Course corrections: driving disability rates of his company's drivers in one direction--downward.

With some 330 trucks out on the road for the better part of the day making deliveries to customers, it's no surprise that auto liability would be one of the big concerns for McCoy Building Supply Centers.

McCoy Building Supply is a family-owned company that operates 87 locations and has more than 2000 employees in five states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

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An analysis of the data by McCoy's insurer Liberty, Mutual, however, showed, that the San Marcos, Texas-based building supplies distributor had a problem.

Based on a benchmark analysis, McCoy Building Supply was doing twice as poorly as other businesses in its region.

The company decided to tackle the problem by implementing a decision-driving program that is based on an off-the-shelf program developed by the carrier.

But Eastwood took that program and customized it to make it more meaningful for McCoy drivers and the company's business in particular.

Decision driving is more than just driver training because people are expected to already know how to drive. Instead, the course teaches drivers how to anticipate problems, instills awareness of their surroundings and offers tips on how to do that.

Eastwood customized the program for McCoy drivers, who drive big trucks down residential roads, loading and unloading lumber and other kinds of building materials and deliver them to people's homes.

Those drivers needed to know how to handle the trucks, how to secure the materials, how to get the materials on and off the truck and how to bring the materials onto someone's property without damaging the property or injuring workers.

After developing that program, Eastwood decided to implement it by training the trainers first. He brought in the assistant managers of the company's stores and had them take the course and then sent them out to train the company's drivers.

The course is flexible enough so that there's something in it not just for new truck drivers but also for experienced ones as well.

The result is that McCoy's record, which was once twice as bad as the competition's, is now 50 percent better than the competition's, he said.

"We are now the benchmark," Eastwood said. "Decision driving has brought our losses way down," he said.

McCoy's accident frequency has been cut in half over the last two years as a result of this program, said Linda Flowers, executive account representative at Liberty Mutual.

In general liability, the frequency is also down 50 percent because of behaviors he has been able to change in the stores, she said.

Eastwood has also put a lot of effort into the company's return to work effort. "We're probably known as the most aggressive return to work program in this part of the country," he said. "I'll take anybody back with any restrictions," he said.

He said he believes that it is better for workers to be able to return to work quickly, better for them physically and better for them mentally.

McCoy's disability day rate today is one tenth what it was about seven years ago, he said.

Flowers said Eastwood has gone above and beyond for workers by calling them up if they are injured on the job and asking if he can stop by to visit them and if there is anything he can bring. "He takes them food, he makes sure they get to the doctor," she said. "He's very hands on. He communicates with them without being intrusive,"

And Eastwood said he has made it a priority to always be available for employees who may have a problem and need his guidance and advice.

"They have got to be able to get a hold of somebody," Eastwood said.

Between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., if they need someone, they can hit zero and tell the operator they need to talk to someone in risk management and he can be tracked down, Eastwood said. After hours and on weekends, he tells employees and management to call him on his cell phone.

"I'll answer it. They may not get me immediately, but they will get me," he said. "They want to reach someone--that's their biggest complaint."