Preventable accident

Nope. You can make a contract up with that on it but i doubt it'll stand up in any court. Afaik you can penalize him with time off and termination but you can't take his money to pay for a mistake.

 

You cannot make an employee pay for damages unless you can prove that they did it purposefully. Sometimes they may offer to pay for something minor and stupid (like backing into a dock door with over length metal grates hanging out the back end that I forgot about). But you can't make them pay for it.

 

Of course he is! And for maintenance costs. If he takes time off you can charge him for lost revenue also.

 

Even then it would have to be exceptional circumstances in order for a driver to be held legally liable.

Generally speaking, employees are not liable for damages except in exceptional circumstances.

In the case of Douglas v. Kinger, 2008 ONCA 452, The Ontario Court of Appeal suggested that an employee could be liable in situations where there is wilful misconduct on the part of an employee. Overall though, the case law suggests that for an employee to be liable to the employer, there must be a breach of a fundamental term of employment, specifically referred to as a “fundamental breach”.

http://bcemploymentlawyerblog.ca/2013/11/13/sue-employee-damages/
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No, not at all. Responsible? Yes. Punishable? Yes. But you cannot hold the driver legally liable. Don't like it? Get out of business.

 

Not legally.

 

No.

 

Safety bonus is about all you can do.

It may help out a bit if you have guys doing minor screw ups but no realistic safety incentive will come close to covering a cost like this.

The best thing is to hire good drivers with experience. That means good equipment and pay with reliable miles and realistic expectations.

It sucks you're on the hook for his screw up but that's part of the business.