Ep. 557 Key Elements in A Fleet Safety Program for Plumbers and HVAC Contractors

Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Matt Gorham discuss three key elements Plumbers and HVAC Contractors should include in their fleet safety program.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠⁠

Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Megan Lockhart

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠Matt Gorham⁠⁠

Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production

© Copyright 2025. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Megan Lockhart: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.

I’m your host today, Megan Lockhart, and I’m joined by Matt Gorham, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. And he specializes in risk management for Plumbers and HVAC contractors. And, we’re going to talk about three key elements Plumbers and HVAC Contractors should include in their fleet safety program today.

So, Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Gorham: Yeah, Megan, great to be back. Thanks for having me.

ML: Well, happy to have you.

Now, commercial auto insurance continues to be a talking point for plumbers and HVAC contractors as premiums continue to rise. So will you tell us why contractors are seeing such a sharp increase in these auto insurance premiums?

ML: Yeah, short answer, to be very frank, Megan, is profitability. In the insurance world, commercial auto insurance simply isn't profitable. We've all felt it on personal lines as well as saying increases, but on the commercial side, there are a lot of factors that are contributing to this. But I wanted to share what I think is a stat that really indicates the state of the market. For 14 consecutive years, commercial auto has posted an underwriting loss. And in just the last two years, they've developed more than $10 billion combined in net underwriting losses. So the auto insurance industry really can't continue this direction. But as of right now, early indicators show that the trend is continuing. So carriers are responding.

A lot of carriers are not writing auto insurance anymore. Or if they are, they're being very selective about who they're writing and what coverages they're willing to offer. So the primary driver behind the poor results in auto insurance is auto liability, damage or bodily injury to a third party. This has been fueled by third party litigation funding, social engineering, and shifting views of corporate responsibility, which are driving nuclear and thermonuclear verdicts, which are all working together to upend the auto insurance marketplace. It's caused a lot of carriers to re-evaluate their willingness to even offer commercial auto policies.

And for those carriers that are still writing commercial auto, they are increasing their premiums, they are tightening their underwriting guidelines, and they're really scrutinizing claims history and the quality of written fleet safety programs so much more closely now than they had been before.

ML: Okay, so can you explain for listeners what is a fleet safety program?

MG: Yeah, absolutely. So a fleet safety program is a collection of policies that set the rules for a company on really driving behaviors. Who's allowed to drive? What condition? When are they allowed to drive? What's expected of them when they're driving? Vehicle maintenance, maybe accident investigation or incident responses, as well as including possibly technology solutions like cameras and telematics.

ML: Okay. Now, recently you wrote an article where you address three key main policies that should be included in a fleet safety program. Can you tell us what those are?

MG: Yeah, so there are a lot of different policies that I think are key to a fleet safety program, but there were three in particular that I wanted to talk about that I think often get overlooked. It's the personal use policy, alcohol and substance policy, and distracted driving policy.

So the first of those, the personal use policy, really spells out the company's rules around an employee's ability to use a company vehicle for personal use, or whether that's allowed at all. That can be things like who's allowed in the company vehicle, when are they allowed to use it, and whether anyone else other than the employee themselves might be able to use it.

In the HVAC and plumbing world, we commonly see service trucks get driven home after work and be amazed at some of the situations that we see of significant others driving the truck outside of work purposes. So really being able to clearly stipulate who is allowed to drive the vehicle and whether they're allowed to drive the vehicle outside of company use is really important. Personal use policies also address the company use of personal vehicles. So some companies do have their technicians or their employees drive their personal vehicles for company work. And it's important that companies do hold their employees to minimum standards for insurance requirements and have some kind of frequency of preventative maintenance performed on their vehicles.

The second is the alcohol and substance policy. And while I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory, it does amaze me how often we hear stories about drugs or alcohol or paraphernalia being found in service trucks in particular. So it's important that companies do have written and clear guidelines and policies around what they will allow and how any infractions will be handled.

And the third is a distracted driving policy. Now, there are so many different distractions that can be present on the road. One of the most important ones, of course, is technology, you know, cell phones or mobile devices in general. We see all the time people looking up maps or changing music or sending text and messages, even FaceTiming while they're driving. And it's important for companies to set rules around what is expected of their drivers when it comes to cell phones.

Here in California, it is, of course, now illegal to even have your cell phone in your hand while you're driving. But I'm sure if you're looking around right now, if you happen to be on the road, you may have already picked up your cell phone while you're driving, stopped at a stop light or stuck in traffic. So just because it's illegal doesn't necessarily stop people from doing it. So having company policies that dictate that it's not safe is really important.

And again, it's not just about cell phone, but we do see things like people eating while they're driving or putting on makeup while they're driving or even getting changed behind the wheel. So again, as a company, it's important that you're not just setting the rules for what's expected of your drivers behind the wheel, but what happens if your drivers aren't following the rules.

ML: Okay, that's really great information. So how can having this fleet safety program in place help businesses address premium increases?

MG: Yeah, that's a great question, Megan. Ultimately, that's what we're trying to address. Like I mentioned, there's just a huge lack of profitability in the commercial auto line of coverage right now.

And so even companies that are performing really well are still seeing increases. But it's about minimizing the increases that we're seeing or you know wherever possible looking for savings as well. It had been considered best practices to have these written fleet safety programs in place and at this point it's really considered minimum standards for most carriers. So when these written fleet safety programs are not just in place but actively implemented it can help your drivers make better driving decisions and reinforce better driving behaviors behind the wheel, which avoid accidents from happening. And that in itself can help to mitigate premium increases. But as brokers, it also gives us leverage when we do go to market on your behalf to more effectively negotiate with carriers, on the commitment to safe driving that a company has.

And one question that we get often enough is if there's a premium discount for installing cameras within company vehicles. And as things stand currently, there really isn't a specific discount for that. And I think it's important to recognize that cameras on their own don't create safer or better drivers, but what things like cameras and telematics allow for is better enforcement in the implementation of the written fleet safety program, and all those together can contribute to premium savings.

ML: All right. Well, this was a lot of great information, Matt. So if listeners have questions about their fleet safety or how it affects their premiums, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

MG: Best way to get in touch with me is to call me 619-486 -6554 or to email me at mgorham@ranchomesa.com

ML: All right. Well, Matt, thanks for joining me in StudioOne.

MG: Yeah, thanks again for having me, Megan.

ML: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.