Incident Management Software vs. Spreadsheets: Which is Right for You?

It’s an unfair world out there. Transportation companies are seeing 20 percent to 30 percent year-over-year increases in insurance costs, caused by general economic inflation and insurance claim-related inflation.

Motor carriers simply can’t afford to mishandle incidents, like accidents, near misses, vehicle damage and safety violations. You never know which case is going to be the “big one” that turns into a legal mess that you perhaps could have prevented if, for instance, you captured a witness statement that they were at fault or not injured at the scene.

To avoid worst-case scenarios where $25,000 per day in court are added to the price tag, transportation Safety Directors must have a systemized approach to incident management. Haphazardly tracking incidents in spreadsheets is simply not good enough in this day and age when the consequences of poor incident tracking can mean legal exposure and brand damage.

Using Spreadsheets for Incident Management

It’s easy to see why some Safety Directors default to using spreadsheets like Excel for incident management. These tools are free or low cost, readily available, familiar for most staff members and somewhat customizable for your needs. 

The downsides? There are many. Using spreadsheets for incident management often leads to “Teams hell.” You know the drill: There are typically multiple spreadsheets — one for all incidents, and one for financials to track the insurance side. There’s no central place to store related photos or videos. Managers have to perpetually email the safety coordinator for updated files. There’s no easy way to share the information with the insurance company or authorities. There’s no trigger to alert you if you’re missing key data. You waste a ton of time searching for records in multiple systems and folders. 

Spreadsheets also don’t scale well, they don’t sync with your other systems (telematics, ELD or post-accident drug testing platforms) and they don’t allow you to analyze data or visualize trends related to your incidents. Wouldn’t you like to know, for building a preventive safety campaign, in real time if all or most of your incidents fall into the same category, such as location, weather or driver tenure? A spreadsheet doesn’t deliver that information at a glance.

Using Incident Management Software

Conversely, using incident management software designed specifically for motor carriers helps you bring order into the potential chaos of managing an accident or safety-related event. It should help you log, track and analyze incidents immediately by seamlessly integrating with your other key systems, such as telematics, ELDs and more. You shouldn’t be re-keying data between systems, and it should be clear if you are missing any important detail to track the incident or start a claim. Ask yourself right now, “Do I have all the required information to supply to the insurance company for all my claims?”

Ideally, your incident management software also would be part of your recruiting, compliance and training platform for ease of use and time savings. You don’t need another system to log in to. You need a system your team knows how to use that will help you improve the speed and accuracy with which you respond to incidents, where all the known data about the driver prepopulates, so you’re not typing redundant information during crunch time.

A proper incident management software also provides a centralized and searchable data bank to store photos and video from the scene, compliance reporting tools, dashboards for trend analysis and better decision making as well as secure mobile access for folks on the road.

How to Decide What’s Right for You: Spreadsheets vs. Software

As with any decision you have to make as a Safety Director, it’s a good idea to weigh the costs and benefits between your options for managing incidents. 

Spreadsheets have a lower upfront cost but a higher risk of long-term costs associated with communication delays, noncompliance and legal exposure. 

On the other hand, incident management software requires an upfront investment in a platform, although there’s potential for a return thanks to fewer insurance claims and lawsuits, lower insurance costs and fewer safety-related incidents in the future.

If you’re a Safety Director who’s still on the fence, ask yourself these questions: 

• Do you ever find yourself collecting some but not all incident-related data? 
• Can you think of a claim that you paid more than should have because you didn’t capture everything you should have at the scene or early on in the process? 
• Is someone in your company pulling data from multiple systems and compiling it into a spreadsheet or file folder? 
• Are you then re-keying that information into an insurance portal?
• Do you ever run into the “file is too large” issue when sharing incident information like video internally or externally? 

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, or if submitting an insurance claim with your thumb on your cell phone sounds appealing, it’s time to level up to incident management software. 

Avatar’s Incident Management Dashboard, included with DriverHub, is designed specifically for motor carriers with 50-plus drivers — delivering more in one platform for Safety Directors tired of accessing multiple systems to do their job effectively. Get started with Avatar today.