July 25, 2017 - Should Employers Buy Bulletproof Vests?
What costs more, buying security guards bulletproof vests or paying the lawsuits in wrongful death cases? That’s the question on my mind.Let’s take a look by comparing the cost of wrongful death lawsuits vs. the cost of vests.
What do wrongful deaths cost?
There are a few things that have altered the landscape related to this question. First, wrongful death settlements have become larger and increasingly more common. $3,000,000 is not unusual for a wrongful death lawsuit. Also, if someone is injured on the job and not killed, the lawsuits can be just as large.
Security Guard assaults are becoming more common. Armored car drivers are most at risk. Let’s find one company to use as an example. Loomis has had two armored car drivers killed in a four year period. ref:http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/05/armored_truck_employee_shot_an.html)
Thus, an estimated cost of wrongful death lawsuits to a company like Loomis is $1.5M per year.
What do bulletproof vests cost?
Loomis operates 3,000 armored vehicles. If they wanted to supply 3 vests per vehicle, that would be 9,000 vests. BulletSafe vests are $299, so the tally would be $2,691,000. That would last them five years.
The cost of outfitting everyone in a Loomis armored car with a bulletproof vest would be $538,200 per year.
$1,500,000 vs. $538,200. It is far less expensive to buy vests.
Not only will outfitting armored car guards with bulletproof vests save lots of money, it will save the lives of employees, too. Also, employees know when you care about them. Buying them vests shows that they matter. Some companies have started supplying BulletSafe vests to all of their armored guards, others have not. Which would you prefer to work for?
It might be time to consider buying employees that work dangerous jobs a BulletSafe vest.