public safety

Industry Experts Hope for Decrease in Crash Fatalities

September 1, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Although shelter-in-place mandates brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have made traffic numbers drop significantly during the first quarter of 2020, there was only a 1% decrease in fatalities compared to those of 2019’s first quarter.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recent “early estimates” report said 7,780 people died in crashes during that period of 2020, which is only 70 fewer than that of last year. Still, preliminary data also show vehicle miles traveled during that time decreased by 40.1 billion miles (5.4%). These numbers do not portray the number of big rig vehicles involved in such crashes.

Additionally, the rate of crash fatality during 2020’s first quarter actually increased to 1.10 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled from the 1.05 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in the period just before.

“Given the unprecedented nature of the health emergency and the limited data collected thus far, it is unclear what conclusions or broader trends can be extrapolated at this point,” said NHTSA. When projections from the first half of the year are released in September, these overall estimations will be refined further.

“Due to recent anecdotal reports of increased speeding and reckless driving on emptier roads in recent months, NHTSA has launched a new summer ad campaign to remind drivers to drive safely as Americans get back on the road,” said the agency. “We will be following the data closely and issuing a special report on traffic safety during this unique period later this summer.”

Some of the administration’s campaign efforts have been seen on Twitter recently.

“Summer vacations may look a little different this year, but summer driving safety tips always apply,” said NHTSA in a tweet. “Wherever you’re headed, keep yourself, your family, and others on the road safe by completing a few vehicle checks and obeying the rules of the road.”

Also in the report were data showing an increase in fatalities between 2017 and 2018 with large-truck occupants, pedestrians, and pedalcyclists. Additionally, crash fatalities increased over 10 consecutive quarters starting in 2014’s fourth quarter. The second quarter of 2017 saw a 1.1% decline which stopped the upward trend, and 2019’s second quarter brought the seventh quarter in a row of yearly fatality decreases since 2017.

In regards to large trucks involved with crash fatalities, the number of these big rigs in fatal crashes increased by 4.6% between 2017 and 2018, with trucks weighing between 10,001 and 14,000 pounds. In the same period, the number of trucks over 26,000 pounds involved with fatal crashes increased by 1.6%.

During these periods, the largest factors in these crashes were: speeding, distraction, and failure to yield right-of-way.

“The first goal is to stop that upward trend,” said FMCSA’s chief safety officer, Jack Van Steenburg at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in January. “For the next several months, we at FMCSA are going to go out and talk to people. We’re going to listen to people. We want to tell them what we’re doing, ask how we can do it better, what can we do differently, and how can we do it differently to prevent these crashes from occurring.”

The NHTSA says it is currently still finalizing data from crash fatalities during 2018 and 2019 by “using information from police crash reports and other sources.” and that it is “too soon to speculate on the contributing factors or potential implications of any changes in deaths on our roadways.” When the final file for 2018 and annual report for 2019 become available this fall, it will likely result “in the revision of fatality totals and the ensuing rates and percentage changes.”

Jim Mullen, acting FMCSA Administrator, said that he has been working diligently to find ways to reverse the increase of large-truck fatalities that have been present over the last four years.

“When I assumed this role as an acting administrator three months ago, the members of this panel asked me what are my top priorities,” Mullen said at the annual TRB meeting. “That, to me, was a no-brainer. The top priority for me at this agency is to reverse that four-year trend [of] increasing fatalities involved with large trucks and buses.”

Trucking Implements Social Distancing and Sanitation as New Normal

August 31, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As coronavirus continues affecting the nation, truckers have had to implement new sanitation and social distancing techniques into their daily lives. Now, it is the new normal for the industry.

According to the CDC, truckers must: always keep a distance of 6 feet away from anyone else whenever possible; limit outside-of-cab time while fueling, loading, unloading, and when at truck stops; use paperless invoicing; make appointments with facilities ahead of unloading activities; communicate with dock managers via phone; pack food and water to limit the number of stops on the road; avoid shaking hands; and keep trucks well-ventilated.

The CDC also wants truck drivers to continue wearing cloth face coverings whenever they may be in a public area, as well as to regularly clean and disinfect surfaces such as: the truck cab, including door handles, the steering wheel, seat belts, arm and head rests, the turn signal, wiper controls, the dashboard, and temperature controls; the sleeper berth, including light switches, the mattress tray, and other flat surfaces. They must also always request anyone else using the truck thoroughly disinfects it before returning it back and that all disinfection routines include diluted household bleach solutions or alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol.

Although these guidelines are appreciated and understood, adhering to them hasn’t been so simple, as many of these necessary materials have been scarce, even for the trucking industry. To keep risk to a minimum as truckers serve areas of the country with the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases, the industry has had to find new and creative ways to keep its employees safe.

For example, Grand Island Express has had a particularly difficult time finding cleaning supplies and personal protective gear. The company had to use extra T-shirts found in storage to make masks and also had to source cleaning products from a restaurant supplier connection.

“It is forcing us to think outside of the box,” said Grand Island director of operations, Deen Albert.

One driver for the company, Josh Rodriguez, said even these unorthodox provisions have helped him feel safer when heading into areas with heavy virus numbers. Rodriguez wears a mask, gloves, and keeps hand sanitizer ready at all times.

“I feel as safe as I can in this situation with the interactions we have,” he said. “I don’t want to drive myself crazy, but I want to balance it with the proper precautions.”

Still, other fleets are struggling to find necessary protective supplies as well. C.R. England’s director of management series, David Allred, said his fleet has had to find loopholes in obtaining effective hand sanitizer.

“We had to get creative,” he said, “such as using a four-ounce restaurant squeeze bottle for hand sanitizer.” C.R. England is also still working to find enough masks and gloves for all employees.

“However, since bulk orders have been back-ordered for some time, we still encourage all our employees to take the initiative to secure these items for themselves first, and the company will provide supplemental support,” he explained.

Because of that, C.R. England driver and trainer John Goode has relied on family for sanitation supply help. His aunt is a dentist, so she was able to give him much-needed gloves and masks once her practice shutdown during the pandemic.

“Every time we leave the truck, we put our surgical gloves on and put our mask on, and we don’t bring the gloves back in the truck with us,” said Goode. “After we do that, we sanitize our hands with the hand sanitizer, and we take the Clorox wipes and wipe down everything.”

Social distancing has had to become routine, as well, although it is not always easy in this industry.

“On the road, many shippers are not allowing drivers to access their docks,” said Averitt Express president Wayne Spain. “When they do have access to the dock and need to interact with a customer, they are keeping adequate space in between one another.”

Over-the-road Averitt driver Chris Yohn said customer locations are working to take initiative on social distancing.

“Shippers and receivers are doing their best to keep everyone separated,” he said.

These measures are even implemented when paperwork and signatures are needed.

“When it comes to paperwork, I’ll place the forms on a table for [the customer] to initial so that we can keep an appropriate distance from each other,” another Averitt driver, Manny Rodriguez, explained.

Grand Island’s Rodriguez also said customers have been marking 6 feet distances to create easier separation between themselves and drivers.

“They’ve been enforcing that,” he said. “Before, you’d be standing in line with eight to 10 drivers. Now, there are no more than three inside, and the rest wait outside.”

Driver Stress Reaches Peak in Midst of Pandemic

August 30, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As truck drivers continue working on the country’s front lines during the response to this pandemic, many are regularly–and stressfully–heading straight into areas heavily impacted by the virus.

In order to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 while delivering food, household items, and essential supplies, drivers have had to up their sanitation game and find ways to social distance while on the job. Truckers have had to wear personal protective equipment and clean the inside of their cabs regularly, even though hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves have often been hard to come by.

Because of this, fleets have had to find creative (but still effective) ways to stay healthy and germ-free. However, many drivers have expressed their feelings of vulnerability when they haven’t been able to easily find the items they need during this time.

“I feel like I’m running through a fire with gasoline britches on,” said owner-operator Ingrid Brown, who has been delivering food throughout New York and has had trouble getting necessary personal protective gear. “When I get back in my truck, I can’t wipe the steering wheel down. I have no masks, no gloves, no Clorox wipes, nothing.”

Director of operations at Grand Island Express, Deen Albert, said the lack of cleaning supplies his company has had on hand have brought unprecedented challenges. For example, Green Island has had its office staff work together to repurpose extra T-shirts from the company’s storage room in order to make masks, and has sourced cleaning products from a restaurant supplier.

“It is forcing us to think outside of the box,” Albert said.

While fleets are finding loophole methods to keeping drivers as safe as possible, trucker stress levels have reached exceptionally high levels–not just due to obstacles in obtaining PPE and sanitization products, but in regards to mental health, as well.

“At one hospital, I have to park at the dock and then walk into the front of the building to have my temperature checked before they will accept the delivery,” said Averitt Express city driver, Robert Carrillo. “I then have to walk back around the building to the dock to unload the trailer.”

The Chicago driver said making these deliveries to hospitals is nerve-wracking, although he always keeps his cab sanitized and wears a mask.

Truckers have also been extraordinarily isolated, as social distancing regulations have limited in-person contact among shippers, truck stop workers, customers and drivers.

“I don’t get to talk to my customers anymore,” Carrillo explained. “It’s hard. To cope with it, I talk to other drivers. We are our support system.” St. Louis Averitt Express over-the-road driver Sean Linton agreed, saying although isolation was prevalent in the industry pre-pandemic, it has gotten much worse.

“We think twice now before striking up a conversation with a person, which keeps us less social,” Linton said. “I try to stay in contact with my close friends and family more now just to hear a friendly voice on the phone.”

Typically, truck drivers will socialize with other industry workers at restaurants or driver lounges, but “that has been taken away,” said Cargo Transporters driver Rebekah Koon.

Charlotte, North Carolina Averitt over-the-road driver Chris Yohn echoed her sentiments.

“I miss being able to give handshakes to my fellow coworkers. I miss being able to have a meal at a truck stop surrounded by other drivers,” Yohn lamented. “There is no real way to combat the isolation. It’s just something we have to live with for now.”

Albert said Grand Island has brought regular face-to-face interaction to virtual town hall conferences that truckers can call into as a way to increase communication throughout the company.

“I do those once a week at several different times to try to accommodate everybody’s schedule,” said Albert. He also explained that he wants to address any concerns at hand and keep drivers informed on new developments.

This is extremely important, Albert said, because “driver stress is at an all-time high. They have a lot to worry about on the road.”

Additionally, many companies recognize that drivers need to feel comfortable with their routes and the manner of deliveries they have to make.

“If a driver feels unsafe to drive right now, we don’t compel them to work,” said senior vice president at Quality Transport Co., Amanda Schuier.

There are even truckers who often decide to work for longer periods at a time in order to keep loved ones safe and boost their ability to social-distance.

Cargo Transporters’ Koon said that she has immunocompromised family members, so she has decided to stay on the road until the pandemic clears substantially. Luckily, she has a bigger-than-usual cab, which makes life on the road a bit easier.

“When you’re in isolation as a trucker, that 10 feet or 7.5 feet is everything,” she said.

Technology Proves to be More Important Than Ever for Trucking During Pandemic

August 23, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Throughout the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, technology has played a major role in how trucking companies have been able to work through the changes and challenges of the industry during an economic shift.

“When you think about it from a technology standpoint, it’s all about communication and it’s about information,” said senior vice president of sales at NFI Industries, William Mahoney. “So, [this includes] being diligent and trying to do more with less.”

Employee health and safety has become a main focus of most trucking companies at this time, as well. In these efforts, technology has also helped companies reduce the number of in-person interactions typically required of daily duties.

“Our core value of safety in regard to drivers, dockworkers, office personnel, customers, and all essential members of the supply chain has been the primary focus of our technology and process improvements,” said Saia vice president of line-haul and industrial engineering, Patrick Sugar. “This pandemic has led us to challenge the way we think as an organization.”

One example of Saia’s implementation of helpful technology in the midst of COVID-19 has been the use of a time clock application within its employee portal, which is currently allowing for mobile and remote access for workers.

“From employees arriving to the terminal to clocking out at the end of the day, every process has been evaluated and modified in order to reduce face-to-face interaction,” Sugar explained. “We have leveraged technology where capable in the short time, and have built mid- and long-term technology road maps to create process resiliency.”

Many technological tools used in offices and vehicles to adapt with the current changes and to continue to allow loads to be efficiently booked and hauled are web-based solutions, said Trimble Transportation director of product management mobility, Jenna Dobrovolny. She also said the ability to work remotely has been a key component of these updates, as well.

As telematics systems automate dispatching, driver monitoring, hours-of-service compliance, and GPS location efforts, they play an important part in allowing workers to work remotely. When these systems are paired with safety devices like in-cab cameras, cargo monitors, collision avoidance systems, and lane departure control, fleets can have double the benefits.

“Telematics solutions are vital in the current situation,” said Mix Telematics head of global market, Jonathan Bates. “A fleet can only take care of safety if it knows what is happening every second of every day with its drivers and vehicles.”

Fleets’ safety systems can also be accessed remotely, said Stefan Heck, CEO of Nauto. Nauto’s in-cab camera technology has allowed safety personnel to work from home. This way, they give their feedback through the system application’s web portal.

The amount of data collected by telematics systems is currently more vital than ever, said Omnitracts CEO, Ray Greer.

“This unprecedented disruption means that drivers and fleets need to be much more reliant on real-time data from all tiers of the distribution model,” Greer explained. “Real-time routing and rerouting will be crucial in ensuring timely delivery of anything from basic goods to protective gear.”

For Estes Express Lines, touchless delivery has become a regular aspect of day-to-day activity. The company has stopped delivery appointment and signature requirements and keeps customers up-to-date on shipments via texts and phone calls. Vice president of process improvement at Estes, Webb Estes, says customers have taken the changes well.

“It’s important to understand that consumers don’t view the shipment and delivery process any differently from their online shopping experience,” Estes said. “To them, it is one continuous process.”

For NFI, technology has helped to analyze the market changes that have taken place since the beginning of the pandemic, as the company has dealt with higher-than-usual demand for essential services.

“How do we maximize the miles and hours that our drivers have to drive? ” Mahoney asked. “Because, right now, business has slowed down in so many verticals, like automotive.”

Will Connell, Gulf Intermodal Services President, praises the ability of technology to make the current necessary recovery a different process from that of previous economic crises.

“What’s different today than what happened in the Great Recession is the technology is much greater,” said Connell. “So, we’re able to leverage the technology that we have in the truck with our internal transportation management system.”

COVID-19 Brings Big Changes to Travel Safety and Tourism in America

August 10, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Traffic and safety numbers and trends have seen many changes due to shelter-in-place orders since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Road Ecology Center at the University of California-Davis’ co-director, Fraser Shilling, traffic volumes have seen a sharp decline since stay-at-home mandates were implemented. Traffic has decreased nearly 80% since March. In California, numbers are only now starting to move back toward any normalcy.

Other counties throughout the country have seen varying effects. In San Francisco, miles traveled per day declined quickly when the Bay Area issued its shelter-in-place order in March–those numbers are still notably low. In Kern county and Siskiyou county, miles traveled also decreased significantly but have since begun to slowly return to normal levels.

Throughout the rest of California, locals saw fewer crashes and highly-improved air quality. Sacramento regional hospitals had a 38% reduction in vehicle-related injuries as well as a 46% reduction in pedestrian and cyclist-related injuries.

When Virginia’s state of emergency was announced in March, traffic volumes decreased rapidly, as well. According to data and system analysis manager for The Virginia Department of Transportation, Sanhita Lahiri, traffic numbers dropped steeply in the northern region of the state, but did not decline nearly as much in Lynchburg–an area where numbers began to increase again much sooner than most of the state.

However, Lahiri said she sees commercial motor vehicle traffic staying the most consistent of any vehicles on the road.

“After [the emergency declaration], the decline kept on happening until it reached a trough around mid-April and then gently started ticking up,” said Lahiri. “The trucks kept continuing because of all the deliveries happening around the state. Truck traffic took some time to go down, and then it didn’t go [down as much] as the rest of the vehicles. It’s creeping back up.”

North Carolina also experienced a major decrease in crashes. The state saw a sharp decline in multi-vehicle crashes–70%, to be exact–between March and April. The state also had a 30% decrease in single-vehicle crashes throughout the same time period., according to North Carolina Department of Transportation’s traffic safety project engineer, Daniel Carter.

“For North Carolina, that has been a significant impact for NDOT across the board,” explained Carter. “That has been a very serious hit to our revenue. The drop-off in miles traveled and the drop-off in the fuel tax revenue is hitting us pretty hard.”

Another serious revenue hit? Tourism.

Overall travel spending throughout the country has been predicted to drop by 45% by the end of 2020. Domestic travel is expected to decrease by 40%–from $972 billion in 2019 to $583 billion in 2020. For international inbound spending, numbers are predicted to drop by 75%–from $155 billion to just $39 billion.

U.S. Travel is calling this The Great Travel Depression. With an economy in recession, the travel industry as a whole is experiencing its own depression. Travel industry unemployment is up by 51%, which is double the unemployment rate of the heaviest-hit year during the Great Depression.

Although the travel economy throughout the United States saw progressive expansion in mid-June, it is still 55% below levels of the same time period in 2019. Overall, the COVID-19 crisis has brought $250 billion in cumulative losses thus far.

States without large metropolitan centers, like Alabama and Mississippi, saw travel economy improvements in late June, but other states saw further decline, like New York. Hawaii, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, which had overall declines of more than 70%.

Additionally, the extremely low level of travel spending has cost $32 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue losses.

Destinations Analysts has found that a major factor in the continuation of travel decline is rooted in Americans’ perceptions of travel activity safety, which has worsened over the end of June. Many business and leisure travelers have completely changed their readiness to travel–which had started to rise just a few weeks prior.

Many are also not ready for tourists to enter their towns–57% of survey respondents said they did not want local visitors in their communities due to a lack of pandemic-related etiquette. Those not wanting any new visitors generally stated that they were less satisfied with the behavior of businesses and residents in their areas while the economy has begun to reopen.

Positive Changes for Trucking Amid the Pandemic

August 7, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, trucking companies have been looking for ways to adapt and innovate to the changes the industry has faced.

In a recent survey by the American Transportation Research Institute and the Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association, data showed that about 80% of survey respondents, who were either small fleets or independent owner-operators, did not have a business plan ready for the major changes brought on by COVID-19.

“I think going forward, it would behoove everyone in the industry to think about what lessons we learned and how can we document that in our research and in [trucking] operation,” said ATRI president and COO, Rebecca Brewster. “How can we make sure, going forward, [that] this has less of an impact on us as an industry and as we service the nation’s needs?”

At the early June WorkHound webinar regarding long-term transportation changes amid the current health crisis, Brewster also added that a positive change for ATRI has been the “tremendous amounts of data” benefiting the industry as it progresses.

For some trucking companies, virtual on-boarding processes and paperless driver bill of ladings have lowered the need for in-person interactions so that employees and truckers can continue social distancing. Bay & Bay Transportation‘s director of operations, Jackie Giefer, said these changes are going to become a permanent part of her company. She also said she wants light to continue being shone on safer truck driver parking throughout the country following the protocols put in place from this pandemic.

“Our company has probably gone through more change over the past two months than we probably ever have,” said Frank Hurst, president of Roadrunner Freight. “We deployed technology to allow our folks to work from home. We reorganized our entire sales team during this process, as well. We really went from a customer-facing force to a virtual sales force in a matter of days.”

Permanent at-home work situations seem to be growing across many companies.

“Many things have changed for us,” said U.S. Xpress chief people officer, Amanda Thompson. “The biggest change is that today, our office staff is almost entirely operating from home. U.S. Xpress has moved from less than 1% of office employees working from home to more than 95% of office employees working from home. This was put in place in an extremely short period of time.”

U.S. Xpress has recently implemented methods of working with drivers to overcome pandemic-related obstacles.

“We are also increasing our use of technology to help support our drivers who clearly cannot work from home,” Thompson continued. “We have added new features to our in-cab technology, including visibility of roughly 40,000 tractor-trailer parking locations.” The company also added a feature for in-cab devices to locate grocery stores so drivers can find meals more easily.

The company has also deployed safety-centric tools for delivery drivers, said Thompson.

“We’ve worked to make the delivery process as frictionless as possible for [drivers] by attempting to digitize forms for them and our dedicated accounts. This builds on our efforts to streamline and improve efficiencies for both our drivers and customers,” she said.

Although proving difficult, this particular time is one of exciting, positive change, said chairman and CEO of TransLand, Mark Walker.

“Out of every one of these crisis situations comes wonderful opportunities for innovation, and we are seeing that across the board,” he explained. “The words ‘agility’ and ‘resiliency’ come to mind. We had to turn on a dime. All of a sudden, we had more employees capable of working from home. In two weeks’ time, we went from having our on-call people able to work from home to having virtually 100% of our office staff able to work from home.”

For Bay & Bay, company culture has also seen a positive boost, and Giefer says the company’s staff has actually become closer than ever.

“Our drivers are invaluable, and they are leaning on us every day now,” said Giefer. “They don’t get to sit and chat in truck stops with one another and share their experiences; they’re staying in the trucks. Now, they are calling us and telling us what’s going on out there. We are really staying in touch with our drivers. It has really pulled us all together as one big family.”

More positive outcomes, according to Brewster, are that the entire country has been focusing on the value of truck drivers, and that less detention time, and better overall treatment for truckers, have come to the forefront.

Last-mile delivery is also likely to become a huge part of the supply chain, as customers rely on receiving goods in a timely manner–which will give a boost to manufacturers, distributors, and the rest of the supply chain. The Paycheck Protection Plan has become a “tremendous safety net that helped alleviate a lot of anxiety and fear” for smaller businesses, according to TransLand’s Walker.