We’ll give you the bad news first. Auto claims are a leading cause of claims for residential cleaning businesses. Your employee finishes cleaning one home a little bit late. Now they are rushing to the next home and texting that they will be late. And they rear-end the car that stopped suddenly in front of them. Now you have an auto claim against your business. Even though your employee was driving their own car, they were driving on behalf of the business.
But here’s the good news. Auto claims are one of the most preventable types of claims. With a little bit of proactive work, you can help protect your employees, lower your claims and ultimately even lower the cost of your insurance.
Pre-hab versus Re-hab
Much like with our physical health, it is often less traumatic and cheaper to deal with issues before we have to go into physical re-hab. So, for residential cleaning auto claims, what simple strategies can residential cleaning owners use to protect their staff and reduce the number of accidents?
It starts before anyone takes the wheel. Below are some key behaviors and key documents to think about. Don’t over-complicate it. The goal is to increase the discussion and awareness around driving. It is a skill that can be improved. In the end you communicate you care about the safety and long-term relationship you have with your employees.
Key Behaviors
- Talk about driving safety with staff. By making the topic of driving a part of your communications and weekly meetings employees will think of the act of and quality of driving as they are on the road.
- Incentivize good driving. This does not have to be complicated. Humans respond to incentives. Free lunch for good driving over a period of time? You decide, but awareness and incentives work.
- Train your drivers. Training is a broad term. And some is better than none. There are excellent online courses which can be purchased or sometimes accessed through your insurance company. However, training can be less formal and conducted by you. Have new employees drive with you and perform routine driving maneuvers. Backing up, lane changes, and use of mirrors are all important skills.
Key Paperwork
- Motor Vehicle Reports (MVR) are worth their weight in gold. Driving is a skill and some people are better at it than others. Ask any parent of teenage drivers. Statistics consistently show a record of incidents will most likely lead to more incidents.
- Validate Employee’s personal auto insurance coverage. Many cleaning businesses have employees utilize their own vehicles for work. It is imperative for the safety of your employees and your business that the employees maintain current coverage at the limits which will protect appropriately.
- Use a simple driver agreement. Outline what the company expects of employees as they drive. List out unacceptable behaviors such as speeding or texting while driving. Require a simple signature and talk about how important driving is for their safety and the company.
Yes, we receive claims for damages to client’s property, lost keys, stolen property from client’s homes and other cleaning specific claims but auto claims remain a top cleaning business struggle every year. The good news is that with a little work, you can reduce the number of auto claims your employees have each year.
