TCA Vice President of Government Affairs, Dave Heller and TCA Manager of Government Affairs, Kathryn Sanner
For the past several years, the crash statistics for large trucks and buses have been getting worse. While this could be driven by many different factors, from the prevalence of cell phone use and distracted driving to the deteriorating nature of U.S. infrastructure, the trends simply cannot be ignored by the trucking industry. Truckload carriers must recognize the importance of a strong safety program in their fleets and prioritize this, first and foremost, in order to protect lives on our roadways.
It is for this reason that, year after year, TCA recognizes its members for going above and beyond to maintain low accident frequency ratios within their fleets. Though the Fleet Safety Awards, TCA members submit their number of annual accidents, as well as their mileage, to determine which carrier has the lowest number of accidents per million miles.
Carriers 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 how they train their employees to always make safety their number one goal.
Beyond this, TCA also recognizes fleets 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. It is only through continual improvement that a true culture of safety can be established within any carrier.
TCA encourages all of our carrier members to enter the Fleet Safety Awards today! The entry period is open from October 1 – November 6, 2019. Don’t miss your chance to showcase your safety efforts and have them recognized on the national stage!