In 2009 there were 285,987 DOT reportable accidents of which there were:

1. 2,987 Fatal accidents
2. 51,000 Injury accidents
3. 232,000 Property damage collisions

The dollar amounts associated with these accidents equals $36,788,159,418.00 (using costs from 2005) and if the inflation rate from 2005 – 2009 is added in that represents $37,387,806,416.00. That’s right, 37 billion dollars. Based on the 2005 numbers the per/accident cost are as follows ... Read More

This week is getting a lot of attention. A recent study came out that drivers with previous violations are more likely to have accidents. This will be very interesting information in months to come. For this month let's focus on the Proposed Mandate. Recently NPTC (National Private Truck Counsel) stated their support for EOBRS, and there continues to be public comments on the proposed EOBR mandate.... Read More

Strike another note for the attorneys. We have now seen how sensitive our industry really is. Because of endless amounts of money just stored up from dues and subscriptions paid to be members of organizations a few carriers got together and once again got the FMCSA to soften the blow to those carriers that have a less than gleaming score in one or more of the BASICS. We have now gone from DEFICIENT to ALERT to now just "!". This is the same reason we reset the score to 0–0 in the second half of my 7-year-old son's basketball game because one team was beating another by a large score. Oh, by the way lets not forget the fact that they all get a trophy as well.... Read More

I had no idea when I was asked to do this blog that there would be so many topics to talk about this year that relate to one thing: more regulations and more government intervention. I agree that some action was needed, and as painful as it was going through the last round of HOS changes, I will even agree that it did a lot of good and was a huge factor in reducing injuries and fatalities in collisions with commercial motor vehicles. Let's not forget that advances in equipment and driver training were also factors in these improvements.... Read More

2011 is sure turning out to be a year of change. New safety ratings, anti-texting regulations, driver distraction studies, a new EOBR regulation and last but not least, proposed changes to the Hours of Service (again) regulations. You look at all of this and you just have to wonder, “What's next?”... Read More

CSA 2010 is out and Compliance * Safety * Accountability, or CSA, is in. And this just in, it appears truckers have feelings, too! The word Deficient has now been replaced with the much less harsh "Alert". They have also changed the alert color to Orange instead of Red. Can you believe this stuff, instead of looking into the continued accuracy of the data, the FMCSA just wants to soft sell the bad news. I think FMCSA Administrator Ann Ferro is more concerned with hurting a carrier's feelings than with the effectiveness of her own program. Ok, now that I got that out of my system, I want to go over some of the changes that took place since August 16th.... Read More

About a month ago I attended a safety conference for the NPTC. It was a great conference, great speakers, and a great opportunity to see a lot of familiar faces. While attending, I had the opportunity to listen to a DOT representative state categorically that CSA 2010 will not, nor was it ever designed to, put drivers out of a job. WHEW!!! Everybody in the room was visibly relieved that all the scary stuff they'd been hearing was false and that the scoring and violations would NOT create the next big driver shortage.... Read More

You're the Safety Manager and you are about to start a driver meeting to go over CSA 2010 and how it relates to the drivers and the company. It's early Saturday morning and all the good donuts have already been picked over. You just made a promise to yourself to never let the dispatchers pick up the donuts again. Your laptop is warming up and you're about to start your very well prepared slide show.... Read More