It sounds like an exaggeration but it’s as real as it gets: there has been a stunning 50% increase in the number of crashes along an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 25 where work is under way to widen the road between Castle Rock and Monument.
The Colorado State Patrol says that, from Sept. 1 through May 31, there were 790 crashes in that area, compared with 514 crashes during that same nine-month period in 2017-18.
Ouch!
Was it predictable? No doubt. As a construction company owner with a fleet of trucks and other vehicles, can you do something about it? Definitely.
Training, of course, helps, and we’ll assume that you’ve checked that box. But there’s another tactic you can employ that is sure to grab your employees’ attention and correct poor driving habits:
Borrow a page from the insurance world and the Department of Motor Vehicles and consider instituting a point system that holds employees with poor driving records accountable. The more points accrued, the more serious the consequences.
For example:
Determining how many points any given instance of poor driving might be worth isn’t hard.
Driving discourteously can be a 1-point infraction. Falling asleep at the wheel might be good for 3 points. A hit-and-run or driving with a suspended or revoked license counts as 12 points. Here’s a full point classification table you can use in your business:
|
Point Classification Table |
|
| Incident | Points |
| Incident was beyond the driver’s control | 0 |
| Driving aggressively or discourteously | 1 |
| Failing to make allowance for adverse light, road, weather, and vehicle load or traffic conditions | 1 |
| Operating a vehicle with defective equipment | 1 |
| Failing to properly adjust vehicle mirrors, seat, and headrest or sun visor | 1 |
| Failing to secure loose objects inside the vehicle | 1 |
| Failing to heed warning labels of medications | 1 |
| Fatigue, falling asleep at the wheel | 3 |
| Exceeding posted speed limit | 3 |
| Lack of proper type or valid license, or failing to comply with license restriction | 3 |
| Failing to maintain sufficient clearance when operating vehicle | 3 |
| Following too closely (tailgating) | 3 |
| Failing to signal intentions | 3 |
| Overloading vehicle or not following operating manual | 3 |
| Operating vehicle in an unsafe manner | 3 |
| Improperly backing the vehicle | 3 |
| Disregarding stop signs or signals | 3 |
| Making an improper turn, lane change or other movement errors | 3 |
| Driving on the wrong side of the road | 3 |
| Failing to yield the right-of-way or other failure to yield error | 3 |
| Committing involuntary manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide | 12 |
| Attempting to elude a law officer, or hit/run | 12 |
| Operating a vehicle while operator’s license is suspended or revoked | 12 |
| Operating vehicles under the influence of alcohol or drugs | 12 |
Finally, make it your policy to allow employees who have been reassigned to non-driving positions for poor driving records to re-qualify after six months only after they’ve completed a driver training class.
Scott Carlson is a Vice President at CCIG and leads the firm’s construction practice. Reach him at Scott.Carlson@thinkccig.com or 720-212-2040.
CCIG is a Denver-area brokerage with personal and business insurance clients nationwide. We do more than make sure you have the right policy. We also help you lower your long-term cost of insurance with our risk and claims management expertise and a commitment to service excellence.
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