It’s a fact of life that disasters happen even to truck fleets, so it’s important to have an emergency preparedness plan place before disaster strikes

Hurricane season is upon us, and that represents a threat to fleets in many parts of the country. It’s a good time to look at emergency preparedness. But even if you aren’t located in an area that is prone to hurricanes, other natural disasters like tornadoes, floods or wildfires can interrupt your business.

How quickly you get your employees back to work and your trucks back on the road will depend, in large part, on how well you prepared before the disaster occurred.

Here are some best practices when it comes an emergency preparedness plan.

• Assess your risks: Identify the likely disasters that may affect each of your locations. Some, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and blizzards will be more location specific. However, flooding from severe rainstorms or wildfire damage can happen almost anywhere. Remember that just because something hasn’t happened recently doesn’t mean it can’t. Make sure you understand how each of those potential disasters could impact your daily operations. Focus on things like damage to communication systems, loss of power, inability to traverse roads, inability to fuel trucks, etc. In addition to revenue generating routes, be sure to consider commute routes of team members.
• Create an emergency response strategy: Design a response plan and make sure that each of your locations has a plan that reflects its unique operating conditions. All plans should include a way to communicate with employees to ensure they are safe and to update them on when they can return to work. It also should include a list of essential supplies and identify key documents that you will need access in the event of a disaster. You also will need a plan for what you will do if your trucks, other equipment or your building is damaged, destroyed or otherwise unavailable because of a disaster.
• Assess your insurance coverage: Make sure you understand exactly what is and isn’t covered under your insurance policy, and make changes now, if necessary. Talk with your agent to determine policy limits and procedures for filing a claim. “Being proactive about the asset valuation piece from an insurance standpoint is arguably the most important thing a fleet can do,” says Trenholm Palmer, Director, Insurance Services & Solutions, Mack Financial Services.
• Train staff: A plan is only as good as your ability to execute it, so make sure all employees understand the plan and know what their role is in the event of a disaster. Consider testing the effectiveness of your plan by conducting a disaster drill.
• Review the plan: When it comes to disaster planning, it is not a one-time activity. You should be reviewing your plan at least annually. It is also a good idea to go over the plan with employees once a year, especially if you have not had to use the plan in the previous year.

While you can’t prevent a natural disaster from striking your operation, having an emergency preparedness plan will allow you to get back in business more quickly so you can continue to serve the needs of your customers.

A fleet perspective

Matt Nelson, director of operation project management at Savage, says the company’s operations are most susceptible to hurricanes, which is why at this time of year, key company leaders review existing preparedness plans.

The company prioritizes the wellbeing of its employees – which they refer to as “team members” – during an emergency, and that includes training that helps its teams be better prepared. “We encourage them to make plans for themselves including checking their generators, putting together a go bag, etc.,” he explains.

However, the company also has two Emergency Response Trailers (ERTs) that are deployed as needed to help employees impacted by a disaster. In the spring, Savage says they make sure the ERTs are in good working order and well stocked with items like generators, tarps, gloves, water and propane to run the generators. Several years ago, Tyler Flynn, senior director, equipment and projects, Savage, added chainsaws and the appropriate safety equipment to the trailers to assist employees who had trees down on their property.

“We’ve found that helping our employees help themselves is the first line of defense in the event of a disaster,” Nelson says. “Our plan is really focused on our teams and customers. We place great focus on our team because it’s the right thing to do and because they are who takes care of our customers.”

While Nelson says helping employees in the event of a disaster is the right thing to do, having employees return to work as quickly as possible allows the company to continue to service its customers, many of which are refineries.

Each Savage location has an emergency response plan tailored to its specific needs, and that is reviewed annually to make sure all contact information is correct and that the stage gates (points in the plan where certain actions need to be taken) still make sense.

Flynn has advice for other fleets: “Have a plan and update it. The more preparation you can have the better. We have learned through the years if you are looking for generators after a storm has hit, it becomes an outright challenge. Being prepared ahead of a disaster is paramount.”

“If I had to give advice to other companies, I would say be flexible on your plan. Having a Plan B and a Plan C has really been successful for us,” Flynn says.

The proper insurance is critical

The best emergency preparedness plan in the world may not be enough to get you through the disaster if you fail to have the proper insurance.

Trenholm Palmer, Director, Insurance Services & Solutions, at Mack Financial Services, says it’s important to make sure that your assets are properly valued and that equipment asset lists are organized, updated and reported with regularity to the insurance company.

“Have your ducks in a row in terms of the valuation of the assets and the asset list. And have a good, consistent dialogue with your broker and with your underwriter,” Palmer says. “It is important to look at the policy. You have certain moving parts that are important to pay attention to on the physical damage side.

At Mack we take steps to help ensure that those assets are valued in ways that really reflect what would be necessary in the event of either a partial claim or a total claim payout situation,” he explains.

He encourages fleets to have “good consistent dialogue with their insurance broker and insurance company underwriter.”

He believes Mack has “an unparallelled product in our Equipment Protection Program. It is a standalone physical damage coverage that is a flat fixed rate for up to 84 months and, generally speaking, is around 20%, give or take, below competitor’s rates.” The policy is in the name of Mack Financial Services so if the fleet has a claim, the claim “belongs to Mack and does not impact the fleet’s loss ratio.”

Palmer also encourages fleets to closely read through their insurance policies because many companies offer disaster planning and disaster recovery resources that fleets might not be aware of.

“Assess risks before you start disaster planning. There are lots of causes of loss that should be taken into consideration based on geography,” Palmer says. “Getting ahead of disasters early is key.”