→ Fleet Resources → Uncategorized → Why Safety Fails When It’s Just a Priority: Steven Mock on Risk, Culture, and the Real Cost of a Claim
Steven Mock is the Risk Mitigation Director at Brown and Brown, one of the largest insurance and risk management firms in the United States. With more than 18 years of experience spanning safety training, compliance, underwriting, and operational leadership, Steve helps organizations identify where their risk exposure is greatest and close the gaps before claims happen. His background runs from Marine Corps communication technician to technical trainer at Comcast to fleet safety director, before moving into his current role advising clients across industries on risk control and safety culture. He holds an MBA from Florida Gulf Coast University and a Bachelor’s degree in Technology Management from the State College of Florida. He is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Certified Instructional Trainer (BCSP), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), OSHA Authorized Outreach Trainer for Construction and General Industries, National Safety Council Defensive Driving Instructor, and Licensed Insurance Agent. He also chairs the education committee for the Florida Pest Management Association.
Steven Mock is Risk Mitigation Director at Brown and Brown with 18 years of experience in safety training, compliance, and operational risk control. He specializes in closing the gap between policy and practice, with a track record that includes taking a fleet from a 300% loss ratio to 21% in three years while tripling its size.
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Most fleet safety programs are built on the assumption that the driver is the problem. The data says otherwise.
Steven Mock has spent 18 years working at the intersection of insurance, safety, and behavior change. As Risk Mitigation Director at Brown and Brown, he sees what actually drives claims. It isn’t distracted drivers or bad hires. It’s outdated training manuals, telematics systems nobody reads, and policies that exist on paper but not in practice. In other words, leadership.
His number: 85% of insurance claims trace back to a failure of administrative controls.
In this Road Rageous episode, Steve breaks down how fleet risk is really created, why the safety-versus-productivity argument is backwards, and what it takes to build a culture where safety is a core value instead of a checkbox. He also shares the I-75 collision that still drives him 15 years later, and the picture frame on the visor that changed how an entire team thought about why they drive.
Steve did not set out to be a safety professional. After leaving the Marine Corps, he became a technical trainer at Comcast, where every trainer was also responsible for safety instruction. He was good at it. He believed in the message.
Then one Friday afternoon, driving home from a defensive driving class in Leesburg, the vehicle ahead of him started weaving on I-75. He backed off. Seconds later, the driver took a hard left, crossed the median, and hit a Silverado. What followed looked like a Hollywood movie explosion.
“If anything would have gone wrong, I was prepared. I was ready to evade that potential collision at any time. Because I had the ability to see down the road, I had that distance, I had continually scanned my area.”
The techniques he had been teaching for years had worked in real time. He survived because he had been paying attention.
When he looked up the driver in the news, he found she was an 18-year-old valedictorian heading home from Gainesville after getting accepted to college. She had wanted to be an oncologist.
“This is, at this point, 15 years ago, and it still feels like it just happened. That is kind of my driving force behind why I do what I do. I want to get everyone home safe every day.”
Most fleet safety programs try to win minds. Steve argues the real work is winning hearts.
At a previous company where he managed a fleet that grew from 200 to 600 vehicles, he and his COO introduced picture frames for vehicle visors. The label read: “This is my reason for driving safe.” Employees put a photo of whatever mattered most to them inside and looked at it every day before going out.
“We had employees that had their spouse in there, their kids, their dog. One guy had his bass boat. It’s like, hey, I want to get home because I want to go fishing. Got it. Rock on.”
To confirm drivers were actually engaging with it, managers rotated coded stickers during weekly vehicle inspections. Colors and shapes changed each week so teammates couldn’t share answers.
“I’m a big believer in attitude and culture as the driving force of great driving behavior. It starts with winning the hearts, not just the minds.”
That heart connection, he argues, is what separates a compliance program from a safety culture. Safety cannot just be a policy employees are aware of. It has to be something they believe in.
The most dangerous thing about experienced drivers is that they stop thinking. Driving becomes automatic, and automatic behavior bypasses judgment.
Steve uses the toothbrush story in every class. Can you reach for your toothbrush without looking? Of course. Because you put it in the same place every day. Now move it. Flip the toilet paper. Swap the shampoo and conditioner. What happens?
“Why would we be upset? It’s because we disturb the norm. We change the way that our brain perceives what we say is normal, what we’ve always done.”
The same autopilot that makes driving feel effortless is what gets drivers into trouble. Scanning ahead 12 to 15 seconds, checking mirrors every 5 to 8 seconds, maintaining following distance: these require active, conscious effort. Most drivers are not applying them consistently, most of the time.
“Driving is easy. Defensive driving, being a professional driver, that’s hard work. That takes a lot of vigilance.”
Pattern disruption is the fix. Moving seats, adjusting mirrors during inspections, rotating stickers: small interventions designed to break the habituated behavior that leads to incidents.
A common assumption in fleet risk management is that new drivers are the highest risk. The data tells a more complicated story.
“It’s the driver with less than a year with the company, and it’s the drivers with more than 20 years with the company. Those are the ones that are going to have the most collisions typically.”
New drivers lack familiarity. But 20-year veterans have something equally dangerous: certainty. They have driven the same routes in the same vehicles through the same conditions for so long that they stopped paying attention years ago.
“I’ve been doing this 20 years.” Steve’s answer: “Awesome. You’ve been doing it wrong for 20 years. Way to go.”
The fix is the same for both groups: continuous reinforcement, teach-back sessions where employees train each other, and frontline supervisors who inspect what they expect rather than just check boxes.
“Those frontline supervisors are critical. They are really your gatekeepers for behavior and the trends. If they’re not enforcing the standard, how many of your employees are actually going to adhere to it?”
Labor is the highest business expense for most companies. Insurance is typically the second highest. Safety failures drive up both.
“Safe production is like the Energizer Bunny. It does not stop. You keep that workforce happy and healthy and you’re going to have so much less downtime, so much less lost productivity, fewer claims, which results in lower premiums.”
Steve’s summary of the financial logic: “The maximization of profit is the minimization of loss.”
He also challenges the idea that OSHA compliance is a meaningful benchmark: “If you’re compliant with OSHA, congratulations, you’re a C student. Way to go. You’re doing the minimum.” His ask of every client is to aim for at least a B-plus.
And on the core question: “Safety is not a priority. Safety should be a core value. There’s a big difference.”
Priorities shift. Core values don’t.
Steve uses the NIOSH hierarchy of controls as his framework for every client conversation. From top to bottom: eliminate the risk, substitute it, apply engineering controls, use administrative controls, and deploy PPE.
85% of insurance claims occur because of a failure of administrative controls.
“That’s leadership. That’s management. That’s your training…”
He recently reviewed materials for a client who couldn’t understand their high collision rate. Their training manual was last updated in 1987.
“When it says version one from 1987, there you go. That’s a problem.”
“Please do not treat your telematics like I treat my Peloton. Actually use it.”
Data is numbers on a spreadsheet. Information is what those numbers are telling you.
Starting with 200 vehicles and a 300% loss ratio, he scaled to 600 vehicles and 21% loss ratio.
“So it works, if you work it.”
“Publicly praise, privately reprimand.”
“Anyone can be a leader. The title does not matter.”
Steve Mock has seen fleet risk from every angle…
Steven Mock is the Risk Mitigation Director at Brown and Brown, where he leads strategic risk management initiatives designed to reduce client exposure and strengthen operational performance…
This episode is brought to you by IMPROVLearning.
To learn more, visit improvlearning.com.
Steven Mock is the Risk Mitigation Director at Brown and Brown, one of the largest insurance and risk management firms in the United States. With more than 18 years of experience spanning safety training, compliance, underwriting, and operational leadership, Steve helps organizations identify where their risk exposure is greatest and close the gaps before claims […]
A vehicle collision usually starts as an operations issue. Then it becomes a claims issue. And very quickly, it becomes a documentation issue. Because once the lawyers, adjusters, underwriters, or auditors get involved, the conversation shifts. They are no longer focused only on what the driver did in that moment. They want to know what […]
Jeff Shepard is the Fleet Manager for the City of Tallahassee, recognized as the number one leading fleet in the nation for 2025. With over 32 years of experience starting as a dealership technician, Jeff oversees nearly 2,900 vehicles spanning transit, solid waste, police, fire, utilities, airport, and public works. His leadership is built on […]
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