So much, but also so little, has changed.
Looking back on my 32 years in the trucking industry, there is a quote that I have heard attributed to the late iconic truckload operator Russ Gerdin, founder of Heartland Express. According to legend, he said that trucking is pretty simple; you just “haul the freight from point A to point B and collect the money." While many things have changed over the last 30 years, many things truly are the same.
We are still talking about solving the driver shortage 30 years later. Motor carriers still buy too many tractors and manufacturers build too many tractors in up cycles, which effectively ends the cycle. We are still arguing about how to raise money for the Highway Trust Fund to build and repair roads. While most of the discussion with shippers center around service, the lowest freight rate still usually wins the bid.
The quickest way to start a fight in trucking is to talk about size and weight regulations. Too many people are still trying to find a way to get around hours-of-service regulations. Truckstop chicken fried steak is still surprisingly pretty good. The list could go on, but you get the point.
The question now becomes what needs to change going forward to secure trucking’s future as a critical component of the nation’s economy? Other than navigating through a workable and effective environmental emissions strategy, we are going to need to make significant progress on highway safety. Recognizing that there are many factors related to highway safety that are not in our control, we need to make progress in those areas that we can control.
There are a lot of statistics on highway related fatalities out there. Comparing 2011 to 2022, all highway related deaths increased 31% from approximately 32,000 to 42,000 deaths, with about 10% of those involving large trucks. In comparison to other modes, the death rate for all highway accidents is 750 times higher than that of passenger airlines, and 15 to 20 times more than railroad deaths (note that there is a wide variety of data out there, but directionally these numbers are believed to be in the ballpark).
While many, if not most, large truck crash related deaths are not the fault of the large truck, there will come a point when society will no longer look the other way. Society will demand accountability for all highway safety across the board.
To provide a bit of perspective, from 1998 to 2009, the industry saw a 34% decrease in large truck related fatal accidents. Since that time, large truck crash fatalities have steadily increased each year and have risen a staggering 67%. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, large truck crash related deaths rose from 3,193 in 2009 (a record low), to 5,340 in 2021. We are going in the wrong direction.
As an industry, it would be unwise to wait until society demands accountability. We really have an obligation to act. While this is not a comprehensive list by any means, here are a few things that will likely help:
Embrace equipment technology
Echoing the experiences of many carriers, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that large truck crashes could be reduced by over 40% with the inclusion of collision warning or automatic emergency braking systems. There are no perfect systems out there, but these technologies are good enough for the industry to embrace and make standard. Like the industry’s experience in mandating electronic stability control systems, there has been very little pushback on making these systems mandatory, other than making sure that the requirements for such systems are on par with current capabilities and do not become technology-forcing rules.
Other technologies that have gained a lot of traction include LED headlights, air disc brakes, lane departure detection and side object detection, to name a few. Lane centering technology is also starting to show some serious promise. This is not about endorsing one product or another as much as it is finding ways to assist our drivers in avoiding and mitigating accidents. To make true progress, we simply cannot afford to wait for mandates. Fleets and OEMs need to work together to ensure that effective technologies are available and affordable. While unpopular in many corners of the industry, and with speed being the cause of about 25% of highway crash deaths (NHTSA 2018), speed limiters are another likely technology necessary in making true progress. We are going to need a portion of the industry to come to terms with the associated tradeoffs. The laws of physics are hard to argue against.
Eliminate drug use from the driver’s seat
There is a loophole in the current system that needs to be addressed. While we talk about using technology to improve highway safety, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ignored repeated directives from Congress to implement standards for hair follicle drug testing.
Data suggests that hair testing identifies drug use at a rate 11 times higher than urine tests. In other words, nine out of every 10 drivers that are using illegal drugs can pass a urine test but fail a hair test. Evidence of drug use lasts only a few days in urine, while it can last up to several months in hair follicles. Because of this lack of action at HHS, when a carrier that uses hair testing has a positive test result, that result cannot be entered into the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse.
[Related: DOT expands drug testing options to include oral fluid]
That driver can then go and get hired by another company who does not use hair testing. That carrier ends up unsuspectingly hiring someone who is an active drug user. In today’s world, with the cost of liability climbing and highway fatalities on the rise, this is a problem that needs to be solved. Until the Federal Government gets its act together, the industry can only increase voluntarily adoption of hair testing and understand that the extra cost of doing both tests will save lives.
Maintain high expectations with our people
As I have had a chance to interact with many fleets and fleet managers over the years, I have been surprised by a common challenge: too many managers are afraid of setting high expectations and holding people accountable for their actions.
With our professional drivers, a fear of increased turnover is often stated by managers as a reason to avoid this combination of expectation and accountability. The resulting low expectations can then ironically lead to poor job satisfaction and even worse performance. It’s a counterintuitive problem.
As an industry we will be relying upon the decision-making capability of our professional driving force for decades to come. These professionals are amazing people that are very capable of receiving constructive feedback given from a perspective of genuine concern for their welfare and success. Some of the best operators in the business, like perennial TCA Fleet Safety Award Winner Bison Transport, are masterful in their efforts to manage expectations for their drivers. Their results speak volumes.
I have personally felt most satisfied with my job when the stakes were high and I was expected to perform. I couldn’t imagine being motivated by a job where the hope was that I didn’t mess up too much. While none of us are perfect, we only get better when we challenge ourselves. In order to make progress in improving highway safety, where success hinges on human decision making, we are going to need to raise our expectations and give our professional drivers every chance to succeed.
Helen Keller once said that “a bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn" – a statement that loaded with so much meaning and irony. This is both good practical safety advice as well as a wonderful metaphor for change. A bend in the road is most likely coming for our industry. There is no need to react at the last minute; we know it’s coming. We are all in this together on highway safety and failing to make the turn can’t be an option.
