Why Fleet Carriers Should Create Their Own Accident Tracking and Analysis Tool

This put up is a part of a collection sponsored by IAT Insurance Group.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is bringing Accident Recordkeeping Requirements again to the longer term.

Retired after the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program was initiated over a decade in the past, the FMCSA is hoping to revive the Accident Recordkeeping Requirements to assist the Administration higher assess the protection of on-the-road autos and probably discover avenues to stop and cut back the severity of future accidents.

As a sign of what strong information-gathering can do for security, the American Transportation Research Institute stories that crashes decreased by 7%, and hours-of-service violations went down by almost 17%, between the 2018 introduction of the Electronic Log Device and 2022.^[1]

Comments on the brand new necessities can be accepted till October 10, 2023, however with the American Trucking Association and different business stakeholders supporting its renewal, there may be each indication Accident Recordkeeping Requirements will finally develop into a rule.^[2]

Regardless of when the brand new Accident Recordkeeping Requirements develop into a rule, sustaining a sturdy accident monitoring evaluation device is useful to all fleets, each giant and small, because it:

• Offers a deeper understanding of the basis causes of accidents and violations,
• Can decide prices,
• And drive insights on how finest to forestall them

Building a easy accident monitoring and evaluation device

Building a device that goes past what’s DOT-reportable to incorporate all incidents, together with near-misses, can assist fleets determine habits that drives losses or potential losses, and different contributing components, together with cargo and employee’s compensation claims.

For instance, a fleet may discover numerous lane-change and merging accidents, which could imply it’s price equipping current vehicles with lane-departure warning methods or buying new autos which have them.

Building a device doesn’t require an funding in new software program. Fleets can use a spreadsheet or digital monitoring instruments to seize and manage all pertinent data. Consider together with the next knowledge factors in your trending and evaluation report, a lot of that are already being collected by fleets:

• A quick description of the incident. Develop your state of affairs of the accident, and what the contributing components might be.
• Consider whether or not the accident is DOT-recordable. That would come with if there have been a fatality (no matter fault), if the insured driver is cited for the accident, if somebody goes to the hospital, or if the automobile is towed and the motive force is cited. Also, use this to make sure you’re in compliance with drug and alcohol testing.
• Contributing components. Record something that might have had an affect on the incident equivalent to driver fatigue, driver was misplaced, the motive force was over hours, the motive force was impaired, climate situations, time of day, day of the week, visibility, site visitors degree, highway situations, location, inspection particulars. To expedite the gathering of the information, a fleet can obtain the SMS (security measurement system) that feeds into CSA.
• Costs related to the accident. Track any prices that the fleet and/or its insurers bore due to an accident, together with insurance coverage deductibles, uninsured prices, coaching and hiring, offboarding related to having to dismiss a driver, rental to interchange a truck whereas it’s being repaired, or any cash that modified fingers due to the accident.
• Track preventable accidents and non-preventable accidents. This goes past who the insurer says was at fault. Note whether or not there have been affordable actions that might have been taken, equivalent to honking the horn or extra shortly making use of the brakes, to stop an accident.
• Post-accident, consequential actions. The aim of gathering this data is to supply insights into post-accident, consequential actions that would scale back the danger of additional incidents. Is a sure driver the problem? Should the upkeep program be enhanced? Should a sure buyer be dropped as a result of their necessities have led to extra accidents?

The significance of gathering knowledge just isn’t merely within the data itself, however the tales it tells you about what is occurring together with your fleet. Together they’ll hopefully show you how to run a safer operation — and maybe a cheaper one, too.

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By Chris Parker and Nancy Ross-Anderson

[1] American Transportation Research Institute, “Predicting Truck Crash Involvement: 2022 Update,” October 2022

[2] Transport Topics, “FMCSA to Renew Plans for Carriers to Keep Accident Records,” Aug. 8, 2023

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Carriers