Personal Use Of Company Trucks

Aggie67

We're steamed this week. One of our foremen is driving a truck that's coming up for inspection. He notified us that he "hit a deer recently" and needs the light repaired in order for it to pass. This is after he damaged the passenger side trying to back out of his new house's driveway (his story), and after he lost his front license plate somehow. We also found out he has no other vehicle, so obviously he's using it to get around on weekends and at night for personal use (which our insurance does not cover).

To date we've made the repairs for him. (Up till now he's a good employee with skills, and we want to hang on to him, so we've bent like a palm in a hurricane.)

Anyone else have these problems? Does your insurance cover personal use?

buildenterprise

Take back the keys before you're forced to ask your insurance company the same question.

AtlanticWBConst

Could be more serious. Maybe he's got a "drinking and driving" problem? (unusual amount of vehicle damage)

Either way, it's an insurance risk, that you may not want to take.

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dougchips

He hit the deer while checking on one of your job sites, I was there.

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woodworkbykirk

the last company i worked for which had several company vehicles, which employees would drive on occasion for work had their insurance policy set up so it was " up to 150 Kms's per month for personal use". this was to allow employees who would be required to take the trucks home at night could say pick up grocerys on the way home from work, or if one of us was moving we could use it for a few hours .

they use to have complete coverage on the vehicles, but one employee was taking advantage of this and was using the company vehicle for picking up materials for his own side jobs

Cdat

Maybe, he let's his wife use it and is taking the blame himself?

GregS

Sounds like you should be doing a regular inspection of your companies property and vehicles to make sure everything is in order. Driving around with a broken lamp is one thing.. but what if it was worse?

You should also have an employee policy in place stating that while wearing a company logo or driving around in the company truck that they will act accordingly. Even the corporate deskjobs I've had have this in their contracts.

Bending to his will is just going to cause him to take advantage of you.. which is sounds like he is.

Does he currently have a valid drivers license?

Chris Johnson

I live in wine country and a lot of my friends work in the wine industry. No matter who you are or what position you hold, field laborer to executive vice president, you get caught with ANY alcohol in your system you are immediately fired. You must be insurable to drive company vehicles, even if you never drive one. Add that to your employee handbook

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Chris

AtlanticWBConst

Another option could be to start a "new" employee company vehicle policy. Corporate policy.

Draw up a legal document that each employee must sign that states the guidelines for driving company vehicles. Include the point that "personal-use" is not allowed for any reason, (or may requires written permission). Grounds for breaking the rules are immediate supsension or dismissal. Zero tolerance.

You could tell them it's for new insurance policy-liability reasons (so no one takes it personally).

Have all drivers sign one.

Maybe that will give the guy a kick in the pants to find some of his own transportation...

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d-rez

This sort of thing really scares me. I used to know the foreman of some company, who would pick up beer at the end of the day for the guys. Sure enough, one afternoon he plowed into a Mustang. Totaled the work truck. He was telling me the GC (AA member) never found out they were drinking. Employees scare me, most just don't get 'it'.

MALCO.New.York

I will Guarantee that this guy has a substance abuse issue!

Tell him he can continue to use the vehicle at his discretion IF he takes a drug test for Insurance purposes. I do not suggest that you allow him to continue. Just bait him.

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mdshunk

Three words:

Gee Pee Ess.

K2

Yeah, we just had 2 inspectors fired because of gps and the strip club during working hours.

MALCO.New.York

Dots!!!!!

+ YouTube Video

But screw Nexthell!

__________________
Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE

Colorado Fatboy

Are you with PPRBD? I know they use GPS. Just curious.

Colorado Fatboy

I can't believe our company still lets us drive company vehicles home. It seems like most of the "accidents" occur after hours. As usual a few will ruin it for the rest.


I was in my bosses office the other day going over some plans. Hew got a phone call on his cell and left the room. Looking at the stuff on his desk I noticed a list of things that he had listed as ways to save the company money. One was stop letting employees take vehicles home. It went into details like "would not be very popular" "potential to save money on payroll because hours could not be fudged" etc.


We shall see what happens.

Kaiser

I worked for a very large world wide G.C. and they didn't provide Company Trucks and this is why.

An Employee let his wife take the truck to the corner store. She runs into some old friends and ends up going a few more blocks for a BBQ. Gets trashed, climbs into the truck and ends up KILLING a young boy out riding his bike.

The Company got sued for millions

Do away with the Company trucks and pay your employees a Vehicle Allowence.

$150 to $200 a week is more than enough for a truck payment and insurance.

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Unforgiven

Wow, my vehicle allowance is $160 a month.

thom

Many tradesmen own their own trucks anyway. Out West here (I'm in Albuquerque) trucks are standard transportation. I just paid an additional hourly rate to employees who had trucks and would use them for my business. In addition, if there was exceptional driving I would cover the gas plus a little extra.

I didn't have to screw with maintenance, repairs, insurance. It's well worth it.

From the perspective of the employee, it was a real deal. He was getting part of his personal costs covered by me.

Kaiser

The Taxman allows somewhere in the nieghborhood of .55 per to cover wear and tear and fuel for your company vehicle.

You want your employees to be a reflection of your company. A '82' F-150
does cut it. Pay your employees an enough allowance to put them in a late model truck and not have to struggle.

Maybe someone here can tell us what their company trucks cost them per month.

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