Who are IAG?

IAG is the parent company of a general insurance group with controlled operations in Australia and New Zealand. Our businesses underwrite almost $12 billion of premium per annum, selling insurance under many leading brands, including: NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC and WFI (in Australia); and NZI, State, AMI and Lumley Insurance (in New Zealand). With more than 8.5 million customers and information on the majority of domestic residences in our markets, we use our leadership position to understand and provide world-leading customer experiences, making communities safer and more resilient for the future. We believe our extensive experience in providing motoring insurance across classes, general and statutory products, and across national jurisdictions gives us considerable knowledge and reach that can be used to help shape and deliver the objectives of the NRSPP.

As a leading motor vehicle insurer in Australia, we see it as a priority to improve and sustain safety on our nation’s roads. The motor risk team at IAG in the last year have worked over 200 clients with 70,000+ vehicles.

What does road safety mean to IAG?

Road safety is a priority at IAG, our focus is to make your world a safer place.

Our purpose is underpinned by our belief that we can make tomorrow safer than it is today. As one of Australia’s largest general insurers we see too often our customers impacted by road crashes and have seen minimal improvements in the road death and injury rate over the past decade. We believe that it is essential to work together with government,

We believe that we can make a difference to the number of incidents on the roads but also to the productivity and expenses that impact the businesses, staff and communities over time.

The National Road Safety Partnership Program gives us an opportunity to share our experience and knowledge and improve the awareness of companies engaged in road transport activities.

Our commitment to the program is to provide insight into how we have improved road and employee safety using experience data, benchmarking, training tools and incident management procedures to make tangible improvements in road safety.

We look forward to continuing our involvement in developing a useful knowledge centre focussed on road safety.

How is IAG contributing to road safety?

IAG’s operating brands have a long history of motor accident prevention, research and mitigation with a view to assisting our employees and the broader Australian community. From NRMA’s beginnings as a community motoring organization, the development of our own IAG Research Centre to improve safety and reduce repair costs, to our current partnerships and programs with academia and industry that help us collectively better understand and plan for the future of safer mobility.

To enhance the road safety of our workers, IAG has developed a rigorous selection process for fleet vehicles. This process involves assessment of vehicle’s being fit for purpose, safety and roadworthiness, consideration of the environments in which they will be used, review of the national service & part infrastructure to support vehicle maintenance and repairs, comfort & style and total cost of ownership. Our vehicles at a minimum are 5 Star ANCAP safety rated, (By date) and fall within our safe vehicle colour policy. IAG’s internal colour policy is managed by the IAG Research Centre which tests vehicle colours over all light spectrums. We also periodically hold an appraisal drive day for employees to test vehicles under a controlled environment. Our vehicle selection process is managed over a 6-month period involving, technical experts from our research centre, fleet management, industry contacts and feedback collected on the driver appraisal day.

Externally, our focus at IAG is not just about providing insurance. We are also committed to supporting our customers manage safety and incident prevention. In our commercial lines of business, we have a dedicated risk management team that works with our customers to implement risk management strategies that support a safer community. Our ambition and intention are to connect the customer to solutions that help create a safety first culture from vehicle selection through to driver training.

In addition to fostering a road safety culture with our workers and customers we are also actively engaged in several partnerships which work towards improving safety on the roads for all. One key partnership we have is with iMOVE Australia where we hold a Board position and partner to research cooperatively. This Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) aims to help business and government tackle transport-related challenges by connecting and activating ideas, people and resources. One project we’re collaborating on with iMOVE is to explore how we can better understand future risk and safety through retrofitting autonomous features onto a vehicle and understanding perception in autonomous vehicles. Through this partnership we want to see how we can create safety on the road in a more connected world.

IAG is also a member of the Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP) and the Consumer Ratings and Assessment of Safety Hemet (CRASH) programs. Both programs work to prevent serious injuries for motorcycle riders. The programs assess and provide star ratings (similar to ANCAP) for the safety and protective features of motorcycle clothing.

Through the NRSPP IAG has also partnered with the re:act program. Re:act is a program that challenges university and college students to raise awareness for road safety issues among 16-25 year olds. The program has a goal to change driving behaviour and ultimately enhance safety on the road for all road users.

Supporting actions delivered by IAG

Industry Australia Group (IAG)'s Contributions to the NRSPP & Points of Contact

  • Katherine Hopman and Peter DivjakinjaRisk Manager - Motor, Safety Institute of ; and National Risk Manager - Motor Australian Underwriting

    IAG recognised as a Founding Steering Committee Partner to the present

    • IAG Hosted
      • Steering Committee Number 8 at its Head Office in Sydney on 19 November 2014.
      • NRSPP Steering Committee Number 10 and the Strategic Planning Day on 9/10 June 2015

    What opportunities do you feel IAG could bring to the leadership of the NRSPP?

    IAG sees significant potential in NRSPP’s new hosting arrangement with Monash University Accident and Research Centre (MUARC). We believe that this partnership provides an excellent base for expanding and leveraging the great work of both organisations and we are keen to see NRSPP continue to be a platform for sharing and developing resources that are targeted at enhancing road safety culture within workplaces and across the broader community.

    In the past IAG has collaborated with the NRSPP in developing the mobile phone and grey fleet policy initiatives we have also been an active member of the utilities working group. IAG is currently heavily embedded in work exploring safer mobility in the future and believe that this will be an important ongoing area of work for NRSPP. IAG hopes to engage with the NRSPP in future ventures that will promote best practice in the safe and effective use of autonomous vehicles.

    IAG also works with a large number of businesses to provide risk management solutions. Through this engagement we have a capacity to provide experience performance data to help businesses establish priorities and measure the effectiveness of safety program engagement. This capacity brings perspective from a large pool of industries and communities. Our point of view, engagement, and commitment as part of the steering committee will be a consensus of this experience.

    We believe that our mix of expertise across accident prevention, risk mitigation, fleet management and injury prevention provide us with a broad and wholistic approach to considerations of road safety. In addition, IAG has significant reach through our social media and external communication channels which can continue to be used to promote NRSPP initiatives to the broader motoring community.

  • Peter DivjakinjaNational Risk Manager - Motor Australian Underwriting

    IAG through Peter Divjakinja helped establish the foundations of NRSPP and attended all of the early meetings of the NRSPP when evolving from the National Transport Commission.

    NRSPP wishes to recognise the contributions of IAG for helping develop the program.

    Peter attended the formal launch of NRSPP on the 5 May, 2014 as part of the UN Decade of Action in Melbourne hosted by RACV.

  • Madeleine Hibberd and Sharon O'NeilManager, Road Safety and Regulatory Policy; and

    IAG through Madeleine Hibberd and Sharon O’Neil joined SUMV which included two core elements, delivery of the guide and the communications and engagement strategy. IAG assisted with featuring as part of the B2B Video seeking to engage other organisations around establishing a safe use of mobiles in vehicle policy, the whole working group delivered:

    Safe Use of Mobiles in Vehicles Insights from head of research at IAG, Robert McDonald

    NRSPP B2B Video: Safer Use of Mobiles in Vehicles

    NRSPP Guide: Developing an Effective Policy for Mobile Phone Use in Vehicles

  • Ceclia WarrenDirector, Research & Development

    IAG identified Safer Vehicles as a key element for organisations in reducing the risk to workers when on the road. They joined the working group and was represented by Cecilia Warren. Their support to the working group was the in house development of a B2B Video advocating for businesses to have a safe vehicle policy, to align with ANCAP and for drivers to understand the technology.

    NRSPP B2B Video: Safer Vehicles are Better Business

  • Peter DivjakinjaNational Risk Manager - Motor Australian Underwriting

    SA Power Network kindly hosted the first NRSPP Utilities Forum on the 22 July 2015 at Oaks Plaza Pier Hotel at Glenelg. IAG attended the forum and shared insights in relation to the Utilities Sector and insurance claims on the road.  What resulted following this forum was the establishment of an amazing network within the utilities sector. The following provides a summary of IAG as part of the NRSPP Utilities Forum.

  • Kate HopmanPrincipal Road Safety and Regulatory Policy
  • Sharon O'NeilFleet Manager

    IAG  through Sharon O’Neil joined the NRSPP Grey Fleet Working Group. Sharon attended the NSW Workshop hosted by Vodafone to help provide input from the regulator but also as an employer who has grey fleet on the development of a practical guide.

    NRSPP Guide: Grey Fleet Safety Management