I am looking for ideas to reduce vehicle accidents.  We have a sales force that is given a company car and have had a slew of fender benders.  Has anyone tried to enforce a deductible program?  Example :  Cracked windshield- the employee would have to pay a certain $ amount. Has anyone tried to limit # of miles ( i.e not using for entertainment purposes, etc)  We had two training sessions as well:  Defensive Driving through the State Police and a slide show of car crash video clips.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I sympathize with your problem and wonder how we could reduce our risks and expense too. Your training session ideas are excellent.  The deductible program sounds troublesome to me.

Here are a couple of ideas we are considering:

- Tie the bonus/commission payout to overall profitability of sales department, of which transportation expenses would be a component.  If expenses go up, payout goes down. Or, set a bogey with an additional or separate bonus payment tied to some level of car expenses.  Obviously those expenses would have to be significant to be worth the trouble.

- Train and have strict policies about cell phone usage (and other operator distractions like GPS, computers, eating, etc).  If operator involved in accident in violation of company policies there is some penalty.

- Drivers school for wayward drivers.  If involved in accident, no matter how minor, that person has to take a drivers ed course.

good luck!

We do hold the employee accountable anytime there is a deductible applied.  So for comprehensive damage and collision what ever the deductible is $250 or $500 is what they pay.  We do allow the employee to pay that over 10 pay periods but it is auto deducted from their pay. 

We have a points system that gives points for major and minor accidents (if it is their fault), major (DUI, reckless driving etc) and minor violations (speeding, seatbelt).  They are allowed at two points they are suspended for one day 3 points 2 days, 4 points 3 days and 5 points terminated.  We also have an incentive for ee's with zero points every quarter.

We restrict driving to 300 (one way) miles from their home