If your employees are using their own vehicles to support your business operations, for instance shifting their responsibilities to include driving deliveries of your products to clients, your current insurance policy may not provide appropriate coverage. Use the checklist below to help you screen and onboard employees into driver roles.

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Team-building exercises in the workplace can help build trust among employees, improve camaraderie, and increase collaboration, innovation, and morale. These are many of the same goals that DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs aim to achieve, so it&rsquo;s well worth integrating DEI into your next team-building event.
In fact, when organizations incorporate DEI into team-building events, they can help to foster a greater understanding of the diverse backgrounds and experiences of employees, which in turn can cultivate greater empathy and respect.1
DEI team-building ideas
There are many ways to not only celebrate diversity at your organization, but also cultivate a better appreciation for and understanding of DEI within your organization. Here are some DEI themed ideas to consider incorporating into your next teambuilding event:
Guest speakers: Bring in guest speakers who specialize in DEI topics, such as cultural awareness, understanding stereotypes, and unconscious bias. Events can be held in person or online but be sure to leave time afterward for questions and discussion among employees.2
DEI book club: A fun way to explore different viewpoints is through a book club, where books are chosen based on DEI themes such as race, gender, disability, etc. Make sure the books selected are engaging (you don&rsquo;t want it to feel like homework) and give employees plenty of time to read the book (at least a month). Then hold an in-person or virtual meeting to discuss.3
Team-building games: Games aren&rsquo;t just fun; they can be educational. A trivia session, for example, can be done either in-person or with remote teams. By divvying employees up into teams and encouraging friendly competition, the event will be more engaging&mdash;helping employees retain what they learn. The idea is to highlight lesser-known facts about DEI to encourage discussion and learning.4
Celebrations: Year-round, organizations can honour observances such as Black History Month (February), Mental Health Awareness Month (May), Pride Month (June) and Women&rsquo;s History Month (October), as well as a diverse range of religious and cultural holidays.5 These could be ideal times to share educational resources, demonstrate allyship, and amplify the voice of non-profits or charitable organizations working in this space.
Volunteer: Another option is to offer volunteer opportunities for employees&mdash;as a team&mdash;in the community, such as serving food to the unhoused or helping at a charity event, which can create camaraderie while fostering greater understanding and empathy for others.
<h4>Sovereign: DEI in action</h4>
Sovereign Insurance put DEI into action during a team-building event at its 2023 Claims Conference in Calgary, which brought together 52 team members from across Canada. The conference&rsquo;s theme, &lsquo;The power of connection,&rsquo; emphasized the importance of building strong relationships with peers and with the community.
One of the highlights of the conference was a team-building activity that included participants simulating accessibility challenges. By experiencing first-hand the limitations of loss of sight, hearing, or touch, the team gained a better understanding of the widespread need for differently abled and disability accommodations.
The team also built wheelchairs for the Calgary Drop-in Centre, to create a meaningful and tangible impact for the community. As a result, nine wheelchairs were donated to those in need, and the team was proud to show their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
&ldquo;For our Claims Conference, we wanted to select an activity that allowed us to both collaborate as a team and reflect upon our commitment to making a positive impact in our communities,&rdquo; says Larissa Maclean, Assistant Vice-President of Claims at Sovereign Insurance.
&ldquo;The challenge activities supported our ongoing commitment to DEI, allowing us to gain insight into the challenges faced by those who are differently-abled, and resulted in the donation of nine wheelchairs to a local organization&mdash;a win-win!&rdquo;
These activities were organized through <a href="https://www.outbackteambuilding.com/">Outback Team Building &amp; Training</a>, a team building and employee training provider in North America that offers more than 60 team-building and training solutions endorsed by thousands of corporate groups across North America.6
&nbsp;
Sources:
1 &ldquo;15 Fun Diversity Team Building Activities&rdquo; (Teamland, accessed Jan. 16, 2024). <a href="https://www.teamland.com/post/fun-diversity-team-building-activities">15 Fun Diversity Team Building Activities (teamland.com)</a>
2 Angela Robinson; &ldquo;18 Virtual Diversity And Inclusion Activities For Workplaces&rdquo; (teambuilding.com, Oct. 24, 2022). <a href="https://www.teamland.com/post/fun-diversity-team-building-activities">15 Fun Diversity Team Building Activities (teamland.com)</a>
3 Collin Waldoch; &ldquo;Diversity and inclusion Team Building Activities (10 Options), (Water Cooler Trivia, Apr. 1, 2022). <a href="https://www.watercoolertrivia.com/blog/diversity-and-inclusion-team-building-activities">Diversity And Inclusion Team Building Activities (10 Options) (watercoolertrivia.com)</a>
4 &ldquo;15 Fun Diversity Team Building Activities&rdquo; (Teamland, accessed Jan. 16, 2024). <a href="https://www.teamland.com/post/fun-diversity-team-building-activities">15 Fun Diversity Team Building Activities (teamland.com)</a>
5 Grace He; &ldquo;Diversity and Inclusion Activities &amp; Ideas for the Office in 2024&rdquo; (teambuilding.com, Dec. 12, 2023). <a href="https://teambuilding.com/blog/diversity-and-inclusion-activities">Diversity and Inclusion Activities &amp; Ideas for the Office in 2024 (teambuilding.com)</a>
6 Outback Team Building, accessed Jan. 16, 2024. <a href="https://www.outbackteambuilding.com/">The #1 Corporate Team Building Company | Outback Team Building</a>

DEI-themed ideas for your next team-building event

Purpose And Impact

In a traditional industry like insurance, change can sometimes happen at a gradual pace. But there&rsquo;s one emerging technology many businesses might be wise to move quickly on: Generative AI.
Hailed as a transformative force in business, Generative AI (GenAI) refers to deep-learning models that can generate high-quality text, images and other content based on the data they were trained on.1 While GenAI&rsquo;s roots trace back to the early days of artificial intelligence in the 1950s, the technology burst on the public scene in 2022, when OpenAI launched a consumer-facing GenAI tool called ChatGPT.2
In the insurance sector, experts say GenAI is &ldquo;fundamentally reshaping everything from underwriting and risk assessment to claims processing and customer service.&rdquo; More specifically, GenAI tools &ldquo;have the potential to automate processes, enhance customer experiences and streamline claims management, ultimately driving efficiency and effectiveness across the industry.&rdquo;3
In the Canadian Underwriter 2024 National Broker Survey, sponsored by Sovereign Insurance, brokers were asked how beneficial certain changes or investments have been in their organizations. Just over a fifth (21%) of respondents said using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools such as ChatGPT have been highly beneficial to them. Brokers were also asked how beneficial certain investments and actions have been for strengthening their business. Twenty-two percent of brokers indicated AI and machine learning tools have been highly beneficial on that front.&nbsp;
While it&rsquo;s still early days for generative AI, there&rsquo;s no doubt brokers and carriers alike are thinking about how they can harness the power of GenAI across their operations. Here&rsquo;s a look at a few key areas where the sector can leverage AI.&nbsp;
Claims management: For carriers, one promising application is in claims management, says Ricky Chan, Senior Solution Architect at Sovereign Insurance. &ldquo;Generative AI can help automate claims processing and assessment, which in turn increases adjusters&rsquo; productivity, allowing them to focus their expertise on more complex claims,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;
Underwriting: GenAI can also help inform underwriting decisions. As Accenture notes, the technology highlights risk control analysis insights to show loss prevention measures in place and the effectiveness of those controls. Generative AI can generate a comprehensive narrative of the overall risk and its alignment to the carrier&rsquo;s appetite and book, as well as identify and source missing data.4
Submissions: For brokers, GenAI has a variety of promising use cases, such as submission preparation and client Q&amp;As. According to Accenture, the effort required to identify adequate coverage and prepare submissions can be dramatically reduced through GenAI. Specifically, the technology can prompt the broker on the types of questions they should ask based on what is known about the insured, the industry the insured operates in, and the risk profile of the insured&rsquo;s company compared to others. In addition, GenAI could identify potentially overlooked up-sell or cross-sell opportunities.5
Information and knowledge: For any company, GenAI can make day-to-day work life easier by performing administrative tasks and knowledge gathering, an area that Sovereign is currently exploring. &ldquo;There are substantial positive impacts to day-to-day operations, such as summarizing information and meeting minutes, intelligent information search and ease of access of information,&rdquo; says Ricky.&nbsp;
Chad Hunter, Vice-President, Information Technology at Sovereign Insurance, adds that Sovereign &ndash; like many companies &ndash; uses a handful of different platforms and domains, including e-mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. By using a natural language chatbot or co-pilot tool, the company&rsquo;s knowledge and data could be streamlined. For example, &ldquo;instead of underwriters having to go to several different spots looking for knowledge, they could use the chatbot&hellip; and behind the scenes, that generative AI model will go to all the different areas and provide real-time responses,&rdquo; explains Chad.&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s next for GenAI? Beyond just talking about the possibilities of the technology, many companies in the insurance space &ndash; Sovereign included &ndash; are now testing and learning. Looking ahead, Deloitte notes that as generative AI moves from possibilities to practicalities, choosing the right use cases, selecting appropriate tools, getting to scale, and accurately measuring progress will all be important steps.6

Sources&nbsp;
1 IBM, &ldquo;<a href="https://research.ibm.com/blog/what-is-generative-AI">What is generative AI?</a>&rdquo; April 20,2023 2 Medium, &ldquo;<a href="https://matthewdwhite.medium.com/a-brief-history-of-generative-ai-cb1837e67106">A Brief History of Generative AI</a>,&rdquo; Jan. 7, 2023 3 EY, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/insurance/how-insurers-can-leverage-the-power-of-generative-ai">How insurers can leverage the power of generative AI</a>,&rdquo; Aug. 28, 2023 4 Accenture, &ldquo;<a href="https://insuranceblog.accenture.com/3-ways-insurance-underwriters-gain-insights-generative-ai">3 ways insurance underwriters can gain insights from generative AI</a>,&rdquo; March 21, 2024 5 Accenture, &ldquo;<a href="https://insuranceblog.accenture.com/5-key-generative-ai-use-cases-in-insurance-distribution">5 key generative ai use cases in insurance distribution</a>,&rdquo; Feb. 13, 2024 6 Deloitte, &ldquo;<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/consulting/us-state-of-gen-ai-report-q2.pdf">Now decides next: Getting real about Generative AI</a>,&rdquo; April 2024

Why the insurance sector should keep step with GenAI 

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Managing Risk

Even the most advanced technologies and significant investments in cybersecurity can&rsquo;t fully protect businesses from a major cyber risk: their own employees.
In the 2024 Voice of the CISO report by cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, 74% of survey respondents said human error is their most significant risk when it comes to cyberattacks. This finding is echoed in a 2023 study by Verizon, which found that human error is indeed a factor in 74% of total breaches, despite ongoing efforts by enterprises to strengthen their defences and increase training in cybersecurity.1,2
Employee training can fall short for several reasons: distractions in the workplace, a lack of awareness about the critical role employees play as the first line of defence, and the challenge of staying on top of the evolving threat landscape, to name a few.3
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face an even bigger challenge: They might not have the resources to conduct employee training in the first place, relying instead on third parties to support their security measures. This can be a costly mistake.
Despite the perception that cybercriminals only target large corporations, certain types of attacks, such as social engineering, are more frequently aimed at small businesses. These companies are typically not financially prepared for an attack, and it could even put them out of business. According to IBM&rsquo;s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach on organizations with fewer than 500 employees is US$3.31 million.4,5
<h4>Simple steps for employee training in SMBs</h4>
While it may not be feasible for SMBs to regularly conduct extensive employee training sessions, mitigation strategies don&rsquo;t have to be complex. There are simple and cost-effective measures that can be easily understood and adopted, making it possible for SMBs to strengthen their cybersecurity efforts.
Make employees aware of the critical role they play: First and foremost, employees must understand the &ldquo;why.&rdquo; According to a 2023 survey by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, many employees underestimate the role they play in being cyber safe at work and the impact of potential cyberattacks on their employer. Nearly half (47%) believe technology plays more of a role in protecting their workplace from cyber threats than they do; 30% believe their employer is solely responsible for protecting the organization from cyber threats; and 31% do not believe cyber criminals would target them.6
Whether it&rsquo;s in the form of interactive workshops or channels like emails and posters, employers should regularly communicate security awareness to staff. When they are aware of the importance of cybersecurity and their role in safeguarding their company, employees are more likely to take this issue seriously and report suspicious activities.7,8
Educate employees about common and evolving threats: Educating staff about different types of cyberattack, how to spot them, and how to respond to them is crucial for protecting against breaches. Recognizing phishing tactics, for example, includes identifying suspicious emails, unusual requests, and fake websites. Staff should also be clear on who to contact if they encounter a suspicious message. In a social engineering attack, cybercriminals may mimic the writing style of a CEO to trick an employee into sending money. In this case, businesses should have dual controls in place, meaning a second person should verify the request.9,10
As part of awareness training, SMBs can take advantage of free online resources, such as webinars, toolkits, articles and e-learning courses from cybersecurity organizations like the <a href="https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/small-medium-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canadian Centre for Cyber Security</a> and the <a href="https://www.unb.ca/cic/webinars.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity</a>, the Government of Canada&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.getcybersafe.gc.ca/en/resources/get-cyber-safe-guide-small-businesses#C7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get Cyber Safe</a> platform, as well as cybersecurity firms.
Other ways to keep employees informed are through newsletters with tips, news about recent threats and best practices; informal lunch-and-learn lessons where employees can share news and insights; and a database or guidebook where employees can stay up to date on the latest threats and find answers to their cybersecurity questions.11,12,13
Nurture a cybersecurity culture: A strong culture of cybersecurity &ndash; meaning it&rsquo;s entrenched in the company&rsquo;s values &ndash; is essential. SMBs should lead by example, showing the company is committed to cybersecurity at all levels. This makes employees more likely to follow suit. Since employee engagement is a key element of building a cybersecurity culture, business leaders should also recognize and reward employees who demonstrate good practices.14
Another way to build a strong cybersecurity culture is to speak employees&rsquo; language. Experts advise communicating in plain language, avoiding technical jargon and focusing on practical advice employees can use daily. For example, rather than using the term &ldquo;multi-factor authentication,&rdquo; they can explain there is an extra layer of security when logging in.15
Additionally, fostering open communication and a &ldquo;no-blame culture&rdquo; is essential. Employees should feel comfortable asking questions, reporting suspicious emails and voicing concerns without fear of reprisal.16
While SMBs may face resource constraints, the cost of not investing in cybersecurity &ndash; even in the simplest of ways &ndash; is far greater. By prioritizing employee awareness and creating a strong cybersecurity culture, businesses can turn their weakest link into their strongest line of defence.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Sources
1 Proofpoint, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.proofpoint.com/us/newsroom/press-releases/proofpoints-2024-voice-ciso-report-reveals-three-quarters-cisos-identify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proofpoint&rsquo;s 2024 Voice of the CISO Report Reveals that Three-Quarters of CISOs Identify Human Error as Leading Cybersecurity Risk</a>,&rdquo; May 21, 2024
2 Verizon, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.verizon.com/about/news/2023-data-breach-investigations-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 Data Breach Investigations Report: frequency and cost of social engineering attacks skyrocket</a>,&rdquo; June 6, 2023
3 Skillsoft, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.skillsoft.com/blog/why-security-training-fails-and-how-to-fix-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Security Training Fails And How To Fix It</a>,&rdquo; June 3, 2022
4 &nbsp;StrongDM, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.strongdm.com/blog/small-business-cyber-security-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">35 Alarming Small Business Cybersecurity Statistics for 2024</a>,&rdquo; Feb. 1, 2024
5 Business.com, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.business.com/articles/smb-budget-for-cybersecurity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Cost of Cybersecurity and How to Budget for It</a>,&rdquo; Aug. 13, 2024
6&nbsp; Insurance Bureau of Canada, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.ibc.ca/news-insights/in-focus/ibcs-research-suggests-business-owners-and-employees-could-be-putting-their-organizations-at-risk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Are you cyber savvy? IBC&rsquo;s research suggests business owners and employees could be putting their organizations at risk</a>,&rdquo; Nov. 6, 2023
7 LinkedIn, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/you-need-communicate-security-awareness-your-ob68f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">You need to communicate security awareness to your employees. What are some effective ways?</a>&rdquo;
8 FasterCapital, &ldquo;<a href="https://fastercapital.com/content/Train-your-employees-on-cybersecurity.html#The-Importance-of-Cybersecurity-Training-for-Employees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Train your employees on cybersecurity</a>,&rdquo; June. 4, 2024
9 Pure IT, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.pureit.ca/five-ways-small-businesses-can-stop-a-cyber-breach-from-ever-happening/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Five Ways Small Businesses Can Stop A Cyber Breach From Ever Happening</a>&rdquo;
10 Teal, &ldquo;<a href="https://tealtech.com/blog/cybersecurity-awareness-training-for-employees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 Ways to Promote Employee Cybersecurity Awareness Training</a>,&rdquo; July 25, 2024
11 Mitnick Security, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/blog/remote-security-tips" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Remote Security: 5 Cyber Security Tips for Employees and Businesses</a>,&rdquo; Feb. 22, 2024
12 The AME Group, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.theamegroup.com/headlines/engage-employees-to-increase-cyber-safety/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Engage Employees To Increase Cyber Safety</a>&rdquo;
13 &nbsp;Compyl, &ldquo;<a href="https://compyl.com/blog/cybersecurity-awareness-training-for-small-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getting Started With Cyber Security Awareness Training for Small Business</a>,&rdquo; Sept. 5, 2024
14 Babylon Solutions, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.babylonsolutions.com/cybersecurity-guide-for-small-businesses-how-to-protect-your-company/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cybersecurity Guide for Small Businesses: How to Protect Your Company</a>,&rdquo; Oct. 7, 2024
15 SMB Solutions: &ldquo;<a href="https://www.smbsolutions.com.au/10-easy-steps-to-building-a-culture-of-cybersecurity-awareness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10 Easy Steps to Building a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness</a>,&rdquo; Aug. 23, 2024
16 Tripwire, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/cultivating-cybersecurity-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cultivating a Cybersecurity Culture</a>,&rdquo; Jan. 23, 2024

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If your business is interrupted by a loss, you&rsquo;ll need more than just a strong insurance policy. You&rsquo;ll need a plan. Developing a solid business continuity plan (BCP) is a great way for any organization to successfully minimize disruptions and navigate an unexpected or unfortunate event. That could include anything from losing an important team member, being affected by a flood or falling victim to a cyber breach or attack. Regardless of the industry or size of company, a well thought out BCP helps ensure key functions of your business can continue even if the worst happens.&nbsp;
Here are five key steps to help you build your organization&rsquo;s business continuity plan:
<h4>Step 1: Analyze your risks</h4>
This crucial first step involves thoroughly evaluating all the risks and hazards that could disrupt the business. In fact, the BCP should be developed around a &ldquo;worst case scenario&rdquo; with the understanding that the response can be scaled appropriately to match the actual incident. So go ahead and start by identifying all potential risk scenarios, however unlikely they may initially sound. Then, focus on scenarios that are most relevant to your business. For example, extreme weather risks tend to be geographical and not applicable to all firms, but emerging risks like cyber-attacks are relevant for all organizations, so reviewing the security of your computer network and the effectiveness of any firewalls is an important consideration in step 1.
And don&rsquo;t make the mistake of overlooking your business&rsquo; more mundane, everyday risks, such as any physical or security hazards.
<h4>Step 2: Business impact analysis</h4>
In step two, assess the business impact of the disruptive scenarios that were brought to light in the initial risk analysis and calculate the various costs related to these risks. This enables you to quantify how each risk will impact your company&rsquo;s service delivery and whether / for how long you can continue to operate without certain services. The business impact analysis allows organizational leaders to develop objectives and priorities by examining potential disruptions to the company&rsquo;s people, technology, infrastructure and vendors. This impact analysis can go hand in hand with calculating your company&rsquo;s business interruption limit &ndash; another important calculation we recommend your business stays on top of.
<h4>Step 3: Create a detailed response and recovery plan</h4>
Your company has already been disrupted, now it&rsquo;s about protecting your organization and staff from further damage. Based on the findings from the business impact analysis, you&rsquo;re now ready to create a thorough response and recovery plan. This involves implementing procedures and measures that help your business to both prevent and recover from a disruptive event. Your plan should address all the goals of your BCP, which are to:
<ul>
<li>Safeguard lives and reduce the chance of (further) injury</li>
<li>Protect assets</li>
<li>Restore critical business processes, systems and activities</li>
<li>Reduce the length of the interruption of business</li>
<li>Protect your business&rsquo; reputation</li>
<li>Control media coverage</li>
<li>Maintain customer relations.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp; For example, in order to achieve these goals, the plan would include a strategy for accessing key business and customer information, handling payroll, and explaining where employees should congregate or work from if the business location is inaccessible. It would also include a roadmap of alternative ways to handle daily operations if computer systems, equipment, suppliers, employees, etc. are unreachable or unavailable. You should also develop and print a list of important contacts in case the disruption affects computers, the network or your customer-relationship management (CRM) system. This list should include employees, clients, vendors, emergency response services, suppliers, your insurance broker and your accountant. Once you&rsquo;ve created the plan, you need to assemble a BCP team to learn it, test it and roll it out when it counts. At this stage, a BCP Coordinator should be identified. This person is not only responsible for overseeing and facilitating the coordination of the BCP upon activation of the plan, but also for ensuring that:
<ul>
<li>The plan has been created and adheres to the company&rsquo;s standard</li>
<li>Advanced preparations have been completed</li>
<li>The plan is regularly tested (step 4)The plan is regularly maintained (step 5)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Step 4: Test the plan</h4>
Great, so you have a plan and everyone knows their role should disaster (or interruption) strike. But implementing the plan in the event of an unexpected incident is something altogether different. That&rsquo;s why testing the plan is so important. You should create a simulated scenario in which one of your highest risk disruptions actually happens and then analyze how key stakeholders execute the plan. It gives teams and leaders great insight into the effectiveness of the plan and will highlight any hiccups or steps that need reworking. It&rsquo;s much easier to spot problems in real time rather than in a Word document or PowerPoint presentation. The plan should be tested at least once a year.
<h4>Step 5: Maintain the plan</h4>
It&rsquo;s no good sitting back and admiring your work. Your organization is constantly evolving and therefore, so is your risk. If you move offices or change computer systems, your risk profile is going to change significantly and your plan will have to be tweaked and tested accordingly. Even having a high turnover of staff in a short period of time could render parts of your original plan obsolete.
Analysis should be ongoing and you should bring stakeholders together at least once a year to review the plan and talk about any sections that might need updating. At this stage it&rsquo;s as much about your attitude to risk as it is the risk itself. Having gone through the process of creating and testing the plan, you have a solid understanding of where your company may be susceptible. Now it&rsquo;s all about being switched on to organizational changes as and when they happen and thinking about how they affect your risk exposures. Preventing unexpected events is tough but planning how to react when they do happen is something that every company should do.

5 steps for developing a business continuity plan

A new driver (Sandy) has just started work at a medium sized transportation company. Just two weeks in, she&rsquo;s overwhelmed by the new systems and routes that she needs to learn and, after a momentary lapse in concentration, Sandy collides with a stationery vehicle. Although she&rsquo;s not seriously harmed, she&rsquo;s shaken and will be kept off the road for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, Sandy will fully recover and there were no other injuries; the transportation truck on the other hand is badly damaged and the company is at risk of not being able to fulfill some critical service commitments.
Sandy&rsquo;s employer faces a slew of costs associated with the collision and finding a replacement driver to cover her routes while she&rsquo;s off recuperating. The insurance policy will cover some of the loss but without a doubt the company will be out of pocket. This is an unfortunate sequence of events to be suffered by a medium-sized transportation company.
It would be easy to conclude that this type of loss is just the cost of doing business for a transportation company. But it doesn&rsquo;t have to be. Sandy&rsquo;s employer could have reduced the potential of an accident happening by providing Sandy with more training, but they were short-sighted and eager to get her out on the road as soon as possible. Rather than spending time on new driver orientation training and activities, the management team wanted her clocking up the miles on the road. They didn&rsquo;t appreciate the importance of investing in their drivers to avoid this type of early employment accident.
&ldquo;Fleets with drivers that have the right training, tools, equipment, attitude and employer support positively impact their own on road performance. Automobile insurance pricing favors fleets that invest in these areas.&rdquo;
Experienced fleet managers know that their insurance policy, no matter how comprehensive, is a secondary line of defence. Being proactive and mitigating risks before they happen is how you build a resilient business. If Sandy&rsquo;s employer had taken such an approach, she likely would still be on the road, the vehicle would be undamaged and the company wouldn&rsquo;t be facing a potentially costly loss. In the transportation industry, we know it&rsquo;s so important to think ahead because you&rsquo;re dealing with situations like Sandy&rsquo;s every day.
&ldquo;One of the most effective measures is investing in your drivers,&rdquo; explains Boyd Cooley, Commercial Underwriting Manager at Sovereign Insurance. &ldquo;Carefully screening new driver hires is also critical. You want to have the right person with the right attitude behind the wheel.&rdquo;
Training drivers to operate vehicles as safely as possible - and providing guidance on defensive driving - is so important. Drivers may have a clean record with no prior collisions, but it&rsquo;s vital they receive ongoing training and education to enable them to perform at a higher standard.
&ldquo;A better prepared fleet operator is a better insurance risk,&rdquo; says Cooley. &ldquo;Fleets with drivers that have the right training, tools, equipment, attitude and employer support positively impact their own on road performance. Automobile insurance pricing favors fleets that invest in these areas.&rdquo;
The benefits for an organization that adopts a proactive approach to risk mitigation are clear. From improved driver morale and insurance savings to more miles being covered due to fewer accidents, forwarding thinking companies are better positioned to attract and retain good drivers and at the same time boost organizational profits.
For companies that don&rsquo;t invest their time in implementing risk mitigation best practices, the consequences are wide ranging. &ldquo;The risks are serious; from the safety of your employees and the public at large, to financial business risk threatening the viability of your operation,&rdquo; says Cooley. &ldquo;Fleets that don&rsquo;t invest in risk management may find insurance coverage prohibitively expensive or even unavailable. Fleet operators have a lot at stake and need to be proactively managing their risk. At Sovereign, our Fleet Underwriting and Risk Assessment Specialists are here to help.&rdquo;
Here are some helpful tips for creating a culture that promotes safe driving: 
<ul>
<li>Educate drivers on safe and defensive driving techniques from day one</li>
<li>Develop training materials on fatigue management</li>
<li>Create a buddy system in which newer drivers have an experienced person to turn to for advice</li>
<li>Place organizational emphasis on safety rather than hitting targets</li>
<li>Don&rsquo;t retain drivers who break the rules</li>
<li>Foster a culture of continuous learning and pride of workmanship</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
We can work with your Broker to help you strengthen your current Fleet Safety Program. Contact your broker to learn more.

The Importance of investing in your drivers

covid-19-non-owned-auto-exposures-checklist

COVID-19 Non Owned Auto Exposures Checklist

COVID-19 Non Owned Auto Exposures Checklist

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