Trucking Industry Accounts for Significant Percentage of California Workers’ Comp Claims

Posted & filed under Truck Insurance.

The California Worker’s Compensation Institute has released a new “industry scorecard” this week, and it shows that injuries in the trucking industry lead to more than $480 million in worker’s compensation indemnity and medical payments.

The scorecard, which includes detailed information on work injury claims within the California trucking industry during accident years (AY) from 2000 to 2008, with analysis based on the details of more than 23,000 work-related injury claims filed by workers in the stat’s trucking sector, which encompasses almost 175 different job categories, including office workers and warehouse staff, though 83% of the claims, and 87 percent of the losses were actually filed by those workers whose jobs include transporting goods via truck.

For the eight-year period that ended two years ago, the score card data shows that a mere one percent of all California job injury claims were from trucking injury workers, but these claims accounted for nearly two percent of the states workers’ compensation benefit payments. These numbers are falling – they began to descend before the state’s current economic downturn began – and as of AY 2008, trucking industry claims were down to just 0.6 percent of California claims, and 1.2 percent of California’s payments. It is thought that these reductions are likely to continue until, and slightly after, the state’s job market stabilizes.

How much higher than the average are truck injuries costing? According to the most recent information, first-year payments on AY 2007 trucking industry lost-time claims averaged $18,857, or 42% higher than the statewide average of $13,157. There is a similar pattern of higher claims on older claims, as well. The factors assumed to contribute to the higher costs include an older claimant population, a higher rate of attorney involvement, and a different mix of injuries.