SAMBA Holdings Inc., an Albuquerque-based technology firm, has created a web-hosted service that is being utilized throughout the country to assist safety, risk and fleet managers. Each month SAMBA’s technology alerts management of new risks as they post to employee driver records. And the SAMBA online service is starting to make a noticeable difference in the disturbing trends.

About the problem
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the highest societal cost by external cause of death in the workplace was dominated by motor vehicle incidents. And in New Mexico alone, commercial DWI arrests rose from 252 in 2008 to 358 in 2009 – a 42% increase.

Negligence claims and awards continue to see double-digit increases as city coffers continue to decline. The average accident claim ranges from $16,000 - $20,000, but if there is proven negligence, claims can quickly escalate into six figures. As large settlements are paid out, city’s finances are adversely affected and insurance premiums increase. Typically, HR Departments check driver’s licenses as part of the job application process, but rarely pull them after that. The Risk Management & Safety Departments, often responsible for municipal fleets, review commercial driving records annually as mandated by Federal Law, but typically do not review records for employees that drive municipal cars or personal cars on municipal business.

What’s being done
SAMBA developed an online service that retrieves state citation information monthly and alerts management as soon as any driver record changes are found. This allows management to take proactive measures to pull unsafe drivers off the road before an accident occurs. The bottom line – the roads are safer, and there are fewer lawsuits and fewer settlements for organizations to pay out, especially large negligence claims.

A few case studies
The New Mexico Municipal League was disturbed by the trend and decided to take proactive leadership. The organization purchased SAMBA’s Driver Record Monitoring Service for its entire membership, which is offered at no-cost to members  “Cities are frequently seen as the deep pockets in accident lawsuits, so our members were at increased risk,” Ed Zendel, Risk Services Director. “Now our members are empowered with information they need to remove dangerous drivers immediately – before an accident occurs.”

Likewise the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority (NMPSIA), which manages a workers compensation and property and casualty risk insurance pool for more than 100 school districts within the State, is utilizing the service to reign in unlicensed and high-risk drivers. “We’ve had a number of very high-profile cases involving employees having collisions while driving public or agency-owned vehicles,” said Sammy Quintana, Executive Director for the NMPSIA. “As an example, there was an incident where a couple was killed by an intoxicated employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who had numerous DWI convictions.  Management was unaware of his prior driving records, and this resulted in a $4 million settlement.  We’re offering the SAMBA service as a member benefit now to minimize liability and create safer student transportation.”

The City of Gallup is utilizing SAMBA’s system and has developed Best Practices that are being mirrored throughout the State. Their entire employee pool is monitored monthly. The system alerts them of any employee who has a suspended, revoked or canceled license as well as drivers with new convictions and upcoming employee license renewal dates. The program is used to monitor all employees, not just the ones driving City of Gallup vehicles, which further reduces potential exposure.

Denver Public Schools estimated its cost savings at $18,000 in the first year of implementing the service, and the district immediately saw a 44 percent decrease in accidents.

“The bottom line is that human resource departments and fleet and safety managers have neither the time nor the personnel resources to manually order and review hundreds, if not thousands of employee driver records every month,” said Greg Miller, SAMBA’s CEO.  “Our system provides a summary report that highlights the drivers that are putting the organization at risk. It’s proactive and cost effective.”

SAMBA’s systems are being utilized throughout the commercial sector, Federal Government, as well as in municipalities and counties nationwide.