Travelers assembles construction risk tech choices

Travelers has launched its Innovation Network for the construction industry, putting together educational offerings that match exclusive and discounted technology services reducing construction risks.

"These are tools that we as an insurance company would employ to manage our own risk," said James Conroy, vice president and chief operating officer of construction, energy and marine at Travelers. "These seem like they're going to have value in preventing loss or allowing losses to be detected sooner and cut off. Hopefully, the results will come in as we predicted."

The services offered include ergonomics consulting, illness exposure assessments, vibration risk analysis and cyber risk resources. Additionally, Travelers policyholders can get discounts from tech vendors offering construction site security monitoring (Tattletale), project management (Procore), site monitoring (Monnit), safety audits (iAuditor by SafetyCulture), background checks (IntelliCorp), training (iTrainStation), water leak detection (WINT) and equipment management (Tenna). 

These services have underlying functions or assessments such as "industrial hygiene," as Conroy described. "We're able to take in sampling at remote job sites, around air quality or substances that workers might be exposed to, evaluate that and then bring it back," he said.

The vibration risk tool measures vibration caused by heavy excavation work that might impact nearby buildings. "It helps contractors be able to anticipate and figure out what might be an impactable zone and take precautions as a result," Conroy said.

Home security systems often include water leak or flood detection. Travelers added WINT's functions to this program for the construction industry. "Think about plumbing that's being put in place in a building that might develop a leak during the course of construction," Conroy said. "The technology detects that a leak has happened, there's water flow over an acceptable amount and automatically shuts it off to prevent further water damage."

Among the discounts and provided services, Travelers Innovation Network for Construction also offers access to some technology providers. One of those, Triax, provides monitors that can detect if workers are behaving unsafely by monitoring, among other things, elevation and body temperature in real time. The wearable technology helps assistance come quickly if an injury occurs, Conroy says.

Travelers developed the Innovation Network to help its insureds in the construction industry choose among all the risk reduction technologies on the market, Conroy said. "We had customers that were finding their way through a lot of different options and trying to figure out which ones really worked and which ones didn't," he said. "We looked at it in a multi-dimensional way, from pure safety claim handling, from what we've learned from all the traditional insurance services we do, and from customer input."