RISK MANAGEMENT THAT IMPACTS THE BOTTOM LINE

Successful trucking companies know that a comprehensive safety and risk management program helps reduce the risk of crashes and saves money. As a Joe Morten & Son customer, you can look to us to be your value-added resource in loss control and prevention.

Many of our insureds wear many hats. Training drivers and employees in an engaging and impactful way can be difficult. One of the ways our risk management team can help is providing quality safety education and training. Company owners and driver managers may not know which topic to discuss or how to find an engaging and competent presenter to deliver the information.

Thanks to their more than 40 years combined risk management experience, our risk management specialist team of Tina Jensen and Larry Barton are excited to work with trucking companies of all sizes to assist them in developing a customized educational session that meets their unique, specific needs. They can educate personnel in areas such as risk management, safety, regulatory compliance, loss-prevention activities, and operational strategies.

Presentations available include:

• Driver and other employee training on various compliance and loss control topics.
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations: Common topics include driver qualifications, hours of service, inspection, repair and maintenance, minimum levels of financial responsibility, and more.
• Operations: This program is designed to identify the role of each non-driving employee’s responsibility and accountability to ensure excellent company performance.
• An introductory risk management course is available to educate your management team.
• Managing risks for success: Attendees use a hands-on approach to develop a sample risk-management plan.
• OSHA regulations: An outreach training program that has been developed specifically for the trucking industry.

Ensuring compliance with FMCSA regulations can be challenging. On the FMCSA side of your business, our risk management team can audit driver and vehicle files, review policies, ensure Department of Transportation (DOT) drug and alcohol programs are meeting regulation, assist with documentation of orientation and training, identify areas of liability, and provide solutions you can use to move to best-in-class performance.

Is your organization prepared for an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) inspector? To assist with understanding OSHA standards, our risk management team offers assistance from a simple maintenance facility walkthrough to an in-depth review of your level of compliance. They will review your programs and training records for an emergency action plan, record keeping, hazard communication, lockout/tagout, bloodborne pathogens, powered industrial truck safety, PPE, and many more. In the maintenance facility, the risk management team will ensure that all equipment, storage areas, exits are properly identified. They will look for eye wash and shower stations, labeling/marking of items such as hoists, jack stands, rolling stairways, ladders, containers, flammable storage, and other compliance requirements.

Does your organization have a business recovery plan to acquire necessary resources to maintain business continuity after a catastrophic event? How would you cope should your vehicles, buildings and/or computer systems be severely impacted due to a catastrophic event (tornado, fire, flood, etc.)? Allow our risk management team to explain the importance of advance planning and provide suggestions to assist in the development of your organization’s customized plan.

There are many ways to analyze loss. One way is crash causation. Drivers do what they think their manager wants or wanted them to do. Did you hire them that way or make them that way? What are all the factors (hiring, training, operations, leadership, outside factors, etc.)?

What are the most frequent types of claims my business has experienced?

• What are the top five most severe losses incurred by my business over the past three years?
• Is there a correlation between driver length time with company or total experience to losses?

• Are losses more prevalent in the morning or evening?
• How does driver age affect losses?
• Is there a day or are there days of the week on which more losses occur?
• Which route seems to be the most problematic for my drivers?
  

Our team will assist you in identifying which of these questions are relevant to your operations. We have tools to help dig into the loss and to identify the factors that led up to the loss.

Joe Morten & Son believes that putting a strategy in place to identify, evaluate, and control risk is integral in providing a safe and profitable business. Our team can assist with developing a strategy that will provide a way to manage the risks associated with trucking. We have seen many clients improve performance, reduce losses, and maximize profits when a risk management plan is in place.

ERM emphasizes the importance of managing positive risk. Positive risks are opportunities that could increase business value or, conversely, damage an organization if not taken. The aim of any risk management program is not to eliminate all risk but to preserve and add to enterprise value by making smart/informed risk decisions.

ERM is a holistic approach to managing risk; as such, it requires a broad management-based approach. This means that instead of individual business units managing risk, a company-wide approach is preferred.

Loss prevention and reduction is key to the success of most motor carriers. To support that strategy, Joe Morten & Son (JMS) offers several resources including:

• An easy-to-use monthly Loss Prevention program. This email provides several training topics relevant to the challenges drivers are facing from a weather, seasonal, crash, or motoring public perspective. They include a quiz.
• The JMS Resource Hub: Critical resources covering crash and injury prevention, FMCSA compliance, and risk management strategies. All are on the JMS website.

• JMS Rolling-N-30 webinars, which are recorded and archived on the JMS website.
• Safety Road Map on the JMS website.

Through our affiliation with Great West Casualty Company, we’ve developed tools and resources to help you reduce the frequency and severity of losses. Drivers, owner-operators, safety directors, and managers—we provide each of these teams motor carrier safety resources designed to assist in reducing claims and losses, in turn saving your business money.