As you might guess, insurance companies provide the best prices for the clients who have the safest business practices. After all, if they have fewer claims, they don't have to charge as much in order to make a profit. From their standpoint, the problem is determining which accounts have good practices, and which do not. The first thing they look at is loss history. However, for small accounts, loss history can be a combination of luck and safety practices. Even the worst drivers make it through most days without wrecking!

In order to help them gauge the risk involved in a particular account, insurance companies also look at driving records. Statistics show that drivers who have more activity on their driving records tend to have more accidents, and more severe accidents. Statistics also show that very young drivers have more accidents. Our experience has shown this as well. There are exceptions, but insurance companies make their living by dealing with averages. Therefore, if a driver has four speeding tickets within three years, the companies with the best rates will not offer coverage with that individual as a driver.

What can a business owner do? We understand that it is hard to get good help. Many of our clients ask us to make exceptions for drivers. Depending upon the records, we may be able to do so. If not, there are three options. You can fire the driver. You can restrict the driver to non-driving duties. Or, you can purchase a separate policy through another insurance company on the vehicles used by that driver (this option is not available on for hire trucking or towing companies).

We highly recommend one of the first two options. When you voluntarily choose to keep a driver who has a poor record, you open yourself up to a couple of problems. First, you remove all defense should the driver later have an accident. Juries tend to be very hostile to businesses who choose to endanger the public by not paying a few bucks extra to hire drivers with good records.

Second, you endanger your work comp loss results. One of our clients chose to keep a driver with a bad record on an assigned risk policy, even though his record indicated poor driving habits. When he was injured in an auto accident a few months later, it cost his employer over $30,000 in increased work comp premiums and lost dividends. When the employee recovered from the injury he took another job elsewhere that paid a couple of thousand dollars a year more.

Our agency offers coverage for good drivers, and not so good drivers. We understand that employers have to have workers on the job, and we will do our best to get you the best coverage and price. However, you make our job a lot easier (and our results more successful) if you have good drivers and good loss results.