You cannot believe some of the driver abstracts I see in my business! If I am looking at them, then someone either wants to hire them, or they already work for someone. Many operators often overlook what is on a driver abstract because the person is “one of our best chauffeurs” or “our clients love him.” In today’s litigious society, YOU, as an operator, can no longer afford to let someone behind the wheel of your vehicles with a subpar driving record. In the event of a bad accident, a company’s judgment will be called into question for letting that person behind the wheel. The ramifications of a situation like this could cost you dearly. A company’s reputation that took years to build could be wrecked by one incident. Attorneys will frequently pursue punitive damages in accidents involving a driver with a questionable driving record. Punitive damages by the way are not covered by your commercial fleet or general liability policy.
Unless you review driver abstracts on a regular basis, you may not even know what your employee driving records look like. Many people think that because an incident happened in a personal vehicle, that it doesn’t count. Guess what? It does matter!! If he or she disregards traffic laws in his or her own vehicle, he or she doesn’t have a different set of habits when behind the wheel of your limo or bus.
Another misconception is that taking a point reduction class is like waving a magic wand that erases the sins of a driver. The points are still on your license as far as an insurance company is concerned. Dozing off during a 3 hour class on how to drive better is not going to brighten the picture.
