With the pay-as-you-use/drive motor insurance model, drivers who use their cars infrequently, work and live local and drive safely can expect annual average savings of 50% over what they were paying their previous auto insurer. Bimaleo was founded in 2020, by Shreyas Patel and George Richard during the Covid-19 pandemic had greatly affected various operations and businesses. Mr. Patel, who is the Co-founder and company’s CEO said, “The idea came to us in 2020 when Covid-19 hit and numerous fleet owners had their vehicles grounded and subscribed to telematics services that could benefit from pay as you use/drive motor insurance, by allowing the data generated from the telematics units installed in the vehicle to pay for insurance only when using the vehicle.” “We noted that corporate fleet owners were paying for an entire year of comprehensive premiums while using their vehicles for half the year thus the compelling reason to purchase insurance based on use came to mind.” he says To use their services, a client can easily subscribe to their services by going to their site and creating an account. Once the account is activated, they will be taken through a simple KYC process, where they require details of the vehicle, like vehicle registration number, make, model, chassis number etc. Once this information is provided, a tracking device is installed in the client’s vehicle and from the tracking device will allow the company speed up claims with underwriter partners when an accident occurs. The company has partnered with trusted tracking providers in the market and if you have a device from one of the partners, the client can then proceed to purchase insurance for the day/days in question from a list of underwriters in the market. “Purchase of the premium is made via M-Pesa and the policy note is emailed to the client. Clients can also purchase Third party insurance on the platform for the year as required by law. If they have a tracking device from a provider that is not on our partner list, they are free to contact us, and we shall advise them on how they can purchase insurance through the platform. As an added advantage, through Bimaleo, clients can purchase comprehensive premiums from the company while retaining their existing third-party insurance from any underwriter they currently subscribe to. “Through the telematics data gathered from the tracking device installed in the vehicle, if a client accepts to receive benefits from our premiums discount package, we can evaluate how good a driver is on the road by taking into consideration data such as speeding, harsh braking, sever cornering etc. This translates to a daily score. If a client’s score is high based on good driving practices, the next premium purchase they make through the platform will have a reduction on the premium rate. This service is to encourage safe driving on the roads and promote cost savings,” Patel says. Fidelity Shield Insurance was the first underwriter they worked with to actualise the service and KK Security (part of Garda World) as channel partners, that can offer the service to their existing tracking clients. Onboarding further underwriters and channel partners is ongoing as well as plans to launch the services in the next six months across the region.
