Controlling Fleet Liability

With its new M5K system, Magtec Products Inc. has introduced a new technical wrinkle to vehicle security and truck fleet management.

Magtec president and CEO Robert J. Morisset outlined the new features of the M5K security system at the annual transportation seminar of the Kingsway General Insurance Company held in Mississauga on June 14. The features allow dispatchers to control remotely the speed and security of trucks in a fleet.

In the near future, Morisset noted, the company would be announcing a further innovation on M5K that would give truck fleet owners the ability to designate electronic “geo-zones,” essentially dictating where trucks could or could not move.

“These new safety features will impact your exposure to liability issues,” Morisset told his audience. “They also will improve auto liability management.”

TRACKING YOUR FLEET

Magtec has partnered with QualComm, a designer and supplier of software technology, to offer a Web-based vehicle security and driver management tool that can be engaged electronically by remote dispatchers. As a result, an office dispatcher would be able to use what’s called a Vehicle Command Control (VCC) system to manage driver authentification codes, and even slow down and/or disable a moving truck if required.

The system has attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

M5K includes an indestructible keypad that’s placed near the dash. Each driver is assigned a code to input on the keypad in order to start the truck. Without the driver’s code, the truck isn’t going anywhere.

Dispatchers can control drivers’ codes remotely. If someone were to report that a truck driver had come into work in an alcoholic haze, for example, dispatchers could use cell technology to remove the impaired driver’s code and input the code of a new driver to take his or her place.

The system includes several ways to paralyze a vehicle remotely, protecting the vehicle from theft, unattended idling, or careless driving. The idle protect feature, for example, shuts down a truck if a driver sets the brakes for longer than 30 seconds. The driver would then be required to re-enter his or her authentication code to begin driving again.

The Acceleration Control System (ACC) feature can be used in a variety of different situations – i.e. if a driver is not responding to calls, speeding or is weaving in and out of lanes as a result of fatigue. An “over-air,” electronic signal can be sent, giving the driver a 30-second warning to slow down, after which time the dispatcher can begin to slow the vehicle down remotely.

For example, Morisset noted, if a driver is reported barreling along the U.S. highways at 70 mph, dispatchers can electronically slow the truck down to 60 mph, then 50 mph, then 40 mph…until the truck gears safely down to a complete stop and the driver must pull off the road. The dispatcher can then, if need be, remove the driver’s access code, forcing the driver to wait for dispatch to make the next move.

Building on its technology, Magtec expects to be offering a new product in September, called “geo-fencing,” which will give vehicle fleet owners even more control over their fleet’s management. Geo-fencing allows a truck fleet owner to designate where the fleet’s trucks can and cannot go.

For example, an owner may not want trucks to enter a hospital zone, or prevent drivers from traveling along specific highways, or want trucks to stay within urban city limits. In this case, the prohibited or accessible areas can be programmed into the system. “As soon as a vehicle breaks the geo-fencing zone, the truck will be brought to a safe stop,” Morriset said. “If you want a truck on a particular highway, we can do that.”

ACCIDENT BENEFITS V. WORKER’S COMP

What began as a simple “drafting error” in Bill 198 has highlighted two parallel systems for resolving accident benefits in the context of commercial vehicle ownership, according to insurance defense lawyer Mark Wilson of Anderson Wilson LLP.

Wilson reminded insurers at the Kingsway General Insurance Company conference in Toronto that an insurer of a vehicle fleet can go to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to recover Accident Benefits (AB) claims paid out, as long as the person injured is determined to be an employee or worker of the company. The catch is this cannot be done if the AB claims have already been paid out as a result of arbitration, he noted.

“There are two parallel systems,” Wilson told his audience. “There’s AB and worker’s compensation. One is run by the government, one is run by the insurance industry. The fleet covered by workers comp [run by the government] will be much more attractive to underwriters.”

Wilson noted the claims of injured vehicle drivers might be recovered from the WSIB, so long as the WSIB deems the drivers to be “employees” working for the company’s fleet (as opposed to, say, working as independent contractors).

But there is a catch, Wilson noted. Based on what he described as “reasons of a simple drafting error” in Bill 198, an insurer cannot go to the WSIB for a determination of the injured driver’s employment status unless the injured claimant has initiated a lawsuit as a “plaintiff.” In other words, the insurer cannot go to the WSIB for a determination on the injured party’s worker status if there is no lawsuit.

But no court action exists if the claim is resolved through arbitration, Wilson observed. The moral of the story, he said, is to get claims to the WSIB before settling out AB claims.

Insurers should get a court ruling to show what was paid, get the plaintiff in court to show what money was received, then everything will go smoothly for the insurer at the WSIB, Wilson said.

The WSIB will not likely be fooled by erroneous claims that drivers are “independent contractors,” Wilson added. Courts are generally willing to “look behind the stated relationship” to see if the injured driver is a company employee, he said.