Truck driver fatality data shows most weren’t buckled up

FMCSA plans driver survey on seat belt use

Thomas Wasson

6 months ago

Driver fatality data shows most weren’t buckled up

In a notice published Wednesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration seeks to gather more data to “understand drivers’ perceptions and behaviors regarding safety belt usage and road safety.” For the FMCSA, a continued uptick in driver fatality data showed a high number of those drivers involved weren’t wearing seat belts.

At a safety forum last year, U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg highlighted the trend, saying, “One thing we’re seeing in trucking … is that seat belt usage is going down, and when we look at the fatality numbers, they are extraordinarily disproportionately people who are unbelted.”

FreightWaves’ John Gallagher wrote: “In 2021, 64% of truck drivers killed in crashes of large trucks were not wearing a seat belt, according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That compares with 59% in 2019 and 44% in 2020.”

Data from the FMCSA released this year shows that statistic increasing. Transport Topics’ Eric Miller writes, “In 2022, the most recent year compiled, 916 truck drivers died in crashes. Of that total, 635 who died, or 69.3%, were not wearing their seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That’s the second-highest percentage of drivers killed in crashes not wearing their seat belts since 2017.”

For drivers afraid of giving out their personal information or facing backlash, the FMCSA said, “The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public, and the information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions. Personally identifiable information is not being collected.”

Think like a farmer to survive the boom/bust cycle

Recent talk about deploying technology to boost productivity and survive the boom/bust cycle is more akin to the Farmers’ Almanac and less “From Zero to One.”

During an interview at the FreightWaves Future of Supply chain event, Ken Beyer, CEO at Transportation Insight and Nolan Transportation Group recounted an analogy from a conversation with his brother, who’s a farmer in Kansas. For farmers, weeds destroy productivity and require herbicide and added costs. If you don’t pay those added costs and fail to address productivity, it’ll have a long-lasting effect for years and cut the next harvest by 15%.

“I was like, ‘Man, that sounds a lot like a brokerage.’ If we don’t invest constantly in the herbicide keeping down the weeds or the stuff that cuts productivity, we’re going to be paying for it for five years.”

Beyer adds: “During 2020 we were just doing whatever it took to get loads in the door because you’re making so much money per load. We weren’t investing as much in our people and weren’t training them as well, and I think we have seen since then the quality of the people we brought in during that period probably didn’t go through the tough times that we’re going through now, didn’t get the training and didn’t have to fight the battle as hard. It was really easy to just throw your fishing line and get a fish without really much work.”

For Beyer, market conditions create different experiences, requiring companies to place extra attention on skills during a down market. “In this industry, you’ve got to constantly be planting seeds, investing in your people, bringing in salespeople and training them, especially in a down market because that’s when they really learn what it’s like to be a great freight broker and take care of your customers.”

Market update: Motive releases June economic report

On Wednesday, ELD and telematics provider Motive released its monthly economic report based on data from over 120,000 customers. The report’s Big Box Retail Index saw visits in May to the top 50 U.S. retailers increase 4% since April and 7.8% year over year. Hamish Woodrow, head of strategic analytics at Motive, wrote in the report, “Significant year-over-year jumps were seen across all sectors observed, especially home improvement (+29.1%), department stores, apparel and electronics (27.7%), and grocery and superstores (22.6%).” Motive expects the warehouse visits to cool in June, following the May Memorial Day inflation.

The report cautions that shippers may need to adjust their inventory restocking strategies once the freight cycle begins its upswing in favor of carriers. Woodrow adds,“The current combination of lower rates and higher capacity has afforded these shippers both lower costs and more flexibility in moving their products. But with fewer overall carriers operating in the market, the per-mile rates to move goods will rise and impact retailer and shipper bottom lines and flexibility via the spot market. This dynamic is already underway for ocean carriers, and the trucking market will see a similar landscape later in the year.”

Not all sectors are expected to be impacted equally. Motive predicts “significant volatility in inventory levels and overall profitability in the department store, apparel, and electronics sectors in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025.” The main question that remains will be how retailers react to higher shipping rates and whether a sustained spot market rally would preempt them to pull in shipments otherwise placed later in the year.

FreightWaves SONAR spotlight: Spot market rate plateau persists for dry vans

Summary: Nationwide dry van spot market rates remain stable into the second week of June, according to the FreightWaves National Truckload Index 7-Day average. In the past week, the NTI fell 1 cent per mile from $2.30 all-in on June 3 to $2.29 per mile. Despite a lack of sustained rally, NTI Daily spot rate movements, which feed into the 7-Day average, saw increased volatility, with a week-over-week range between $2.25 and $2.40 per mile. Contracted dry van loads similarly saw sluggish movement, with dry van outbound tender rejection rates up 35 basis points w/w from 4.24% on June 3 to 4.59%. Dry van continues to underperform compared to flatbed and reefer segments, whose tickers also comprise the nationwide outbound tender rejection rate, which stands at 4.89%.

For reefer truckload capacity, produce season continues to bring abundance in the form of higher outbound tender rejection rates. ROTRI rose 219 bps w/w from 6.29% on June 3 to 8.48%, putting it at the same level as May 27’s end-of-month, end-of-quarter surge. Higher rejection rates also impacted reefer spot market rates, with RTI up 4 cents per mile w/w from $2.52 to $2.56 all-in. Looking at reefer spot market performance year to date, there remains ground to make up, as rates are well below their late January/early February highs of $2.82 per mile all-in.