Est. 1 min read

Cottingham & Butler’s Chris Vogel sat down with Idelic to explain why fleets with a strong safety culture receive better rates from carriers.

Unfortunately, with insurance rates skyrocketing across the trucking industry, it’s hard for an insurance carrier to take a fleet’s word that they have a strong safety culture–they care about results. Accordingly, fleets need to prove the safety programs that are the foundation of their culture will lead to sustainable improvements.‍

“[Fleets] stay involved, actively seek feedback, and genuinely care. They don’t view Joe Smith as Truck #54. They know Joe Smith. Because of that, those fleets get a lot better results,” shares Chris.

Fortunately, there are two steps any fleet can follow to prove they have a safety-first culture:

1. Improve Engagement with Drivers
While there are a number of ways fleets can enhance their safety culture, chief among these is improving engagement with their drivers. When managers directly and consistently engage with drivers, actively solicit feedback, and act on that feedback, drivers are more likely to see that leadership takes safety seriously. This results in a heightened sense of ownership and responsibility to put safety at the forefront.

So how can fleets improve their engagement? Here are two strategies fleets should consider:

Implement regular, recurring touchpoints with drivers. Touchpoints occurring monthly or quarterly help managers connect with their drivers and push outtop-down safety messaging to everyone in their fleet.
Use structured channels for feedback. Structured channels for discussion, such as driver surveys or leadership town halls, enable fleets to keep a finger on the pulse of their drivers and regularly engage with them.

2. Document and Share Your Engagement Activities
Once a fleet has boosted driver engagement, the next step is to prove it. Though insurance carriers don’t have the time to sit in on a fleet’s driver check-ins, they are highly interested in the data a fleet has surrounding them.

By implementing a process that schedules and documents driver touchpoints, analyzes survey data, and reports on town hall attendance and discussions, fleets can show insurers their engagement data. Because most fleets don’t keep detailed records of these interactions, this gives fleets who do catalog their engagement a leg up in a competitive market.