Separating workers’ compensation from occupational accident for a contractor-based operation
Client
Sierra Line Haul
industry
Contract Line Haul
location
Ontario, California
Sierra Line Haul runs scheduled line-haul work using a mix of employed drivers and contracted owner-operators.
Two very different coverages were being treated as if they were interchangeable across that mixed workforce.
Challenge
Employed drivers and contracted owner-operators were being discussed under a single heading, with the assumption that occupational accident coverage did the same job as workers’ compensation.
The two are governed differently, and the eligibility and benefit structures do not line up. Left unexamined, that assumption was a real exposure for both the business and the contractors running under it.
Approach
We separated the workforce first: who is employed, who is contracted, in which states they operate and what the law requires of Sierra in each case.
We then set out plainly what workers’ compensation is designed to do for eligible employees, what occupational accident coverage provides for eligible contractors, and where the two genuinely differ in purpose, eligibility and governance.
Impact
Sierra now treats the two coverages as the distinct products they are, with the employed workforce and the contracted workforce handled on their own terms.
Contractor onboarding includes a clear explanation of what the coverage does and does not do.
2
Workforce types separated
5
States reviewed
0
Assumptions carried forward
“We had been using the two terms interchangeably for years. Having the difference explained properly was worth the whole review.”
—
Tom Okafor
,
General Manager, Sierra Line Haul
