STERLING, Va. If your insurance costs are running out of control, it might be time to look at your driver hiring practices.

Lancer Insurance executive Ron Fuller makes a strong case for such a personnel review, emphasizing that motorcoach drivers are the key to controlling the cost of insurance and accident claims.

He told an audience of motorcoach executives attending the fifth annual United Motorcoach Association Safety Management Seminar here that they can help themselves by hiring the best drivers they can find, putting them through a formal training program, and keeping tabs on them once they are out on their own.

"You should have fundamental procedures and follow them," he said. "Deviate from them and there could be problems."

Fuller said operators need to be even more meticulous these days because the current driver shortage has made things more difficult, not only raising the cost of recruiting but also increasing the potential of hiring the wrong people to drive their buses.

"And hiring the wrong people can also hurt your companys image and reputation," he noted.

Fuller emphasized that operators need to know the important risk factors in hiring drivers, and look very carefully at applicants who are aggressive, inpatient, inattentive, inexperienced, unhappy, or have numerous violations or serious medical problems.

"If you do hire them, then you better manage them because if you dont, it is going to cause problems," he cautioned.

He recommended, too, that applicants from other companies who have current medical cards be required to have a new medical examination from the hiring companys doctor to make sure the driver did not falsify the record. Such a disclosure, he said, could anger a jury if the driver was involved in an accident and the case went to court.

Fuller said an important part of the training given to new drivers is teaching them what to say if they are involved in an accident.

"They should say very little," he stressed.

To emphasize his point, he told the story of a driver who was in line for a company safety award when he had an accident. "What a bad break," the driver mumbled as he got out of his crashed bus.

Witnesses to the accident told investigators the driver was heard to say he had "bad brakes."