A driver risk score is a single number, or a band, that ranks how likely a driver is to be involved in an incident. It's built from how they drive and, in fuller versions, from their licence, incidents and claims too. Scores from different systems disagree because each one is built from different data, weighted differently and measured differently, so the same driver can look excellent in one and poor in another.
This page is about scores for people who drive for work. The black-box scores that some car insurers give private drivers work along similar lines, though they're built for pricing a single policy.
What usually goes into one
- Driving events from the tracker: harsh braking, harsh acceleration, cornering and speeding
- Camera events, where cameras are fitted: distraction, phone use, following too closely
- The licence: points, endorsements and whether the driver is still entitled to drive what they drive
- Incidents and claims: how many, how often and what they cost
- Change over time: whether the driver is getting better or worse
Why two scores for the same driver disagree
- Different inputs. A tracking score can't see what the camera sees, while neither sees the claims file. A driver who's smooth on the pedals but often looks at their phone scores well on one and badly on the other.
- Different weighting. One system may count speeding heavily, another may leave it out of the score and report it separately.
- Different measures. Some divide events by miles driven and some by hours. A multi-drop van in town is likely to rack up more events per mile than one on the motorway.
- Different scales. Out of 100, out of 10 or a red, amber and green band, with no agreed point at which a driver counts as high risk.
None of that makes a score wrong. It means a score is only comparable with others built the same way, from the same data.
Shared vans can skew a score
Where vans are shared, a score tied to the vehicle rather than the driver can mark a careful driver down for someone else's driving. Getting the driver right on every journey matters as much as the score itself.
How to use a score well
- Watch the trend rather than the number, since a driver whose score is falling tells you more than one who has always sat mid-table.
- Compare drivers doing similar work in similar places.
- Look at what sits behind a low score before acting on it.
- Use it to start a conversation with the driver rather than to settle one.
Where SHIELD fits
The SHIELD Score is built from the systems SHIELD connects for each fleet, such as tracking, cameras and claims, so what goes into it depends on the fleet. Drivers see their own score in the SHIELD app. The office sees which drivers need attention and why, with the events behind it from each system.