Fleet Management, Negligent Entrustment, and Captive Insurance

On Friday, August 31st, we'll be giving a webinar titled, Using a Captive For Health Care Coverage.  This half-hour webinar will discuss:

1.) Risk -- what it is, what it isn't, and how we fund it
2.) Insurance -- what it is and what it isn't
3.) Forming and running the captive.
4.) The healthcare segment

The webinar is at noon and will last about half and hour before questions. 

You can sign up at this link.



If your company has a fleet of vehicles, you're undoubtedly aware of "negligent entrustment," which has the following elements:

(1) entrustment of the vehicle by an owner;
(2) to an incompetent driver;
(3) that the owner knew or should have known was unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless;
(4) that the driver was negligent on the occasion in question; and
(5) that the driver's negligence proximately caused the accident.

(Monroe v. Grider, 884 S.W.2d 811 (—Dallas 1994))

Managing against this risk should be one of the goals of your company's risk management program for its vehicle fleet.  If you don't, this could result:

On July 19, 2018, a jury in Texas awarded a plaintiff $101 million for a crash with a tractor-trailer in 2013. The indictment held both the company and its driver responsible, arguing the company was negligent in hiring the driver in the first place. The jury found the driver to be 70% at fault with the company at fault for the remaining 30%. The company’s negligence was calculated at $75 million. The plaintiff’s attorneys argued the company negligently hired the employee by violating its own safety policies and was negligent in its training and supervision contributing to the crash. 

This has particular salience for captive insurers, which companies use as part of a broader risk management program.  The most common implementation methodology is for the captive to underwrite a deductible reimbursement with its third-party insurance company while the parent company bolsters its risk management program for its vehicle fleet.  This eventually lowers auto liability claims boosting the captive's profit.     

Please call us at 832.330-4101 to learn more.