One of the most overlooked areas of risk identification for ABA agencies isn’t related to operations that happen at a job site such as a school, home, or care facility. It’s operations that happen between job sites, completed by employees driving on company time.
Employee driving risks are often overlooked because of a misunderstanding about what qualifies as driving on company time. In this post, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about employee driving risk management.
You will learn:
- How to identify when employees are driving on company time
- How employee driving should fit into the risk management process
Employee Driving: Company or Personal Time?
It’s important to properly evaluate your employee driving practices. After all, your business is at risk if an employee is involved in an accident while driving on company time. Let’s take a closer look at a general rule and some examples.
The General Rule
The general rule is that you have an employee driving on company time when you’re providing a mileage reimbursement for travel. However, there are some exceptions. For example, an employee that consistently commutes to a specific work site may use a car for the commute, but it wouldn’t be classified as company time.
Examples of Employees Driving on Company Time
- Driving from a home- to a school-based session
- Driving to client homes during work hours
- Transporting a client from their home to a care facility/school, and vice versa
Employee Driving Risk Management
We go into detail about our risk management process for ABA professionals in another post, so we won’t cover risk planning again. Instead, we will focus on how employee driving should fit into this process, and wrap up with some best practices.
Risk Identification
It may seem like employee driving is subject to external factors that fall outside your control. It’s true you can’t control the unknown. However, you carry the risk if your operations require employees to drive on company time in the first place. That’s why employee driving is an internal risk you can manage.
Risk Analysis
The best way to analyze your risks is to consider events before they happen, instead of responding to them after the fact. This approach helps you mitigate risk. It also helps you set a flexible precedent for employees entering or leaving the company.
In many cases, the risks are too high for ABA agencies to allow employees to transport clients using their own personal vehicles. While some traffic accidents cause a loss of time, they can be high and extreme risks to your business.
Risk Response
It can be difficult to manage your exposure in employee driving situations unless you respond appropriately. Generally speaking, risks that can be avoided, should be avoided. However, your response strategy comes down to how much risk you’re willing to accept.
Employee Driving Risk Best Practices
- Avoid having employees drive clients, especially if you don’t have the maintenance of a car or aren’t providing a company vehicle.
- Require employees using personal vehicles during work hours to provide regular details on their vehicle and allow for random/scheduled inspections.
- Adjust your HR policies to make sure employees using personal vehicles for work have adequate personal auto insurance limits.
Does Your Policy Protect Against Employee Driving Risks?
We find that some ABA agencies are operating without the proper coverage they need to protect against employee driving risks. An experienced insurance professional will take the time to understand the risks inherent to how your business operates. This includes the risks you face operating at a school, care facility, home, and on the road.
Jacob Kiley is President of Liberty Company Behavioral Health. He has specialized in helping ABA agencies create and implement effective risk mitigation strategies. If you’d like a free review of your current policy to ensure you’re properly covered against employee driving risk, feel free to give us a call at 669 266 6760 or email info@behavioralhealthinsurance.com.