In today’s hyper-connected world, the phone in a driver’s hand is a major liability for any company with employees on the road. Do you truly understand your legal exposure?

Your fleet’s duty of care demands far more than just a signed cell phone policy. It requires taking all reasonable steps to protect the public and your employees from preventable harm. The most costly and overlooked exposure for fleets is Negligent Entrustment, a powerful legal doctrine that can hold an employer financially responsible if they knowingly or unknowingly permit an employee to drive in a way that creates unnecessary risk—especially distracted driving.

Courts are no longer satisfied with passive risk management. When a crash occurs, lawyers are asking, “What did the company do to actively prevent this from happening?” Recent, financially devastating lawsuits have demonstrated that simply having a written policy is often dismissed as “window dressing” if there is no verifiable proof of enforcement or technological intervention. Whether the vehicle or the phone is company-owned or personal (BYOD), the moment an employee drives for business purposes—a delivery, a client visit, or even heading to a training session—that activity falls squarely under your organization’s duty of care. Failure to prevent known risks, like cell phone use behind the wheel, has resulted in multi-million dollar judgments.

Learn the critical legal difference between a passive policy and proof of prevention, and discover the necessary active steps to fulfill your duty of care obligations and eliminate your exposure to catastrophic negligent entrustment claims.

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Also read: Synergy: Geotab and Lytx Cut Fleet Liability, Save 30% on Premiums