When an employee is involved in a collision in your company’s vehicle, your business will be liable. As the business owner, this means that you will be liable. It is a legal concept called “vicarious liability.” If your employee were responsible for a collision due to his or her negligence and third parties were injured, you, as the owner, would be held liable for those third-party damages.
As the business owner responsible for every aspect of the business, you must do the following to ensure that each employee is prepared to drive a company truck on the roads:
Enact the Most Effective Hiring Practices
You have a duty of care to the public and your employees. This means that you must exercise reasonable care when you are making hiring decisions because these are the people who will be driving your trucks. During the hiring process, you need to submit each applicant to a background check, verify their driving records and ensure that each applicant has the training and qualifications to drive the type of truck your business uses. If you fail to perform any of these duties, this can lead to liability for you and your business.
Provide Adequate Training and Supervision for Your Drivers
You must do what you can to prevent your employees from getting into accidents. You must also provide safe working conditions. This means that you have the obligation to provide proper training for your employees. You must also enact comprehensive safety policies. Most importantly, you must maintain your trucks so that they are always in the best working condition for traveling along public roads.
Although your employees should be adequately trained before you hire them, you must provide additional training after hiring. This is very important because, if your employee is determined to have been negligent or incompetent in his or her driving after a collision, you and your business will be held liable.
Determine Whether or Not the Employee Was Acting as Your Employee at the Time of the Collision
A business owner will be assigned responsibility for a collision if the employee was driving the truck as part of his or her job duties. The employee may not have necessarily been performing a job duty at the time of the crash, but if his or her activities benefited you in some way, you can be held liable. This would not apply if the employee were doing a personal errand or was not necessarily conducting business in your truck.
Legal Obligations Before the Truck Accident Occurs
Every state except for New Hampshire requires that you purchase auto liability insurance before you take your vehicle on the roads. They set mandatory minimums for the amount of liability insurance you need to have, but you may consult with a financial advisor to find out exactly how much insurance coverage your business is going to need. For example, your advisor may advise you against purchasing the mandatory minimum of insurance in your state because these minimums may be much too low for your business’ needs.
Bodily Injury Liability
This is one type of mandatory insurance coverage, and it will cover your legal fees and the medical bills of those injured in the collision. This coverage pays for third-party medical expenses and does not cover your employee’s medical expenses.
Property Damage Liability
This mandatory insurance coverage applies to the vehicles that your employee damages in a collision. It does not cover the expenses for repairing your company’s truck.
You are not required to purchase insurance coverage for your employees’ injuries or your vehicles’ property damages, but your financial advisor will, most likely, advise you to buy this optional coverage. To ensure that you can be prepared for all of the likely scenarios that can occur after a collision, schedule a consultation with an attorney.
