“The climate today is such that the law says a company that entrusts an employee with a vehicle should know if the employee is qualified to drive it.” – Jim Colangelo, VP PHH Arval
90% of car crashes are the result of human error. Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the #1 killer of the
American work force1 and are usually more severe in nature than average worker’s comp claims. Additionally, the risk varies by vehicle type with the number of non-fatal injuries being higher for passenger vehicles and the number of fatalities being higher for trucks.
- Negligent Entrustment Lawsuits: Organizations can be liable for millions of dollars for employees’ actions while driving for work, even when driving to and from work on personal time. The more your employees drive, the more exposure your organization has to crashes.
- Workers Comp Losses: Motor vehicle accidents are more severe than average worker’s comp claims. More likely to include lost-time and encompass a disproportionate share of severe claim types.
- Company Exposure: Companies can be liable if an employee has an accident in a company vehicle during work hours but businesses also incur significant productivity and medical benefit losses associated with crashes in personal vehicles when the employee is not “on the clock”.
- Brand Risk: In 2012, a jury in Texas awarded $21M in damages to a woman struck by a Coca-Cola driver who was talking on her cell phone.
- Distracted Driving: Applies to all employees not just company-owned vehicle drivers. Driving to/from work, client appointments, driving clients to lunch, rental cars/business trips, security guards making rounds, delivering equipment or supplies, etc.
Yearly companies perform extensive financial planning but do they plan/budget for losses from vehicle crashes? Employees involved in crashes steal from the bottom line and escalate cost for Workman’s Comp, health care and legal.
To mitigate risk, reduce liabilities & save profits, organizations need to provide training that truly changes behavior of risky decision making when driving.
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1 According to Bureau of Labor Statistics
by Pam LeFevre, VDI VP of Marketing