How Trucking Company Metrics Can Make Roads Safer For Everyone

If you have read our blog or newsletter before, you know that above everything, we are advocates for highway safety. Crashes involving 80,000-pound tractor-trailers frequently have catastrophic consequences. That’s why much of our advocacy is geared towards improving trucking company safety programs.

We hold trucking companies accountable following a devastating truck crash. On a number of occasions, we have had company presidents or safety directors testify that they would never have hired the driver involved in the crash had they known about their inexperience or unsafe driving history – information they were required to obtain before hiring.

It certainly feels good when one of our cases encourages a trucking company to improve its safety processes. However, it is an ex post facto change that doesn’t change the life of our injured client.

But are there cost-effective ways that trucking companies can improve their safety systems now – before another preventable catastrophic injury occurs? The short answer is yes, there are. Companies can improve their systems in many different ways. One that has proven to be quite effective is the use of technology and metrics.

How Trucking Technology and Metrics Make Fleets Safer

Most semi-trucks these days are equipped with on-board computer systems. Several technology companies offer telemetric tracking services that allow the trucking companies to track the driving activity of their entire fleet. The telemetric data keeps track of dangerous driving activity so that companies can coach those drivers (or eventually terminate if their safety does not improve).

Some dangerous driving behaviors that can be tracked include:

Hard braking events

A hard brake event occurs when a truck’s deceleration rate exceeds whatever threshold the company decides (often 10 mph per second). Hard brake events usually indicate that a driver was following too closely or driving too fast for conditions and can be a key predictor of a future rear-end collision.

Excessive speed

Drivers that routinely speed have a higher likelihood of being involved in a serious collision. Speeding also often plays a factor in the severity of a crash when one occurs.

Hard cornering

A hard cornering means making a turn too quickly. Hard cornering, particularly in bad weather, can be dangerous. This is especially true because tractor-trailers have a much higher center of gravity than your average sedan so they are a roll-over risk.

Tracking Data Makes Trucking Companies Safer

When presented with this data, a trucking company can make more informed retention decisions and can coach drivers to avoid those types of behavior. Oftentimes, these tech companies create driver safety scores based on that data. Some trucking companies with strong safety cultures actually use the data to incentivize drivers by tying safety scores to bonuses or better freight routes.

If more trucking companies (particularly smaller mom-and-pop operations) implement these technologies into their safety programs, it will benefit everyone involved. For the companies, they will end up saving money in the long run by avoiding the substantial costs involved in catastrophic crashes. For the rest of us, it will mean safer roads for everyone sharing the road with large trucks.