FACTS
- Fleet vehicle accidents are among the most expensive injury claims for business. The average cost of a loss related to fleet vehicle accidents is approximately $70,000, which is almost twice the cost of the average workplace injury.
- Besides property damage, fleet crashes result in lost productivity, lost revenue from missed sales calls, and potential third-party liability claims from an at-fault crash. Since most companies self-insure fleet vehicles and their employee drivers, the company pays these costs directly.
- In 2017, around 30% of all fatal accidents involved a driver impaired by alcohol or drugs. A driver training program that highlights dangers of alcohol/ drug abuse can help drivers avoid such problems.
- Aggressive driving, that is, driving in a way that disregards other road users, is very common on our roads today. From cutting across lanes without care of other traffic, not using turn signals or refusing to give way, tailgating or ignoring traffic controls, aggressive driving by its very nature puts the vehicle at more risk than normal.
- The NTSA describes distracted driving as performing any activity that diverts attention from driving. The obvious example of this is using a mobile phone, whether talking, texting, eating and drinking.
STATS
- A typical non-fleet driver in the U.S. travels 12,000 to 15,000 miles annually, and each year has a one in 15 chance of being involved in a vehicle collision. Most fleet drivers, however, travel 20,000 to 25,000 miles or more each year, and thus have a greater exposure to crash risks.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) within the U.S Department of Labor, around 40% of motor vehicle accidents are work-related. Released in December 2018, a BLS report – National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2017 – indicates that driver/sales workers and truck drivers had the largest number of fatal occupational injuries.
- The Motus report indicated that only 42.6% of companies mandated driver safety programs for employees in company-owned vehicles, with just 19.5% requiring them for employees in mileage reimbursement programs.
- Motus added that companies could reduce accident rates by as much as 35% if they expanded their driver risk management approach.
- Vehicle accidents cost employers $60 billion each year in legal and medical expenses, property damage and lost employee productivity.
- In 2017 there were 3,166 people killed as a result of accidents involving distracted drivers.
- Driving when fatigued, often called drowsy driving, is not only dangerous, but it can also be fatal. According to the NHTSA, drowsy driving was the cause of 795 road fatalities in 2017, and 90,000 accidents in total.