Cell Phone Use
Could Drive
Businesses to Court |
Cell phones boost productivity by allowing employees to quickly call back a customer or check in with the office no matter where they are. But along with these advantages comes increased liability for employers.
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Elements of a Safe
Cell Phone Policy
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To help decrease the risks, companies should have a cell phone use policy. Here are some items to include:
Employees must pull over and park to use the cell phone.
While driving during work hours, cell phones should only be used for business-related conversations.
If the phone rings while driving, let the phone's answering system take a message. Then, return the call after parking the car.
Place a sticker on company-owned cell phones warning that using the phones while driving is dangerous and should only be done in an emergency.
Tell employees that violations of the cell phone policy can bring disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment. | 
| Using cell phones while driving - either handheld or hands-free - can be expensive for employers. One study by the National Highway & Traffic Safety Administration estimates the average cost to an employer is $16,500 for a traffic accident involving an employee driving on company business. (This includes loss of productivity, workers compensation, medical costs, repairs, replacement transportation, substitute labor, and higher insurance premiums.)
Even worse: Companies have been sued when their employees were talking on cell phones and were involved in accidents that injured or killed other drivers.
You may think that hands-free or speaker phones are safe. After all, isn't using one of these devices the same as talking with a passenger in the car? Not according to studies that show the danger of cell phone use while driving can come from the mental distraction of carrying on a conversation with someone who is not in the car.
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Studies Reveal
Concentration Lapses |
Here is a summary of some of the findings of global research into the safety problems:
- A Norwegian study of about 9,000 drivers found that users of hands-free phones made more calls than callers who held their phones. This increased the length of time the drivers were distracted.
- A Swedish National Road Association study, which put cameras in 40 cars, found that drivers wearing headsets drove faster than those holding their phones. An ominous finding: Braking time slowed as much as 45 percent for cell phone users, even for those wearing headsets.
- A study by three Utah psychology professors found that adults behind the wheel of a driving simulator, talking on phone headsets, missed four times as many exits as drivers talking to passengers.
- The Virginia Tech Center conducted research into the important causes of car accidents and found that cell phones are the biggest distracting agent - higher than eating or grooming or tuning the radio.
- A study by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center found that cell phone users failed to look at the road 68 percent of the time while dialing or answering their phones, while drivers talking to passengers in the car took their eyes off the road only 4 percent of the time.
- A Canadian study, examining the effects of mental tasks, found drivers talking on phones spent more time looking straight ahead and less time looking around and checking instruments. As their phone conversations demanded more concentration, they changed driving patterns and hit the brakes harder. Drivers were equally distracted whether they used hand-held phones or hands-free headsets.
Bottom line for employers: When employees use cell phones during the course of their jobs, the companies risk higher workers compensation claims, insurance claims, and the potential for lawsuits if accidents cause injury or death. Consider adopting a cell phone use policy (see right-hand box above) or adapting your current policy to take into account recent research.
(For information on the costs and security risks involved in cell phone theft, click here to read our previous article.)
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