Trucking Industry Sees Safety Improvements

The rate of commercial truck-involved fatalities is declining, an industry trade group says.

The American Trucking Associations say its analysis of federal Department of Transportation data shows safety improvements in the industry over both long- and short-term periods.

“America’s trucking industry has invested billions to improve safety and that commitment is paying off,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.

According to ATA’s analysis of miles traveled data from the Federal Highway Administration and highway fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the truck-involved fatality rate has been falling in recent years.

Per NHTSA, there were 3,903 truck-involved fatalities in 2014, a decline of 61 total from the previous year. At the same time, the number of miles traveled by large trucks rose to more than 279 billion.

These figures only represent fatalities where a large truck was involved in the crash and do not reflect causation. Numerous studies have found that trucks are responsible for initiating less than a third of all fatal car-truck crashes, which is why ATA supports aggressive traffic enforcement and education programs aimed at changing the unsafe behaviors of all motorists.

The fatality rate dipped 2.78 percent from 2013 and has fallen 4.76 percent over the past two years. More importantly, it has fallen an impressive 40.6 percent over the past decade, according to the ATA.

Graves said the long-term trend is most important.

“Short-term changes, whether they’re increases or declines, can be blips – and just like you shouldn’t track your 401k on a daily basis, they shouldn’t be the primary lens truck safety is viewed through. The long-term trend – in this case, a more than 40 percent improvement – is of paramount importance,” he said.

Tonnage Up Year-Over-Year

The ATA also reported that its seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased slightly in December 2015. Tonnage increased by 1 percent in December following a decrease of 0.9 percent the previous month. For all of 2015, compared with 2014, tonnage was up 2.6 percent, the ATA said.

The not seasonally adjusted index for December, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, was 2.9 percent above that of November 2015.

“Tonnage ended 2015 on a strong note, but it was not strong for the year as a whole,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “With year-over-year gains averaging just 1.2 percent over the last four months, there was a clear deceleration in truck tonnage.

Costello said he remains “concerned about the high level of inventories throughout the supply chain. The total business inventory-to-sales record is at the highest level in over a decade, excluding the Great Recession period. This will have a negative impact on truck freight volumes over the next few months at least. And, this inventory cycle is overriding any strength from consumer spending and housing at the moment.”

Tight Market for Drivers

The ATA also has noted that annualized turnover rate at large truckload carriers rose 13 points to 100 percent in the third quarter of 2015, the highest it has been in three years. However, the rate at smaller truckload carriers dipped to 68 percent, its lowest point since the final quarter in 2011.

“It is just one data point, so it is hard to draw any real conclusions on what is happening with turnover,” Costello said in the association’s announcement. “However, the increase in the turnover rate at large carriers matches up with what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from fleets: that the market for drivers continues to be tight.”

For the first three quarters of 2015, the turnover rate for larger carriers – fleets with more than $30 million in annual revenue – averaged 90 percent, the ATA said. That compares with an average of 95 percent in 2014. The small carrier turnover rate averaged 75 percent during the same time period, a significant dip from the 90 percent it averaged in 2014, according to the association.