Employees Should be Careful Performing Out of Scope Work
Sunday, June 6th, 2010Most people do not mind taking time out of their day for an occasional errand for the boss. But what happens when you get in a car accident, the errand is on a bad weather day, the boss’s request happens all-to-often or becomes routine? Suggest to your boss that he or she hire a licensed courier service.
Accidents & Injury
Many individuals nowadays have vans and are ready, willing and able to jump in the vehicle and pickup a document. Once you consider that 77% of all traffic accidents occur within 25 miles of home, taking extra risks for the boss might not make sense. These collisions ofen occur close to home because we do a significant amount of our driving within this area. But we also tend to do a lot of unnecessary trips for a few things that we need. And, we are less attentive to our driving when we are in familiar territory and make the same trips frequently. This reduces our ability to concentrate on our driving when we are in a hurry to get it completed. Lifting any heavy cargo also exposes you to injury and if it is outside the scope of your employment, your insurance may not even cover you!
Professional couriers have a life-threatening job – they are normally driving around in that same 25 mile area with many other people who are not focusing on their driving. A professional courier receives training and in order to retain the required level of vehicle insurance, the professional courier must concentrate on safety as a requirement of the job. The professional courier is out in that 25 mile area every work day.
It is a Poor Business Model to Use Staff for the Wrong Purpose
It is likely when you consider the amount you are being paid to perform your professional duties and you add the employer’s contributions for FICA, medicare, State Unemployment Insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, health benefits and other costs, your employer would save a great deal of money by paying a courier and allowing you to focus on your job! I recently saw a medical office that paid a staff member $15/hour (nearly $19.50 per hour in actual costs to the company when adding FUTA, FICA, SUTA, medicare, etc.) to courier medical records when a qualified medical courier could have done it much cheaper!
So why not tell your boss to consider a courier for your local pickup and delivery needs – one that is professional, licensed and insured. It will protect you from having an accident and potentially save your employer some money! Not to mention that you can do your own job!
