It’s camping season, and millions of Americans are enjoying our mountains, lakes, and creeks. On these outings, especially in crowded, social campgrounds, we mingle and get to know people from all walks of life. We often end up talking about how we earn a living—the age-old “So what do you do?”
Most answers to this question involve things like “I’m in HR,” “I’m in trucking,” “I’m in safety,” or for me, “I am in sales.” Yes, I’m an iiX account executive with sales goals to meet, daily activities to complete, and personal career growth to pursue. But I’m certainly not defined solely as a salesperson, and that’s no longer my “What do you do?” answer.
Let me tell you how and why that changed. At iiX, we offer a product called DriverAdvisor®. DriverAdvisor monitors motor vehicle report (MVR) activity based on individual state schedules after an initial MVR is run in our ExpressNet system. If a violation or activity occurs on an employee’s MVR, we notify our client of that activity so they can take any necessary action.
One day, a potential iiX client called with questions about our monitoring solution. We talked for about 20 minutes—doing the normal Q&A, discussing pricing, possibly scheduling a face-to-face visit. But one question changed my outlook on what I do and what iiX does. I asked, “Why do you need something like this?”
I could answer this question in a hundred different ways, but my “why” wouldn’t necessarily be my customer’s. So I ask. In this instance, I could hear a little bit of emotion rising in the voice on the other end of the line as the answer came: “Because of an accident.”
Further discussion revealed that an employee had a reckless driving offense outside company time three months after the pre-hire MVR had been reviewed. Six months later, on company time in a company vehicle, that same employee caused an at-fault fatality.
This is the worst kind of accident—the kind that keeps risk, safety, and HR managers up at night. Now, it keeps this “sales guy” up at night too. I can assure you I tell everyone I talk to now about how DriverAdvisor can help prevent these types of events from happening. The company in my story was simply running initial checks and nothing else with regard to MVRs. You may be doing that today also, and that’s great. But as you can see, there’s a gap that not only needs to be filled—it can reduce risk and help save lives.
So, what do I do for a living? I help businesses with driving risk identify potentially life-threatening dangers by staying on top of employee driving records. What do you do?
We’re here to answer your questions on DriverAdvisor and inform you about other ways we can help you reduce your risk on the road. Call us anytime.
