Creating a Crash-Free Culture

The most effective way to protect your company from negligent entrustment is to implement a driver safety strategy and process that cover employees from recruitment to retirement.

PHH Arval, a leader in vehicle collision management, says it's possible to develop a culture of driver safety in your organization that will actually prevent accidents from occurring--and improve your corporate risk profile in the process.

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"We've found it takes a holistic approach to make significant inroads in your fleet accident rate," says Pam Walinski, vice president of vehicle accident services for PHH. "It's also your best defense against negligent-entrustment claims. The key to the success of such a program is the involvement and support of senior management, because it's not a one-time event, but an integrated process that becomes part of the corporate culture."

PHH's turnkey program includes policy development, leadership communications, results monitoring and benchmarking, and a complete audit trail. PHH's risk assessment tools help identify drivers with behaviors likely to lead to a crash; intervention training addresses these behaviors. The program also identifies corporate strategies or actions that can be taken to reduce driver risk.

"The more information you can gather through license checks and assessment tools, accident information, or telematics technology that tells you in real life whether a driver is speeding or using the vehicle at unauthorized times," says Walinski, "the better your chances of predicting which driver will have an accident and taking remedial action with that driver before an accident happens."

In addition, PHH is creating sophisticated predictive models that will dramatically enhance the ability to identify at-risk fleet drivers. She says the pilot testing PHH has completed to date with predictive models have gotten amazingly accurate results in pinpointing at-risk drivers.

"Five percent of drivers account for 45 percent of major collisions," Walinski also says. "If you can predict your most at-risk drivers and keep them from having accidents, you can help your organization reduce your vehicle accident rate by up to 40 percent."

She speaks from experience--PHH's program has already shown measurable results for clients that utilize the methodology.

April 1, 2007

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