Crashes caused by vehicles are one of the leading causes of work-related injuries and fatalities. These crashes expose businesses to liability, lost time, increased downtime and reduced productivity, legal expenses, and increased insurance rates. A business has to eliminate automotive liabilities or at least keep a close eye on them to prevent these consequences. Additionally, a business can follow other guidelines to keep its auto insurance premiums low.
Ensure Drivers are Well-trained
Insurance companies use several metrics to determine your business’s auto insurance premiums. One of these metrics is the number of claims over a period, which depends on the insurance company in question.
If a business has made lots of claims in this period, its drivers are deemed a risk by the insurance company and the business has to pay higher auto premiums.
To reduce the risk of accidents and injuries, businesses have to ensure their drivers are well-trained. Drivers who have received adequate behind-the-wheel training have about 40% fewer crashes over three years than those who have not received this training.
Insurance companies also provide discounts for businesses that mandate driver training and courses and have great safety records. To get these benefits, businesses should enroll their employees and drivers in a company driver safety program that helps reduce crashes as well as the higher insurance costs that accompany them.
Mandate the Use of Seatbelts
This is another part of keeping drivers safe, but it is an important one to mention by itself. Since their inception, seat belts have saved countless lives since they reduce the risk of death caused by car accidents by over 50%. Additionally, seat belts reduce the severity of injuries for those who get into an accident wearing them. All this means that enforcing the use of seat belts can help not only save the business money but help it keep its insurance premiums low.
Monitor Drivers Using Technology
Besides providing discounts for businesses with great safety records, insurance companies also do the same for those that have monitoring in place. They understand that modern technologies such as telematics make for safer drivers which translates into savings for everyone.
Telematics help managers monitor the behavior of their drivers in real time. Such behaviors can include not wearing a seatbelt, speeding, reckless overtaking, hard braking, and rapid acceleration.
Dash cams can promote safe driving while also providing evidence when an accident occurs. The latter can go a long way in reducing liability. If you decide to use dash cams, check your local privacy laws concerning filming in public to avoid liability.
Prevent Theft
Vehicle theft is covered under your insurance policy, and you have to make a claim if it is stolen. To reduce the number of claims you make, you need to put measures in place to prevent the theft of your vehicle. Always secure the vehicle, keep valuables out of sight, lock the doors and windows and install tracking devices in case the vehicle gets stolen.
Although they are a necessary expense, auto insurance premiums can get costly if you are not careful. Keep an eye on your fleet, ensure the safety of your employees, reduce the risk of accidents and protect your vehicles to keep premiums down.
