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

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

The Federal Motor Provider Security Administration (FMCSA) is bringing Accident Recordkeeping Necessities again to the long run.

Retired after the Compliance, Security, and Accountability (CSA) program was initiated over a decade in the past, the FMCSA is hoping to revive the Accident Recordkeeping Necessities to assist the Administration higher assess the security of on-the-road autos and doubtlessly discover avenues to forestall and scale back the severity of future accidents.

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

Feedback on the brand new necessities shall be accepted till October 10, 2023, however with the American Trucking Affiliation and different business stakeholders supporting its renewal, there may be each indication Accident Recordkeeping Necessities will ultimately change into a rule.^[2]

No matter when the brand new Accident Recordkeeping Necessities change into a rule, sustaining a strong accident monitoring evaluation device is useful to all fleets, each giant and small, because it:

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

Constructing a easy accident monitoring and evaluation device

Constructing a device that goes past what’s DOT-reportable to incorporate all incidents, together with near-misses, may also help fleets establish conduct that drives losses or potential losses, and different contributing elements, together with cargo and employee’s compensation claims.

For instance, a fleet would possibly discover plenty of lane-change and merging accidents, which could imply it’s value equipping current vehicles with lane-departure warning techniques or buying new autos which have them.

Constructing 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 info. Think about 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 situation of the accident, and what the contributing elements might be.
• Think about 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 car is towed and the motive force is cited. Additionally, use this to make sure you’re in compliance with drug and alcohol testing.
• Contributing elements. Document something that would 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, visitors stage, street situations, location, inspection particulars. To expedite the gathering of the info, a fleet can obtain the SMS (security measurement system) that feeds into CSA.
• Prices related to the accident. Observe 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 exchange a truck whereas it’s being repaired, or any cash that modified arms due to the accident.
• Observe preventable accidents and non-preventable accidents. This goes past who the insurer says was at fault. Observe whether or not there have been cheap actions that would have been taken, equivalent to honking the horn or extra rapidly making use of the brakes, to forestall an accident.
• Publish-accident, consequential actions. The purpose of gathering this info is to offer insights into post-accident, consequential actions that would cut back the danger of additional incidents. Is a sure driver the difficulty? Ought to the upkeep program be enhanced? Ought to a sure buyer be dropped as a result of their necessities have led to extra accidents?

The significance of gathering knowledge shouldn’t be merely within the info itself, however the tales it tells you about what is occurring along with your fleet. Collectively they’ll hopefully aid you run a safer operation — and maybe a less expensive one, too.

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By Chris Parker and Nancy Ross-Anderson

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

[2] Transport Matters, “FMCSA to Renew Plans for Carriers to Preserve Accident Data,” Aug. 8, 2023