I Thought I Was Measuring Success.

I Was Measuring Only Part of It.

When I owned a DSP, I cared deeply about our safety score.

We always strived to achieve Fantastic in safety. We didn't accept anything less.

We coached drivers, monitored Netradyne alerts, assigned remedial training, recognized improvement and constantly reinforced safe behaviors.

Safety wasn't just another metric. It was part of how we ran our business.

And I genuinely believed that if we built a safer operation, everything else would follow. Looking back, I realize that's where I was wrong.

Not because safety didn't matter. It absolutely did.

But because I was treating it as the primary measure of success.

I Was Looking at One Score

At the time, I assumed a strong safety score would naturally lead to better insurance outcomes. Looking back, I understand why it didn't always work that way. Insurance wasn't looking at just our safety score. It was looking at our entire operation.

Not just how often incidents happened. But what happened after they did. How claims developed. How severe they became. How workers' compensation injuries were managed.Whether the same issues kept repeating.

Our safety score was part of the story. It just wasn't the whole story.

The Lesson I Learned Too Late

Like many DSP owners, I thought about insurance when renewal came around. We'd review premiums, talk to our broker, compare options and see what the market looked like. What I didn't fully appreciate was that renewal wasn't creating the outcome. It was revealing it.

Every incident. Every injury. Every claim. Every operational decision made throughout the year had already shaped that conversation.

By the time I was sitting in a renewal meeting, most of the work had already been done. I just didn't realize it.

Prevention Is Only Half the Job

This doesn't mean safety isn't important. It is.

I'd tell every DSP owner to invest in safety every single day. But I eventually realized I'd spent almost all of my energy trying to prevent incidents.

I wasn't spending enough time thinking about what happened after one occurred.

• Was the incident reported quickly?

• Did the employee get the right care?

• Was the claim managed proactively?

• Did we learn something that would help prevent it from happening again?

Those questions matter. Not because they satisfy an insurance company. Because they influence the future of the business.

The Perspective I Have Today

Insurance is what ultimately forced me to voluntarily exit the DSP program. That's difficult to admit.

But looking back, I don't believe insurance was the first problem. It was the last one. The issues influencing that outcome had been building for months, even years. I just wasn't looking at them through that lens.

Today, I still believe a Fantastic safety score is worth pursuing.

I simply don't believe it's enough.

Looking back, I wasn't measuring the wrong thing.

I was measuring only one of the things that mattered.

Safety matters.

Just don't mistake it for the whole story.

Remember: Take control of your risk. Be the guardian of your business’s longevity.

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