While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a seemingly endless supply of bad news, there may be one unexpected silver lining. The fact that there are fewer passenger vehicles traveling on the roadways, whether for commuting or personal trips, has decreased a truck driver’s exposure to accidents. This decreased exposure has likely resulted in fewer trucking accidents overall for the last six months.
This is good news for trucking companies. Not only does it help the industry get closer to the goal of zero accidents on our highways, but it could also improve a company’s chances for winning the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) Fleet Safety Awards. The 2020 contest is open for submissions starting September 1.
Each year, TCA honors its members for prioritizing safety by maintaining low accident frequency ratios within their fleets. To participate in the competition, carriers must submit their number of annual accidents, as well as their annual mileage, to determine which entrant has achieved the lowest number of accidents per million miles.
Carrier entrants are segmented into six different mileage-based divisions, with the carriers placing in the top three in each division receiving recognition. From there, those fleets that are honored have the chance to compete for the grand prize after completing an extensive application, in which they are able to explain the innovative processes they utilize to keep their fleets safe and detail how they train their employees to always make safety their number one goal.
TCA also recognizes the entrants which have improved their accident frequency ratios year-over-year. While having low accident numbers is of the utmost importance, demonstrating improvement in reducing accidents and implementing better systems for employee training is a laudable achievement.
Due to the reduced congestion and decreased exposure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are confident that this year will be one of the most competitive to date. Even for the carriers which do not make it into the top three in their division, we expect the number of companies with improved scores to dramatically increase.
TCA encourages all of our carrier members to enter the Fleet Safety Awards today! The entry period is open from September 1 – October 2, 2020. Don’t miss your chance to showcase your company’s safety successes and have them recognized by your peers! Not a TCA member but still interested in participating? Learn more about TCA membership by visiting www.truckload.org.