Training Your Landscape Fleet Drivers with Rancho Mesa

Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Landscape businesses are well aware of the risks associated with their employees operating vehicles on a daily basis. The commercial insurance market has also taken notice of the risks and responded with rate increases and a diminishing appetite to write the policies. 

Rancho Mesa works with over 100 landscape and tree care professionals across the country. Due to our heavy concentration on the green industry, we are able to bring specific resources to this group in an effort to better prepare their businesses to mitigate risk.

An example of these industry-specific resources is our recently released driver-specific toolbox talk library that can be used on a weekly basis to help employees prepare for the common exposures they face while driving for your company. These short safety meetings should be used to supplement your fleet and driver safety program.

The library of 52 English/Spanish driver-specific toolbox talk topics includes:

• 6 Utility Trailer Driving

• 6 Worksite Parking and Awareness

• 40 General Driver Safety

Safety managers can use this content for:

• Weekly refresher trainings for fleet drivers

• During a specific time of year when there is low light, wet weather, or high wind

• Corrective action from GPS or dashcam insights (e.g., harsh breaking, speed management, following distance, right of way, turning, backing safely, and blind spots)

The library of driver-specific toolbox talks are available within the SafetyOne™ mobile app. And, anyone can subscribe to receive Rancho Mesa’s weekly driver-specific toolbox talk emails.

Rancho Mesa encourages the landscape industry to continuously train their drivers to better position them for success.

For questions about best practices for managing driver risk, contact me at drewgarcia@ranchomesa.com or (619) 937-0200.