Pub. 1 2020 Issue 2

18 Kentucky Trucker Kentucky Trucking Association WHY TRUCKING COMPANIES NEED SAFETY PROGRAMS B usiness owners generally have important questions to answer: • What makes my comp- any profitable? • What are my biggest expenses? • How can I increase my profits and reduce my expenses? Is it a waste of money to have a safety program? The answer to that question is a strong “no.” Why? Injuries are expensive even when they aren’t fatal, and if you can pre- vent them, you have automatically reduced your expenses. That is why the best way to think about the cost of a safety program is to view it as a source of reliable hidden profits. The U.S. depends on trucks for its transportation needs, but people outside the industry often don’t realize the risks faced by drivers. In fact, if trucking companies don’t focus on safety programs, injuries from accidents can easily become their biggest expense. The question shouldn’t be whether your truck- ing company can afford a safety program. It might take time to set up, and it won’t be perfect, but money spent on a safety program is probably going to be much less than money spent after an accident occurs. More, a good safety pro- gram should prevent people from being killed or injured. You can’t put a price on that. Some of the expense caused by trucking accidents is direct and easy to see. It consists of the cost for an ambulance, the cost of medical care that often takes place in emergency rooms, and pharmacy expenses. Indirect expenses, although less vis- ible, are bigger than the direct costs and go on for much longer than you might expect. They include, but are not limited to, the following issues: • The time that could have been spent on business is spent deal- ing with accidents instead. • A driver who is killed or injured has to be replaced. • Time has to be spent on issues related to the accident. Some of this time is administrative, but you also have to include time spent training new hires or working overtime because you don’t have as many employees available anymore to do the work. • OSHA fines are possible. • More accidents mean higher insurance rates and higher workers' compensation rates. • There are incident investiga- tion costs.