As a professional driver, your good driving record is one of the most important things you have going for you. The insurance company that covers the fleet of vehicles that you drive for has an underwriter. An underwriter is the insurance company employee that evaluates risk. One of the things that they carefully review is the driver abstract of each individual operating that equipment. They don’t know you personally, and they don’t know what type of individual you are. All they have is your driving record to determine what kind of driver you are.
As an insurance agent that has worked in the school bus industry for over 20 years, I get the chance to see many driving records. One excuse I hear all the time is, “that didn’t happen in a bus – that was in my personal vehicle.” Unfortunately, even if true, this fact does not matter. Chances are if you have a rough driving record as a result of incidents that happened in a personal vehicle, your driving habits are not going to change when you are behind the wheel of a school bus. Just remember that whatever happens while you are driving ANY vehicle, will stay on your license anywhere from 3 to 5 years, depending on the state.
Similarly, your employer or prospective employer can no longer ignore a rough driving record because you’re a nice guy or gal. Insurance statistics have shown that settlements and punitive damage awards on claims can be much higher on those incidents where an at fault driver had serious existing violations on their driving record.
