Notes From an Insurance Director on Propane Transportation

Are you looking for ways to be recognized as a best practice and best-in-class organization when it comes to your safety and insurance costs? We will do a short dive into what insurance companies are seeing when it comes to claims and how you as a business owner can help protect your company, employees and your insurance provider so you can maintain a safe organization.

What are we seeing in the industry? We are seeing an increase in nuclear verdicts due to the litigious nature of our society. We are seeing pre-trial verdicts being paid out by insurance companies because they do not want to go to jury trial and obtain a possible larger settlement that could be given by the jury.

How has this affected the industry? In states where laws are unfavorable to insurance companies when it comes to settlements, we are seeing excess/umbrella insurance companies provide less limits or discontinue writing business in those states. Legal barriers have also caused some specialty and national fuel/propane programs to shut down completely in recent years.

What can propane transportation companies do to help themselves be more insurance-friendly and safer to the public? It all starts with management and their accountability to their drivers, service staff and the public. Management must create a high safety and recruiting standard and then hold themselves accountable to those standards. When management holds themselves accountable, it becomes easier to hold drivers and service staff accountable.

Driver recruitment and hiring practices should match insurance company guidelines. These guidelines can be obtained from management’s insurance agent or insurance company risk management provider. One thing to remember is that exceptions can be made on drivers, but it is best to make sure you are asking for the best employee and not just filling a job need. Insurance companies have these guidelines because they have years of industry data about driving habits of drivers by age and time spent driving certain vehicles.

After hiring and recruiting the right drivers, training must be developed and continued for new and seasoned drivers. Your insurance company can provide you with safety material so you can conduct monthly tailgate safety meetings. This material can be provided in written or video form to help drivers with visual learning.

Creating a safe truck driving environment is key for your drivers and your company’s overall insurance performance. Having speed governors placed on your vehicles to maintain safe top speeds is imperative; adding GPS and video cameras is also a positive when it comes to protecting your driver and company. You may not see an initial credit because of these added features, but having these does allow an insurance company to rate you in their best tier based on your loss ratio.

The key question for insurance company underwriters and risk management when using these devices is, “What does management do with the information?” Driver and fleet managers should create a driver accountability checklist based on the information provided by GPS and camera video.

A driver accountability checklist should be created, and that list should be reviewed with a driver anytime red flags occur. Drivers should be counseled by management using the checklist, and that checklist should be signed by both parties and placed in the driver’s file. Management should create necessary probationary periods for multiple offenses and also outline what and how many incidents will result in termination of the driver. Driver and fleet management should provide this checklist and process to insurance company risk management when they come out to perform inspections.

There is no 100% fail-safe plan for your propane company fleet because there are so many variables outside of management control. You have to control what you can, and that all starts with creating plans for hiring, training, safety tools, utilization of those plans and tools, and continued reinforcement and accountability of drivers and management. Be transparent with your insurance agent and insurance companies about your deficiencies and needs. They have tools and educational materials that can assist you. Remember, they want your organization to be safe and will work alongside you to help make a difference for your company.