration is aimed at smaller fleets that want minimal complexity, particularly those operating light vehicles where quick deployment matters.
Tag Max is positioned for heavier commercial vehicles, including long-haul fleets. It uses LTE connectivity and is described as delivering granular risk measurement while still sticking discreetly to the windshield and requiring no phone or cellular plan. It’s a notable design choice because heavy vehicles often operate in high-risk environments, cover significant mileage, and have different driving dynamics. If the device genuinely supports more precise measurement in that context, it may appeal to insurers seeking better segmentation in the most loss-sensitive categories.
The broader point is that by offering a connected-data pathway and a hardware pathway, CMT is aiming to remove the “we can’t get full coverage” excuse that has limited adoption across commercial insurance programmes.
The Data Normalisation Problem Insurers Haven’t Solved
Even when fleets already have telematics, the value to insurers hasn’t always been straightforward. Different platforms measure different signals at different sampling rates. One vendor might provide high-frequency braking events, another might focus on camera-driven safety incidents, and another might deliver primarily location and speed. Underwriters then face an awkward question: how do you price risk consistently when the data inputs aren’t comparable?
DriveWell Fleet is built around delivering normalised, high-frequency telematics data. In practical terms, that means taking incoming data from multiple telematics service providers and standardising it into a consistent structure insurers can use for selection, segmentation, and pricing. Done well, this could be one of the most commercially significant parts of the solution, because it makes telematics scalable for underwriting teams.
It also aligns with the direction of travel in fleet risk management more broadly. The industry is shifting away from raw data dumps and towards usable insight. Fleet operators don’t want ten dashboards and a spreadsheet of events. Insurers don’t want dozens of bespoke integrations and a separate rating model for every data source. Normalisation is the plumbing that makes telematics programmes viable at scale.
And of course, there’s an important downstream effect. Better data quality should support more accurate pricing, which can create a clearer financial reward for fleets that invest in safer driving behaviours and stronger operational discipline.
Making Fleet Consent and Onboarding Less Painful
Even the best technology fails if participation is hard. Commercial fleets are busy operations, and insurance programmes that require weeks of onboarding or confusing consent flows quickly lose momentum. CMT is explicitly addressing this by positioning ease of integration as one of DriveWell Fleet’s three core pillars, alongside coverage and data quality.
DriveWell Fleet includes streamlined consent flows and fleet onboarding, intended to accelerate programme adoption. That matters because commercial insurance participation requires transparent opt-in processes, particularly where drivers are being monitored and behavioural data influences pricing. The practical reality is that consent can be a sticking point, not necessarily due to resistance, but because fleet operators have to align legal, HR, and safety practices. Anything that reduces friction while keeping the process clear and compliant improves programme viability.
Once onboarded, insurers can access fleet and vehicle-level insights via the CMT Portal, which is intended to support faster underwriting, improved segmentation, and pricing accuracy. That combination of fast participation and usable output is exactly what commercial insurance has struggled to achieve with telematics in the past.
What CMT’s Expansion Says About the Market
CMT is not new to insurance telematics. The company describes itself as the world’s largest telematics service provider and highlights that its AI-driven platform, DriveWell Fusion, identifies and reduces driving risk. It also states that its technology has helped prevent more than 100,000 crashes worldwide through its work with insurers, automakers, mobility companies, and the public sector.
The significance of DriveWell Fleet is that it marks a deliberate shift into commercial auto at scale, backed by a decade of personal auto partnerships. The strategic logic is obvious. Commercial fleets represent concentrated exposure, measurable behaviour, and a direct line between safety performance and financial outcomes.
William V. Powers, Co-Founder and CEO of CMT, framed the move as an extension of its safety mission: “For more than a decade, CMT has partnered with the world’s leading personal auto insurers to reduce risk, prevent crashes, and save lives. Now we’re bringing that same proven approach to commercial auto with DriveWell Fleet.”
He also emphasised the broader ambition behind the product: “By providing AI-powered driving insights from fleets, we’re helping them strengthen pricing decisions, better protect fleets and their drivers, and make roads safer for families and communities everywhere. At CMT, our vision has always been bigger than insurance, it’s about building a future where mobility is safer, smarter, and more human. Expanding into commercial auto is another critical step toward that future.”
Stripped of the vision language, the business case is about precision. If insurers can price fleet risk more accurately, they can manage profitability with greater confidence. If fleets can prove they operate safely, they have a clearer route to premium savings. If both sides can scale participation without painful deployments, telematics shifts from being a pilot project into being standard practice.
Partnerships That Add Weight and Credibility
DriveWell Fleet is not launching into a vacuum. It is being rolled out with integration support from established telematics providers, including Netradyne and Linxup, both of which have highlighted why the collaboration matters.
Netradyne’s Adam Kahn positioned the partnership in terms of safety and underwriting value: “Netradyne’s mission has always been to transform fleet safety with AI, real-time coaching, and a positive approach to driver performance,” he said. “By partnering with CMT, we’re extending that impact, helping insurers access high-quality driving data, deliver more accurate pricing, and accelerate the shift toward safer roads and smarter fleets.”
Linxup’s Drew Reynolds focused on the SMB opportunity, where operational simplicity often drives adoption: “Linxup’s fleet tracking solutions equip small and mid-sized fleets with the insights they need to easily run safer, more efficient operations, combining real-time location data, driver behaviour analytics, and AI dash cams to cut costs and boost performance,” he said. “By partnering with CMT, we’re helping SMBs turn their safety investments into lower insurance premiums, stronger ROI, and safer roads, all through a simple, accessible platform built for growing businesses.”
These quotes matter because they underline a practical truth. Commercial telematics isn’t just an insurer story. It’s also about fleet tech providers creating value beyond dispatch and operations, connecting safety performance to financial outcomes through insurance.
The Bigger Payoff for Construction, Logistics and Infrastructure
For the construction industry, commercial vehicle risk is not a side issue. Contractors, plant hire firms, materials suppliers, utilities, and logistics operators all depend on fleets, whether it’s a handful of vehicles or a national operation. Collisions, risky driving, and downtime have direct project impacts, not to mention the human consequences.
Telematics-based underwriting has the potential to become a quiet lever for safety improvement across this ecosystem. When pricing becomes sensitive to real driving behaviour, the incentives sharpen. Safer fleets have a stronger case for premium savings. Riskier fleets face a clearer financial signal to change. Over time, that can support investment in coaching, driver support, and operational reforms that reduce incident rates.
It also connects with wider infrastructure goals. Road safety is a policy priority in many regions, and commercial vehicles feature heavily in traffic risk due to their size, mileage, and operating conditions. A stronger telematics foundation gives insurers and fleets a better toolkit for understanding and reducing that exposure, which is good business and good public outcomes in the same breath.
DriveWell Fleet is therefore less about devices on windscreens and more about what comes next. If commercial telematics can scale to a meaningful portion of the market, the industry could see a shift where underwriting accuracy, fleet safety programmes, and day-to-day operations start to reinforce each other rather than sit in separate silos.
