HDT Truth E book 2023: Deadly Accidents, Driver Talents Amongst Key Security Considerations – Security & Compliance

The variety of fatalities in crashes involving medium- and heavy-duty vehicles jumped in 2021 (the latest numbers accessible) after the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a drop in 2020. At 5,788, fatalities had been up 17% from the earlier 12 months. That’s in response to the Division of Transportation’s Fatality Evaluation Reporting System (FARS), which defines “giant vehicles” as any medium- or heavy-duty truck with a gross automobile weight ranking better than 10,000 kilos, business and non-commercial.

That was one of many trucking business’s major security considerations in 2023. Study this 12 months’s prime points associated to trucking security, as detailed within the HDT Truth E book 2023, HDT’s annual snapshot of the place the trucking business is, the place it has been, and what its present long-term developments are.

In response to the Nationwide Security Council, there was a 49% improve within the variety of truck-crash fatalities within the final 10 years. NSC studies the involvement charge per 100 million truck miles traveled can also be up — 7% from 2020 and up 22% within the final 10 years.

Between 2012 and 2021, DOT numbers point out that about one-fourth of the deadly large-truck crashes had been on interstate highways. The rest had been non-interstate.

geography, between 2012 and 2021, North Dakota had the very best proportion of huge vehicles concerned in deadly crashes, at 19.4%. Wyoming got here in second at 18.8%.

Smallest proportion? Hawaii at 4%, DC at 4.2%, and Rhode Island at 4.8%.

Metric to Watch: DOT-Recordable Accident Charges

DOT-recordable accidents per million miles of journey is a vital metric for fleets, as a result of it’s one of many issues the FMCSA considers throughout a compliance assessment to resolve a service’s security ranking.

The business common accident charge for many carriers is 0.74 accidents per million miles, in response to Trucksafe.com. A service with an accident charge of greater than 1.5 accidents per million miles (for non-urban carriers) or 1.7 accidents per million miles (for city carriers) over the course of a 12-month interval will fail that portion of the audit, which may result in a downgraded security ranking.

Non-public fleets collaborating within the Nationwide Non-public Truck Council’s annual benchmarking survey proceed to report an impressive security document. On this 12 months’s survey, non-public fleets reported 0.47 recordable accidents per million miles, up from final 12 months’s all-time low of 0.4.

Fleet Security Supervisor Challenges

Amongst fleet managers’ largest challenges are staying updated with regulatory adjustments and bettering driver information and expertise, in response to a latest survey.

The State of Fleet Administration: Insights on Priorities for Right now’s Fleet Managers is predicated on a survey fielded in February 2023 and is the third such examine carried out by the J.J. Keller Middle for Market Insights, the analysis arm of J.J. Keller & Associates. Survey respondents are trucking fleets, each for-hire and personal. When it comes to dimension, 67% had been lower than 25 vehicles, 17% had been 25-99 vehicles, and 17% had been 100+ vehicles.

Two challenges rose in significance from final 12 months:

• Realizing rapidly when a automobile or trailer is broken or non-compliant jumped 24% from 2022.
• Having all driver recordsdata collectively in a single place so fleet managers can rapidly and simply show compliance elevated 13% from 2022.

On the subject of driver information, safely and appropriately working a selected automobile kind topped the listing, with 62% of respondents agreeing it was an important driver information and ability. That was a 39% improve over 2022, when distracted driving was the highest of the listing.

Industrial Drivers and Drug Testing

The Federal Motor Service Security Administration has been monitoring optimistic drug and alcohol exams amongst business driver’s license and allow holders since 2020.

When a driver has a optimistic check, she or he can’t drive a business automobile or different safety-sensitive capabilities till a prescribed return-to-duty course of is accomplished.

In a Clearinghouse snapshot as of June 1, 2023, out of greater than 191,000 drivers that had not less than one violation, almost 136,000 had been in prohibited standing. Greater than half, 102,905, had not began the return-to-duty course of, probably indicating these drivers determined to get out of trucking. About 55,500 had been in non-prohibited standing, having had a destructive return to obligation check end result.

Some imagine that the DOT-required urine testing far understates the true numbers. The Trucking Alliance says it’s lacking 90% of the particular drug customers, based mostly on evaluation of hair exams administered by its members.

Drawing from 936,872 urine and hair drug screens administered from 2017-2022, researchers on the College of Central Arkansas discovered hair testing produced a 9% increased positivity charge than the DOT-required urinalysis. Hair exams uncovered:

• 65 instances extra Ecstasy
• 25 instances extra opioids
• 23 instances extra cocaine
• 13 instances extra amphetamines/methamphetamines
• 5 instances extra marijuana
• 3 instances extra PCP