Delivery vehicles, POV’s and fleet vehicles, you need them for your business, but they come with a high insurance premium. You can reduce your claim cost and even your premium charge with a proactive, safety first company driving program. These ” best of kind” program controls were taken from The Cincinnati Insurance Companies blog, with the full article found here.
* Review Driver History
How do you know the employee you are putting on the road to represent your brand is trust worthy, complaint and officially licensed? By conducting a criminal background check and a motor vehicle report (MVR) on your driver to be. This is where Data Disclosure Services can help with both searches done with one click of the mouse. Also ensuring State and Federal guidelines are met for you. You should conduct a motor vehicle report (MVR) annually after you hire a driver to ensure their license status has not changed and for any violations during the year. Just in time for your annual premium renewal.
Your evaluation of your newly hired driver or the annual evaluation of driving records should follow your companies documented evaluation and individualized assessment program.
* Safety Awareness & Training
If the company vehicle is specialized or a POV, ensure the employee is licensed to drive it. A road test with the employee is a great practice and does not take much time. Document the road test along with the drivers understanding of the safety components of the vehicle in their driver file. Establish rules of the road, have the driver acknowledge and sign them. Place it in the drivers file as well. These rules should be woven into your company polices and code of conduct to address properly if violated. – This is a good place to address the cell phone usage in your company vehicle!
* Maintaining Vehicles
Ensure all regular schedule maintenance is met and all “complaint” maintenance is addressed immediately. If your drivers are using their POV’s, request the same of them and mirror scheduled maintenance of fleet vehicles with theirs.
Other areas to consider in your driving program are:
- Do your employees know what to do in case of an accident? Is it documented in the rules of the road?
- If using a POV, is it insured? Are you liable if they have an accident?
- Should you provide “Pizza Delivery Insurance” for your delivery drivers?
- Should you provide a hands free GPS device to ward off cellphone usage?
Creating and maintaining a safe and cost effective driving team can be done with a little proactive thought and support from Data Disclosure Services. Give us a call and we’ll help you build a trust-worthy, safe program that can drive your business! (I’ve been dying to say that)