Vigillo partners with Howell to help fleets manage workers’ comp costs

Vigillo, provider of an online risk management monitoring and reporting system for the trucking industry, announced today, July 23, that it has entered into an alliance with Howell & Associates to offer fleets a program designed to reduce the number of employees off work and minimize the number of people on transitional duty.

To be distributed exclusively to trucking companies on the Vigillo platform, the new service is intended help to significantly reduce and control workers’ compensation costs by effectively connecting and managing health care professionals, employees and managers through Vigillo’s Web-based risk management system.

“The partnership we have formed with Howell & Associates is another important step in Vigillo’s Embedded Services strategy,” says Steven G. Bryan, chief executive officer of Portland, Ore.-based Vigillo. “Vigillo and Howell & Associates have collaborated to develop a program that informs, monitors and reports all critical issues surrounding workers’ compensation, with a strong focus on minimizing lost time. The combination of Howell & Associates’ proven program, coupled with Vigillo’s ‘always there, always on, always watching’ risk management platform, will enable our customers to proactively manage and actively measure a best-in-class return-to-work process.”

Under the new alliance, Howell & Associates will provide Vigillo customers with its Integrated Lost Time Solutions approach designed to connect and align health care professionals, employees and management. The program targets each client’s unique culture, provides training for managers and supervisors, and generates financial as well as cultural outcomes intended to result in significant reductions in incurred loss costs.

“Our Integrated Lost Time Solutions program is designed specifically to help transportation companies reduce and control workers’ compensation costs by improving the relationship between the managers and employees, which we know to be the key factor in minimizing lost time,” says Robert D. Howell. “By changing a manager’s perspective about workers’ compensation and teaching the importance of establishing better relationships with lost time employees, in just a few hours of training we offer a more effective approach to handling workers’ comp and lost time issues. Our program, coupled with Vigillo’s ability to automate forms and processes, accurately measures lost time and tracks results, will add significant value to our customers’ operations and lead to measurable cost savings.”

Vigillo says its Web-based Software as a Service (SaaS) application organizes and monitors the policies, training, assessments and reports needed to prepare for and respond to the risks associated with motor carrier operations. The solution is designed to enable managers to better prepare and respond to the many high-risk situations encountered when operating truck fleets. Benefits of adopting the system include the potential for fewer reportable incidents, lower costs through management time savings, improved employee productivity and reduced turnover, and lower insurance costs, according to Vigillo.