Shoring Industry Faces Its’ Own Transportation Risks — Blake Dickens, HUB International/HMP Insurance
Transportation risks affect just about every industry and that is no different for the Shoring Industry. Driver and Employee shortages are challenging supply chains, product delivery and availability of services. From distributors to manufacturers and last mile delivery consumers like Amazon, the need is expected to remain strong. Finding qualified drivers is one of the biggest challenges we face today.
Issues like distracted driving continue to plague commercial fleets and substance abuse is an increasing issue with legalization of marijuana in a number of states. Transportation supervisors of business vehicle drivers in industries from healthcare to agriculture, construction, and hospitality, are also now participating in similar training sessions to recognize signs of substance abuse as prevention is the best defense to this growing challenge.
Business and commercial vehicle insurers have seen success in improving safety performance with fleets that embrace telematics technologies. These include electronic logging devices (ELD’s), vehicle tracking systems that identify at risk driver behaviors and video event recorders. By identifying at-risk behaviors and intervening to reduce unsafe behaviors before a crash occurs, many fleets are reducing auto claim frequency and severity.
When it comes to our industry, these issues and a few more will challenge the industry. Here’s a look at three transportation issues that you’ll want to keep on your radar:
- Construction drivers are busier and more distracted. Construction is booming — which means contractors are short on equipment and drivers. The result is an increase in claims involving vehicle incidents. We have seen a number of critical crashes involving less experienced drivers and/or distracted drivers that are trying to multitask behind the wheel. We have also witnessed an increase in load securement issues, including driver fatalities dues to drivers not taking the time to properly secure their loads. Construction firms are turning to additional training on safe driving techniques, load securement and vehicle inspections to improve safety performance. They are requiring employees to be educated on loading their vehicles and having remedial training when deficiencies are identified.
- Qualified Driver Shortage. As the demand for construction continues to increase, contractors have widen their operations and have once again increased the size of their commercial vehicle fleets. Finding qualified drivers that match the Insurance Carriers requirements and that have the experience that is needed, has become a tough task. Without qualified drivers, claims frequency has increased which has driven up insurance cost for some companies. The competition for these drivers is great. Companies are selling their culture and incentivized driver programs to recruit the top employees.
- Vehicle safety technologies. As construction fleets grow and need to purchase new vehicles, the opportunity exists to purchase new safety systems OEM from manufacturers. These include automatic braking, anti-rollover technology and lane departure alert systems as well as air disc brakes. These safety tools are available individually or as part of a package that is very reasonable in cost when compared to average claim costs on commercial vehicles that are now in excess of $10,000.
Feel free to contact NAXSA to help you transfer your transportation risk to insurance. Contact Blake Dickens (with HUB International) with any questions.
