Benefits of Bundling Commercial Insurance Policies

by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Commercial Auto Insurance, GDI Insurance

Benefits of Bundling Commercial Insurance Policies

Bundling commercial insurance policies has many benefits for businesses. Insurance carriers realize that offering additional lines of coverage to an existing customer is less expensive than trying to attract new customers. They also know that the more lines a given customer has, the longer they’re likely to stay with them.

While bundling commercial insurance policies is beneficial to insurance carriers, it is also highly beneficial to their customers. Similar to how bundling your personal home insurance and auto insurance policies may give you a discount, bundling your business policies can provide benefits way beyond cost savings.

Simplified Bookkeeping

Most businesses require a number of insurance policies in order to properly insure their operations, including:

Workers’ compensation
General liability
Commercial property
Professional liability
Commercial auto
Business interruption
Cyber liability
Directors and officers

Keeping up with that many policies isn’t an easy task for business owners. Therefore, bundling multiple policies with the same carrier simplifies things for bookkeeping purposes. Besides having fewer bills to keep track of every month, it also makes it easier come renewal time if the bundled policies renew at the same time each year.

Your HR department will also appreciate having one number to call when you’re hiring a new employee, have claims questions, are adding a location or making any other business decisions that impact your insurance.

Fewer Agents to Educate

Properly insuring your business requires explaining to your insurance agent exactly what your business does and the exposures that come with it. But without bundling your policies, you have more agents to educate, which takes time. The fewer agents you have to work with, the better equipped they’ll be to help identify and address your exposures.

GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is your broker that has extensive experience in business insurance packages. Contact us today 209-634-2929 for your comprehensive business insurance package.

Assurance That Your Policies Work Together

There may be circumstances when two of your business insurance policies have to work together. For example, you may assume that something not covered by your commercial auto policy would be covered by your commercial umbrella policy. However, many umbrella policies will only extend above an auto policy if the insurance company offering it has a specified financial strength rating. If your carrier’s rating falls below a certain grade, your umbrella policy may not cover an auto loss. That’s just one type of problem that could arise if you keep your policies under separate roofs, with separate agents.

Less Security Risk

When obtaining insurance, business owners are required to divulge sensitive personal information about their employees, as well as financial information about the business itself. When dividing your policies among multiple agents, you’re basically providing all that information to more people than you would have to if you’d bundled your policies with one agent. And in doing so, you’re increasing the risk of highly sensitive information ending up in the wrong hands.

Better Pricing For Bundling Commercial Insurance

Bundling your business’s insurance policies allows your insurance professional to give you access to multiline discounts that help boost your bottom line. Contact GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. to see if any of your insurers offer multiline discounts. We can give you estimates for bundling your policies with each carrier.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

As one of the fastest growing agencies in California, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is able to provide its clients with the latest and greatest of what the insurance industry has to offer and much, much more.

We are headquartered in Turlock, CA, with locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley, Northern California and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive business insurance quote!

Prevention for Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving

by Grant Davis | Auto Insurance, Commercial Auto Insurance, Commercial Fleet Insurance, Safety Tips

Prevention for Commercial Fleet
Distracted Driving

For many California commercial fleets, driver and public safety is a top priority, and organizations take great care to prevent costly and potentially deadly accidents. While a number of factors can lead to a crash, distracted driving is a common preventable cause of accidents. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that every year, up to 391,000 people are injured and 3.450 people are killed in crashes involving distracted drivers. Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving Prevention is more important than ever for your business.

Contact GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. for your comprehensive commercial fleet insurance quote 209-634-2929.

Why is Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving So Dangerous?

Distracted driving reduces awareness, decision-making and performance, increasing the likelihood of driver error, near-crashes or crashes. What’s more, distracted driving is not always attributable to a medical condition, alcohol and drug use or fatigue.

Distracted driving is an ongoing safety concern for commercial fleets. However, the widespread increase in cellphone use over the past decade has brought the issue to the forefront.

Studies have shown that many collisions and near-collisions involve some form of driver inattention, often just three seconds prior to the event. These statistics are particularly noteworthy for commercial fleets, as many commercial vehicles have poorer driver visibility than personal cars and are much more difficult to control or stop in the even of an emergency. For commercial fleets, distracted driving can lead to increased commercial auto insurance premiums, costly repairs, decreased productivity, reputational damage and driver injury or death.

Types of Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving

Often, when thinking about distracted driving, it’s easy to focus on inattentiveness caused by cellphones and other electronic devices. However, while texting and taking phone calls while driving are major causes of accidents, they aren’t the only distractions.

Distracted driving can be broken down into one of four categories:

Visual Distractions: Any distraction that diverts a driver’s eyes from the road (pedestrians, collisions or road signs).
Physical Distractions: Any distraction that causes a driver to take their hands off the wheel (eating, drinking or tuning a radio).
Cognitive Distractions: Any distraction that causes a driver to think about something other than the duty of driving carefully (daydreaming or multitasking).
Auditory Distractions: Any audible distraction that diverts a driver’s attention away from the road (listening to music or talking to passengers).

Any time a driver reaches for an object or gets distracted by outside stimuli, the chances of an accident drastically increase. In fact, studies show that simply by dialing a cellphone, the likelihood of a crash is six times greater.

To remain safe on the roads, drivers need to be aware of common distractions that can put them and the public in danger:

Using electronic devices such as a GPS, MP3 player, radio, cellphone or laptop
Reading maps, books, texts or printed directions
Combing hair, putting on makeup, shaving, brushing teeth or performing similar grooming activities
Eating, drinking or smoking
Talking with passengers or tending to children or pets
Focusing attention on visual distractions outside the vehicle, such as collisions, police activity, street signs, pedestrians, construction or billboards
Multitasking
Daydreaming

Responding To Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving

Even the most experienced drivers can become distracted from time to time. In order to maintain safe driving practices, organizations must take a top-down approach to combating distracted driving. Only through effective policies and training can commercial fleets identify and respond to potentially harmful driving behaviors.

Tips for Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving

The following are some ways organizations and their fleet managers can help reduce the risk of distracted driving:

Create a driver safety program and a distracted driving policy. Regularly communicate your policies using things like emails, blogs and posters.
Use applications to detect when your drivers are on the road. Many of these applications prevent individuals from contacting a driver while their vehicle is in motion.
Instruct drivers to pull off the road and park if they need to use their phone or an electronic device.
Equip vehicles with lockboxes that drivers can use to store potential distractions, like smartphones and tablets.
Educate your drivers on the risks of driving while distracted. Use real-life examples and stories to explain how dangerous distracted driving can be.
Update your organization’s handbook, noting any disciplinary actions you will take if you identify unsafe driving behavior.
Ask your employees to sign a pledge form indicating their willingness to drive in a safe and courteous manner.
Work with drivers to plan trips. This ensures that drivers have a clear understanding of their routes, which can reduce the need for GPS and other potentially distracting navigation devices.
Manage driver schedules to ensure employees are well-rested between trips.
Use telematics, driver monitoring programs and in-cabin camera systems to evaluate individual drivers. Whenever possible, reward positive driver behavior to encourage a culture of safety.
Perform a safety audit, which will give you a high-level overview of distracted driving risks and other concerns.

Creating a Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving Policy

Even if employers provide adequate training and oversight, drivers are effectively on their own when they’re out in the field. To help prevent distracted driving long after training is complete, fleets need to develop and implement a distracted driving policy. These policies are typically part of larger driver safety programs and promote safe driving practices through well-communicated initiatives.

While the specifics of policies may differ from fleet to fleet, they should include the following:

A policy statement that clarifies your organization’s stance on distracted driving. This statement should specify the purpose and goals of the policy.
A definition of distracted driving. This definition should highlight the dangers of distracted driving and the ways it affects your organization.
A summary of whom the policy applies to. In general, your policy should account for all company employees, even if driving a vehicle isn’t a regular part of their daily duties.
A list of what constitutes as distracted driving and actions that are strictly prohibited to ensure driver safety.
A list of suggested practices to reduce the risk of distracted driving.
A list of potential consequences if the terms of the policy are breached.
A space for the employee’s and fleet manager’s signatures.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

We are headquartered in Turlock, CA, with locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley, Northern California and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive California commercial fleet insurance quote!

Using GPS To Help Manage Fleet Costs

by Grant Davis | Commercial Auto Insurance, Reduce Costs

Using GPS to Help Manage Fleet Costs

As the workforce in America becomes more mobile, so do the capabilities of employers to track their employees on the road. From a distance, accurately monitoring employee productivity, working hours, injuries, conduct and company property presents a challenge. The use of global positioning systems (GPS) is an excellent way to address these difficulties. Using satellites and receivers installed in a vehicle, laptop or cell phone, these devices are able to locate an employee’s physical location and vehicle speeds with reasonable accuracy. Using a GPS to help manage your fleet costs is more affordable that you would think.

How GPS Tracking Works

GPS fleet monitoring started out as a tool specifically for the shipping and delivery industry, but the technology has proven its worth for almost any business that has a fleet of its own.

GPS programs can be used on employee cell phones, laptops or on stand-alone GPS devices, but the most robust information and management comes from devices installed directly into the company’s fleet vehicles. These devices can monitor and report on a wide variety of information, including speed, engine start up and shut down, routes, and idling. You’d be surprised how GPS can manage your fleet costs.

The information from GPS systems can be available from the device, either uploaded or viewed on the device itself, or sent remotely to a main system. When sent to the system remotely, administrators and dispatchers can access the information in real time via the internet or specialized software. Viewing maps of vehicle locations, routes and vehicle status reports can help supervisors and dispatchers better manage their employees’ time and improve efficiency and manage fleet costs.

The Benefits of Using GPS To Manage Fleet Costs

Fleet tracking can have multiple positive results for your business. Using the information reported from the GPS devices can help eliminate inefficiencies and save time. Your workers can get to more jobs per day, increasing productivity and, in turn, profits. This can also help improve customer satisfaction by reducing customer wait times.

Tracking can also reduce labor costs and unauthorized vehicle use. Being able to monitor vehicle locations and routes with timestamps will help you make sure all hours reported by workers are accurate. You can flag the movement of your vehicles during non-working hours or in certain areas that your company vehicles and workers should not be.

As well as improving employee monitoring, fleet operating expenses can be reduced through more efficient management of your vehicles, assisted by the data available from GPS. Fuel costs can be cut down by:

eliminating inefficient routes
unapproved employee usage
avoidable traffic delays
and speeding.

The peace of mind of monitoring your vehicles and knowing where they are at all times improves the safety and security of your entire fleet, reducing or preventing the costs associated with theft. Other ways GPS can manage your fleet costs include defending against false claims. For example, if a false claim comes in to your company that a vehicle of yours damaged property, such as a parked car, you can use your records to prove no vehicle was in the vicinity at that time.

The benefits to using GPS tools are useful to any company that owns fleet vehicles. However, there are also several legal considerations that employers need to consider and address before implementing GPS technology for their mobile workers to protect their employees and the company.

Invasion of Privacy

Employees may have a reasonable expectation that their location and actions are private from their employer.

For example, an outside sales representative attends a support group during his lunch break during working hours. Though he does not disclose this information to his employer or co-workers, the employer discovers that the employee is attending these meetings through GPS monitoring. The employer may then be held liable for invasion of privacy.

Employer Fails to Supervise Employees Properly

If an employer discovers that an employee presents a risk to others and does not act, the company is at risk for a claim of negligent supervision.

For example, a commercial driver tends to speed while he is on the job, and his employer discovers this through the GPS system installed in his vehicle. The employer does nothing about this discovery, and the driver subsequently gets into an accident because he was speeding. As a result, the employer is liable for negligent supervision.

Employee Discrimination

Though an employee’s membership with a group may be protected by federal and state discrimination laws, the employer may not always be aware that the employee is a member. Yet, with the use of GPS technology, an employer can sometimes discover their employees’ affiliations, thus supporting a discrimination claim.

For example, an employee is receiving treatment for a terminal illness on his own time. Through GPS tracking on his laptop, his employer discovers that the employee is ill. A few months later, the employee is terminated and when the he files a disability discrimination claim, his employer cannot deny knowing about the employee’s illness because his laptop was being monitored.

Inaccurate Data Collection

If an employer makes an employment decision based on data collected from a GPS and the information is found to be inaccurate, the employer may be subject to defamation, wrongful termination and employment discrimination claims.

For example, the GPS system installed in a delivery driver’s vehicle inaccurately places the driver at a gentlemen’s club near where he is actually making deliveries. Though the employee was doing his job honestly, the employer assumes that he was visiting the club on the clock. As a result, the employee is terminated. This puts the employer at risk for claims of wrongful termination.

Additional Considerations of the Dangers of Using GPS Technology

There are additional dangers employers need to consider:

Employees who are monitored may feel as though their employer does not trust them and may relinquish some of their independence and individuality that they once brought to the job. This may negatively affect their independent decision-making abilities.
There may be an urge to implement unreasonable schedules because employees are constantly monitored.
The ability to monitor employees during breaks and before and after working hours can pose issues. By learning what employees do with their own time, an employer can obtain a full picture of the lives of their mobile employees. Thus, employers may breach the privacy that their employees expect and prefer.

Recommendations for Employers to Reduce the Risk Associated with GPS Monitoring

When using GPS devices to monitor your employees and manage your fleet costs, consider these recommendations to reduce your risk:

Limit GPS monitoring to company-owned property, as it is easier for an employee to make a privacy claim while in possession of his or her own property.
Develop a comprehensive written policy about the use of GPS technology, and enforce this policy strictly. It should outline how the devices and the information attained will be used. All employees who will be monitored with a GPS device should acknowledge receipt of the policy in writing.
Limit GPS monitoring to the confines of the policy for legitimate business operations only.
Do not monitor any activities relating to union organizations, as that can be seen as unlawful surveillance.
Re-calibrate the system for accuracy on a regular basis.
Check with your legal counsel before implementing GPS technology.

Remember that while the use of GPS technology can be a powerful management tool, it can become a legal headache if not managed properly. By using this technology lawfully, you can benefit by improving the efficiency of your business while still respecting the privacy of your employees.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

We are headquartered in Turlock, CA, with locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley, Northern California and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive Commercial Auto insurance quote!

Individual Differences and the “High Risk” Commercial Drivers

by Grant Davis | Commercial Auto Insurance, GDI Insurance, Risk Management, Safety Tips

Individual Differences and the “High Risk” Commercial Drivers

There is a common belief in the trucking industry that, while most truck and bus drivers are both conscientious and safe, a relatively small percentage of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers are associated with a significant and inordinate percentage of the overall number of motor carrier crashes. These drivers are considered to be “high risk” commercial drivers, and the study summarized in this Tech Brief focuses on these commercial drivers. This project explores factors associated with “high risk” commercial drivers and the means by which carriers can reduce crash risk through various safety management practices and other safety interventions.

How This “High Risk” Commercial Drivers Study was Designed

Expert industry opinion was accessed through survey questionnaires on the topic. Surveys were distributed to a random sample of safety managers listed in the American Trucking Associations’ fleet directory. A second survey sample consisted of a group of “other experts”—those who are professionally involved in CMV safety but are not fleet safety managers. This group included former drivers and fleet managers, government regulatory and enforcement personnel, industry trade association representatives, and researchers. Of course, these are overlapping categories, and most “other experts” indicated several different motor carrier safety-related professional experience areas.

The results from these surveys were then compared to reviewed research literature on the topic, with emphasis on the personal factors associated with risk and carrier management approaches to reducing the problem. A number of these factors potentially correlate with risk and may be the basis for safety interventions to reduce risk.

Survey Method and Results Two parallel survey forms were used—one for current CMV fleet safety managers and the other for other experts in motor carrier safety. The “safety manager” and “other expert” survey forms contained 50 and 48 questions, respectively. The surveys for “other experts” did not include questions regarding CMV fleet information. These surveys were divided into seven parts:

Part 1: How Important is the Problem?

Most respondents (59 percent Safety Managers, 54 percent Other Experts) felt that the worst 10 percent of drivers were associated with 50 percent or more of fleet crash risk.

Part 2: Driver Factors Associated with Risk.

Sixteen personal factors were rated on a scale from “0” (no association) to “4” (strong association) with regard to their strength of association with crash risk. The factors, mean ratings (to the nearest tenth), and rankings are presented in order of safety manager ranking in Table 1. When there were ties in the mean ratings, rankings were determined by looking at additional decimal places, which are not shown in the table. Respondents in both groups rated personality traits such as aggressiveness, impulsivity, and inattentiveness as having the highest associations with risk.

Part 3: Driver Hiring Practices and Tools.

The most frequently used, and highest rated, hiring practices were checking the applicant Motor Vehicle Record (MVR), contacting past employers, testing for alcohol and drugs (required by Federal regulation for interstate carriers), and on-road driving tests.

Part 4: Driver Evaluation.

“Continuous tracking of driver crashes, incidents, and violations” was almost universally used by safety manager respondents and had the highest-rated effectiveness for both respondent groups in terms of the four driver evaluation practices presented.

Part 5: Driver Management.

While reprimands (verbal and written) and manager counseling were among the most-used methods for driver management, “monetary rewards” received the highest effectiveness rating.

Part 6: Comments.

Three lines of blank space were provided on each form. Part 7: Respondent Information.

Concepts of Crash Risk

Many interacting factors affect commercial driver crash involvement. The focus of this study was on personal “constitutional” risk factors, or relatively enduring characteristics such as health, physical skills, and some personality traits. At any given moment, however, a number of other factors and influences are operative. A conceptualization of some major interacting factors is shown in Figure 1 (next page).

Researchers have discovered that certain personal traits are related to the occurrence of a vehicle crash—some drivers have a “differential crash risk.” To the extent that this differential crash risk is enduring, it probably reflects constitutional or other long-term personal traits. This differential crash risk may also vary across time, reflecting chance variation or changeable traits such as age, maturation, or learning by experience.

Factors Related to “High Risk” Commercial Drivers

Many factors related to driver risk were assessed in this literature review. The five most cited include:

Age: For young CMV drivers, age is a very strong personal factor that affects crash involvement. In one statistical study, young truck drivers (ages 18-21) had moving violation rates that were almost twice those of the middle-aged drivers (30-49). Speeding above the speed limit and unsafe speeds for conditions were the two top violations cited. In fact, young commercial drivers were reported to be about 50 percent more likely than middle-aged drivers to be charged with a violation in a crash (Blower 1996). In two-vehicle crashes with light vehicles, the young truck driver was twice as likely as the other driver to be charged with a hazardous action or traffic violation, which is opposite the trend for large truck-light vehicle crashes in general (FMCSA 2003). On the other hand, there appears to be no major safety problem relating to older truck drivers.

Commercial Driving Experience: Experience driving a large truck or bus is clearly a factor in driver safety. Not surprisingly, most motor carriers, particularly large carriers, require prior commercial driving experience for applicants to be considered for hiring (Stock 2001).

Sleep Disorder: Many studies agree that the relative risk of being involved in a crash rises if the driver has a sleep disorder. The numbers given were anywhere from 3 to 14 times the normal risk.

Impulsivity: Impulsivity, characterized by behavioral instability and an inability to control impulses, including threatening behavior and violence, has been suggested to be related to an increase in crash risk. A 1967 study found that both a high crash/other accident group, and a high violation group scored higher on a measure of impulsivity than those with a low number of crashes/other accidents and violations (Schuman, Peltz, Ehrilch, and Seltzer, 1967).

Social Maladjustment and Aggressive/Angry Personalities: Various studies of the personalities of high-crash drivers found these drivers to have negative social traits. For example, when studying South African bus drivers with repeated crashes, Shaw and Sichel (1961, 1971) described these individuals as being selfish, self-centered, overconfident, resentful and bitter, intolerant, and having antisocial attitudes and criminal tendencies.

Operational Safety Management Methods

Based on the research review, the study team believes that there are at least two distinct ways to improve the safety performance of a group of CMV drivers. Figure 2 illustrates these. In the first example (Figure 2a), the highest-risk drivers are eliminated from the distribution, as they are never hired, thus “cutting off the tail” of the driver risk distribution. This intervention would have the effect of improving the performance of the average driver of the group by eliminating the greatest source of risk. In the second example (Figure 2b), the safety performance levels of all, or most, drivers in a group are improved through effective intervention. The overall average safety level of the fleet improves through “across the board” advancement. Based on the literature, and discussions with motor carriers, there are a number of methods to reduce driver crash risks.

These include:

Systematic hiring,
Driver selection tests,
Driver performance evaluation,
Driver training and counseling,
Driver rewards and punishment,
Behavior-based safety,
Driver self-management, and
Driver termination.

“High Risk” Commercial Drivers

The survey results and statistical findings presented in this report support the view that commercial drivers differ greatly in their levels of crash risk, and that a relatively small percentage of drivers (10-15 percent) account for a disproportionate percentage of total fleet risk (30-50 percent). However, these results lead to the realization of further research needs. The findings presented in this report generally imply, but do not verify, that relative driver risk, both general and specific, endures across long periods of time.

In other words, “risk” is, to some extent, a long-term personal trait, in addition to being obviously related to specific situations and conditions. The various personality traits and performance variables discussed in this report must now be confirmed. One way that this can be done is through a systematic and quantitative determination of the role that each of the many factors discussed play in commercial driver risk. Another research need has to do with carrier management strategies in working with the drivers who are more “accident prone.” This can be done through research in relation to all driver management functions, including selection, evaluation, and management intervention. With further research, motor carrier companies can learn how to work with or avoid the “high risk” commercial driver, and the risk for all drivers on the road can be reduced.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

We are headquartered in Turlock, CA, with locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive commercial auto insurance quote!

References

Blower, D.F. The Accident Experience of Younger Truck Drivers. Final report for the Trucking Research Institute and the Great Lakes Center for Truck and Transit Research. May 1996.

Corsi, T.M. and Barnard, R.E. Best Highway Safety Practices: A Survey of the Safest Motor Carriers About Safety Management Practices. Final report for FMCSA Contract No. DTFH61-98-X-00006. 2003.

Schuman, S.H., Pelz, D.C., Ehrlien, N.J., and Seltzer, M.L. “Young male drivers: Impulse expression, accidents and violations.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 200, 1026-1030, 1967.

Shaw, L., and Sichel, H.S. Accident proneness. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1971.

Shaw, L., and Sichel, H.S. “The reduction of traffic accidents in a transport company by the determination of the accident liability of individual drivers.” Traffic Safety Research Review, 5, 2-12, 1961.

Stock, D. I-95 Corridor Coalition Field Operational Test 10: Coordinated Safety Management; Volume I: Best Practices in Motor Carrier Safety Management, Final Report. August 2001.

Attract and Retain Commercial Drivers

by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Commercial Auto Insurance, Insurance

Attract and Retain Commercial Drivers

Commercial fleets need to maintain a workforce of loyal, qualified drivers in order to succeed. But recently,increased demand for freight volume has highlighted an ongoing driver shortage that’s left many motor carriers operating under capacity. Find out how to attract and retain commercial drivers.

In order to ensure that your business can attract and retain talented drivers, you need to evaluate how the shortage may be affecting you and the steps you can take to make your workplace appealing.

What’s Contributing to the Shortage?

The first step to attract or retain commercial drivers should be to understand the underlying causes of the driver shortage:

Wages—According to the National Transportation Institute, drivers’ wages have lagged behind both inflation and minimum wage increases. Since 2006, for-hire drivers have seen wage increases of 6 percent compared to a 17 percent increase for private fleet drivers. However, inflation and the minimum wage have increased by 18 and 40 percent over that same period, respectively.
Age—The average age for a commercial driver is 55, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More drivers are retiring every day, and a federal law that prohibits drivers under the age of 21 from obtaining intrastate commercial driving licenses makes it difficult to attract younger replacements before they enter another industry.
Lifestyle—Commercial drivers often operate over long hours without breaks and are frequently away from home. Many motor carriers also assign new drivers to long or isolated routes, which can make open positions unappealing to prospects.
Growing economy—As the U.S. economy continues to grow, increased demand from retailers has led to record demand for trucking capacity, putting a strain on available drivers.

In-house Adjustments to Attract and Retain Commercial Drivers

Before you consider changing your pay models or workplace benefits, there may be some operational changes you can review to attract or retain commercial drivers:

Offer flexible scheduling. Many prospective drivers are afraid of being away from home for long periods of time, and giving them the option to work closer to home can make your business more appealing.
Consider new fleet management procedures or technology to help reduce your drivers’ average length of haul.Although you want to keep your drivers on the road frequently to increase your capacity, reducing the average length of haul can help drivers improve their health and manage the balance between their work and home lives.
Adjust training programs to target other departments or industries.Prospective drivers may be intimidated by the amount of experience or legal requirements needed to obtain a commercial driver license. Simply adjusting your training programs can help your business integrate drivers from outside the industry.

Wage Considerations For Truck Drivers

One of the most effective ways to appeal to drivers is to increase wages. Although this can be done by simply giving drivers a set raise or bonus, there are alternative payment models and other considerations to keep in mind:

Bonuses—Many carriers now offer staggered bonuses that incentivize retention, such as $10,000 bonus that’s split into payments after a driver has worked for 30 days, 90 days and six months. However, some experts believe that these bonuses may also cause drivers to leave once they’ve collected all of their payments.
Hourly pay—Drivers aren’t frequently paid by the hour because it’s hard to prove when they’re on duty. But now, tracking technology like GPS and electronic logging devices can make it easy for carriers to know when their drivers are on the job.
Flexible models–Many businesses have started to incorporate multiple pay models into their operations to accommodate drivers. For example, drivers who are paid by the mile earn very little when slowed by traffic or unloading. Now, tracking devices can detect legitimate delays and switch to a different pay model during that time in order to make long or congested routes more appealing.

When considering raises, bonuses or other pay models, keep in mind that your drivers’ wages could impact your liability or workers’ compensation rates. Contact GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. at 209-634-2929 for more help addressing your specific concerns.

Workplace Benefits For Truck Drivers

Another way to make your business appealing to talented drivers is to offer a competitive benefits package and create a positive work environment. Besides 401(k) investment matching and comprehensive medical coverage, you should consider the following:

Paid time off to allow drivers to visit home or take a break while still making an income
In-house programs that reward successful drivers with priority at service stations, pay bonuses or new equipment
New equipment and vehicles to make drivers’ day-to-day operations easier and attract tech-savvy applicants

Additionally, an emphasis on respect can help your business attract and retain drivers. Experts believe that drivers maybe turned away from the transportation industry due to a perceived lack of respect for the long hours they put into their jobs. Make sure to show drivers they’re respected by paying attention to their feedback, recognizing their accomplishments and staying involved in their personal and professional lives.

Finding Consistent Success

The driver shortage isn’t going away anytime soon, and you need to constantly review your operations to ensure you’re attracting and retaining a talented workforce. Get in touch with GDI Insurance Agency, Inc.today for more resources on driver training, legal requirements and transportation-specific news.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

Employee Drivers and Commercial Auto Insurance

by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Commercial Auto Insurance, GDI Insurance, Insurance

Protect Your Employee Drivers with Commercial Auto Insurance

Commercial auto insurance is imperative if employees are driving on behalf of your business, regardless of who owns the vehicle. Here’s what you need to know about insuring business vehicles and how to save on your commercial auto insurance.

If your company name is on the vehicle title, you’ll need to buy commercial auto insurance.

Commercial auto insurance is typically much more expensive than personal auto insurance. Even though commercial auto insurance premiums are more expensive, commercial insurance offers more coverage. Even during the current driver shortage, onboarding a single inexperienced or incompetent employee can expose you to costly fines, crashes and a tarnished reputation.

These factors will influence the price of your commercial auto insurance:

– The number of auto insurance claims your company has had in the past.
– The motor vehicle report—or driving record—for all drivers within the company.
– The age of the drivers, this is especially important!
– The safety of the location where you keep the vehicle, such as a garage vs. on the street.
– The amount of security you have in place, which could include anti-theft devices.

Customize Your Commercial Auto Insurance

GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. provides exactly the expertise you need. We have the right commercial auto insurance plan for your commercial automobiles AND we can deliver the strategies, tools and resources that will help you manage your transportation and fleet industry risks, control workers’ compensation claim costs, advance safety and boost employee morale.

How To Create Driver Standards for Employees

When it comes to your business, keeping your employees safe is a top priority. It’s why you have workplace safety regulations, and if the unexpected happen, you have business insurance.

What About Business Vehicles?

If your business requires your employees to operate a motor vehicle at all, it’s important to create a plan for ensuring their safety. Read these tips for developing driver standards to keep both your employees — and the other drivers on the road — as safe as possible.

Commercial Driver Hiring and Onboarding Toolkit

The best way to make sure you’re employing the most qualified drivers is to perform comprehensive pre-employment screenings in accordance with DOT and FMCSA regulations.

This toolkit includes forms, checklists and other materials that you can use to onboard a new driver and ensure that all applicable records are in order. Your business should make efforts to check for any state and local pre-employment requirements, criminal histories and other relevant information to see if candidates are the right fit.

Here are Tips On Hiring Employee Drivers

Check records. Your prospective employee’s driving history can be a strong indicator of their future driving record, which is why it’s so important to check into it. Department of Motor Vehicle Records are kept on file in every state where your employee holds a driver’s license. These records will show:

If their license has been revoked
If their license has been suspended
If the driver has received any traffic violations
If the driver has been involved in any traffic-related accidents

To obtain a DMV Record, contacting your state agency or your insurance agent is your best bet. Commercial Driver Hiring and Onboarding Toolkit In order to access a record you will need to know the individual’s name, date of birth, address and driver’s license number.

Mandate Safety Plans

After you check out your prospective employee’s MVR, it’s important to establish guidelines to help determine if they should be considered for a job that will require them to operate a vehicle. For example, guidelines that might disqualify an employee from a driving position might include:

A driving while intoxicated conviction in the past three years
Three serious violations, such as reckless driving or following too closely, during the past three years
Two accidents within the past three years
License suspension due to traffic violations in the last three years

Keep Tabs On Your Employees

After you go through the necessary background checks and the employee is cleared to start driving, its important to continue evaluating their current driving records on a regular basis. That way, you can verify they still meet your safe driving requirements after they’ve been hired.

Require Experience

If your business requires the use of large passenger vans, it’s important to understand the safety precautions you and your employees can take to keep everyone in the vehicle safe. Remember, only experienced drivers should operate fully loaded vans, and should understand and be familiar with the handling characteristics of these types of vehicles. Youthful drivers are one of the factors that will greatly increase your commercial auto insurance costs.

Risk Management Techniques

One of the best things you can do to control your commercial automobile insurance premiums is implement risk management techniques for controlling the frequency of accidents. Improving your drivers’ performance can make a big difference: A study by the U.S. Department of Transportation revealed that 90 percent of all collisions were due to driver action, attitude and behavior. Making your drivers safer and purchasing dependable vehicles can affect both frequency and severity of accidents, ultimately lowering your premiums. Some steps to take include the following:

Select good drivers. Conduct background checks and request regular motor vehicle driving records.
Provide driver safety training on a regular basis, both at hire and as a refresh, ensuring that both new and seasoned employees are properly prepared.
Train employees on reporting a loss immediately after a crash.
Monitor drivers to ensure their best performance.

California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management

As one of the fastest growing agencies in California, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is able to provide its clients with the latest and greatest of what the insurance industry has to offer and much, much more. With locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive commercial auto insurance quote!

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