Over the last several years, we have heightened our focus on loss prevention and have become very diligent in the issuance of and follow up on formal loss control recommendations to our customers. We have seen a substantial improvement in this area with the number of visits to clients and the number of recommendations increasing each year. We further tightened our position on non-compliance with loss control and have moved decisively to take action against certain policyholders who refuse to implement our repeated safety and loss control recommendations.
I am always disappointed when we are forced to issue cancellations. We are not in the business of canceling policies; we are in the business of helping our policyholders operate more safely and protect their assets. However, if they do not feel the need to comply, we feel we have no choice. As a mutual insurance company, we believe this protects the long-term health and interest of our safety-conscious policyholders and PLM.
With more than 120 years of experience insuring building material, lumber and woodworking industries, we have researched and paid many different types of losses. This has allowed us to develop a deep knowledge of best practices that we feel obligated to share with our customers and each prospective customer we visit during our quoting process.
When I review the loss control recommendations with which our customers fail to comply, I am puzzled as to why some of our customers would not incorporate them into their day-to-day business operations. Many of our recommendations are process-oriented, such as maintenance logs and checklists, and do not require any costs or capital investment to implement. Others are for general housekeeping. Yet these low or no cost recommendations go a long way to reduce the potential for a large or catastrophic loss.
Each month our team has a meeting to review and analyze large dollar value losses. The objectives of the meeting are to analyze the root cause of the loss to see if there is anything we can learn from it, and to see if there are any trends developing with certain types of losses that we should share with our customers. Though property losses can be catastrophic and involve millions of dollars, the most distressing losses we review are those involving people and the tragic consequences related to accidents. The most severe injuries have resulted from loading and unloading of trucks in the yard. These losses involved drivers, employees or visitors on the premises—and many could have been prevented. As a result, we developed user-friendly loading and unloading checklists that include guidelines for forklift operators and truck drivers who are delivering the materials. We believe these have saved and will continue to save many of our customers from dealing with the devastating effects of a catastrophic loss in their yard.
We have developed similar guidelines and checklists to prevent slip and fall hazards. At first blush, these types of losses may not seem as serious as those related to loading and loading. However, litigation related to slips and falls is one of the largest liability exposures for building material dealers. But you don’t have to be a building material dealer to have this exposure. If you have customers or vendors visiting your production facility, you need to be aware of slip and fall hazards as well. Devastating injuries result from these types of losses in manufacturing facilities as well.
The good news is that the majority of our customers welcome our safety and loss prevention recommendations. In fact, they encourage us to provide them when we visit. They want a fresh set of eyes to look at their business and are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and adopt best practices. They feel our safety and loss prevention recommendations are another tool to help them operate more efficiently and generate a better bottom line. It is uplifting to see the level of commitment that many have made to provide safer environments for their employees, customers and the communities in which they operate. They have truly embraced safety as a major tenet of their operating model and complied with our loss control recommendations in both spirit and action. We applaud their efforts to minimize potential for losses and appreciate the spirit of partnership they have demonstrated in this area.
If you are interested in learning more about the many safety and loss prevention guides we have available in our PLM Library, I would encourage you to visit our website at www.plmilm.com. You can also call your local PLM business development or loss control representative. They are readily available to schedule a visit and provide a safety and loss prevention assessment of your business.
If you wish to reach me directly, please e-mail me at sfirko@plmilm.com or call me at 267-825-9184.
Embrace safety. It’s good for your business!