Take control of the wheel - includes related article on safety standards for truck drivers - costs of employee driving accidents for employers

HR Magazine, June, 1999 by Carolyn Hirschman

In addition, employers can incur recruitment and training costs from workers' deaths and long-term disabilities. Some employers also bear the up-front cost of "hazard pay" to workers who accept risky jobs; those wage premiums totaled nearly $12 billion in 1994.

Traffic-safety programs cost money to set up but are well worth the investment, advises NHTSA. The savings can be as high as $50,000 per million vehicle miles traveled.

No One Solution

There's no single program for employers who want to design or revise their driver-safety programs. "It's not a one-size-fits-all policy," says NETS' Herbel. Employers must tailor programs to their types of drivers and driving.

A national moving company that uses heavy trucks on interstate highways isn't the same as a local florist that has two vans. The largest employers have full-time safety departments and a staff dedicated to fleet safety. Small employers defer the job to owners or HR managers.

For the professional "driving industry," safety on the road starts with thorough, ongoing training of new employees. United Parcel Service's (UPS) 85,000 drivers travel more than 2 billion miles per year in the United States. "We have to set higher standards because of our exposure," says Jerry Bolles, corporate fleet safety manager for the Atlanta-based package delivery service.

All new UPS drivers undergo an intensive, 22-day training schedule. "The first thing we do is learn how to operate the vehicle," Bolles says. On the first day, a trainer rides with the new driver in one of the familiar brown trucks; no packages are delivered. The trainer accompanies the driver for four to 12 days, depending on how well the new employee performs. Follow-up training rides are done annually.

UPS follows a "space and visibility habits" safety program. "We train our drivers to have space around their vehicles," says Bolles. "We train them to use their eyes to view everything around them and to register all that's around them." Still, backing up is the leading cause of accidents by UPS drivers. UPS also investigates accidents to see if and how they could have been prevented, a practice generally followed in the trucking industry.

UPS reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) one accident per 1 million miles traveled, compared with the national average of 1.6, Bolles says. Regulated companies must report to DOT any accident that involves a fatality, bodily injury or towed vehicle.

"Part of the process is prevention, and part of it is what do you do when an accident happens," says Mark Davison, manager of safety development compliance for North American Van Lines. The mover, based in Fort Wayne, Ind., learned from its mistakes by placing mirrors on the front right fender or hood to allow drivers to see the area of the front right tire, one of the blind spots. That reduced lane-change accidents.

Prevention

Whatever the cause, the best way for workers, or anyone, to survive a car crash is to buckle up, safety experts say. "It's not rocket science, but it's hard because you're dealing with human behavior," says Herbel. Morgan of AAA agrees: "People just don't want to do it," especially young men in their 20s and early 30s.