road safety

More Trucking Companies Focusing on Transparent Risk Management Strategies

May 18, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Risk management strategies are coming to the forefront of trucking company upgrades in this current era of technology, especially while fleets are seeing more and more of a need to protect their employees while simultaneously protecting themselves from liability–and the high costs that are involved when a truck is found to be at fault in an accident.

With a solid risk management strategy, a fleet should be able to easily mitigate all possible risks and safety breaches, including any potential crashes or unsafe circumstances where a driver would be at fault. Of course, avoiding any unsafe situations is the top priority for any fleet.

Still, driver performance perfection is impossible, as is complete prevention of any obstacles throughout an entire trucking operation. Therefore, a fully-developed and efficient risk management strategy is vital for any business in the transportation sector.

“Without a risk management program, when an event happens, you have no guidelines of what you asked the driver to do or not to do,” explained Halvor Lines’ chief risk officer, Adam Lang. “Having a risk management program sets the baseline of expectations.”

It’s much easier for a company not to lose huge amounts of money in a nuclear verdict if fleets are able to keep efficient records and safety data easily accessible and up-to-date, and these records clearly show that drivers are adequately trained and vetted, Lang noted.

Additionally, a trucking company’s risk management strategies should clearly outline all processes for proper driver on-boarding, coaching, and consequences if rules are broken. These policies should also include any road accident reports, data analysis, and comprehensive investigation information. Risk management strategies should be made transparent and explained thoroughly to all employees, and these policies should be regularly re-evaluated. According to Lang, all employees in a fleet, including management and truck drivers, should be held individually responsible for safety policy adherence.

Lang explained that Halvor has implemented heavily-structured hiring guidelines to bring on new truckers, which includes accident and safety history reports, drug and alcohol testing, and reference checks.

“We also require drivers to do a very large amount of pre-employment training,” he noted. “They need to check a lot of boxes before showing up to orientation.”

Like many aspects of driver on-boarding, risk management strategies are becoming heavily digitized within the trucking world. Now, many truck companies are able to receive real-time driver performance information using comprehensive digital driver management platforms. The data accumulated in these programs is then used to find the areas in which truck driver coaching may be necessary.

“The best risk program is preventing accidents from happening in the first place,” said Idelic CEO, Hayden Cardiff.

Idelic is a driver management software development company that allows users to implement methods of compliance, operations, safety, driver retention and driver training within one program.

With artificial intelligence programming, Idelic’s Safety Suite is able to help fleets “understand driver behavior to assign risk proactively and predictively, giving fleets understanding of why that driver is at risk, how much each event contributes to risk scores, and allows them to assign corrective action and coaching over subsequent weeks,” said Cardiff.

Driveri, a fleet safety platform from Netradyne, offers road object monitoring through artificial intelligence and on-board cameras to give insight into how a particular driver navigates various safety threats. According to Netradyne’s commercial fleet team president, Adam Kahn, safety managers can utilize this kind of technology to address risks as they take place.

For example, if a trucker is seen on his mobile phone in real time, he or she may be given helpful coaching through an audio message, Kahn explained–but positive behaviors can also be addressed, of course.

“If you’re going to coach your workforce, we take the stance of, maybe you don’t always point the finger, but you can give them a thumbs-up,” he said. “That is a really powerful thing. It is hard to replace drivers. The goal shouldn’t be ‘How do I get my worst drivers out?’ but [rather], ‘How [do I] get my fleet to act like my best drivers?”

For Lang’s company, unsafe driving behavior and violations have significantly declined since implementing these kind of technologies.

“We’ve seen a decrease in DOT recordable collisions,” he said. “We’ve seen a decrease in rear-end collisions, though part of that is implementing more collision mitigation [technology] in our trucks.”

The live driver monitoring has also helped the company “change the approach with how [we] deal with the other party [in an incident],” he added.

Fleets Work to Avoid Truck Corrosion from Road Salts

April 24, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As the winter months continue on, fleets continue the fight against corrosion and its risk to their equipment that is often caused by road de-icing products.

Although it’s important to clear roadways of snow and ice to keep drivers safe, the de-icing products used by cities across the country are typically full of chlorides, which cause dangerous and costly corrosion on trucks. Fleets are now working hard to inspect their vehicles regularly and wash salt and chemicals off of equipment as thoroughly as possible.

“Between sand, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and road salt, you could develop quite a paste, which is hard to remove and helps to keep the moisture in and cause corrosion more rapidly,” said Kenan Advantage Group’s executive vice president of fleet services, Kirk Altrichter. He noted that keeping equipment clear of de-icing chemicals is a constant maintenance issue for his company during the winter months.

Staying up-to-date on the changing methods of clearing roads of snow and ice is also vital, explained American Trucking Associations’ Technology and Maintenance Council technical director, Jack Legler, who said that corrosion-reducing materials can often react in different ways to these chemicals.

“The ice-melting formulations might not change significantly, but the stuff on the truck is changing,” Legler said. “You need to be aware of the impact of what is going on there.”

The “hot zone from corrosion activity” on a truck or trailer is around 4 feet above the ground, said Atro Engineering Systems’ area sales manager, Brian Herrington. “Anything metal is going to rust, and anything rubber is going to look like it is dry rotting.”

The most susceptible areas for corrosion are places where dirt and other materials stay wet–especially within metal folds or joints, threaded screws, painted surface breaks, and areas not properly adhered beneath coatings.

“These underbody components commonly experience pitting, crevice, galvanic, and cosmetic corrosion,” said Thomas Peters, the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s maintenance research and training engineer.

What can be done? Finding the right materials and equipment that will lower possibilities of corrosion–regardless of initial investment–is key, explained Herrington.

“You’re going to pay the piper at the back end or the front end,” he said. “It is a lot more expensive to pay the piper at the back end.”

Dupré Logistics out of Lafayette, Louisiana sprays all undercarriage and rails in military-grade paint.

“We put that on bumpers; [we] spray under the cab and on the frame rails,” said Allen. “That helps fight the corrosion. Any moisture can be a killer.”

Kenny Junkin, TMC’s committee on corrosion’s chairman, works for a fleet that invests in trucks that are already blasted, primed, and painted in advance to reduce corrosion.

Additionally, certain materials are on their way to becoming much more cost-effective for fleets than initially expected, Herrington explained. Polyurethane is usable wherever a vehicle has any rubber, including fifth wheels, hood rollers, engine mounts, radiator mounts, and hood latches.

“Years ago, polyurethane was too expensive to consider, but now the price has come so far down [that] the price is basically the same,” he explained.

Grand Island Express specs its trailers with a coating that aids in self-healing on the suspension, explained the company’s director of operations, Deen Albert. Albert noted that running gears, frameworks and suspensions can all rot away particularly quickly if not cared for in advance.

Kenan Advantage Group also specs its equipment, using either stainless, aluminum, or galvanized components to help its vehicles avoid corrosion that often occurs on pieces made of carbon steel. The fleet will also replace items on its vehicles that did not initially come with those kinds of components.

Regular washing is most important, though, explained Matt Bruning, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Bruning explained that ODOT washes its trucks frequently with a soap and water solution to minimize the effects of corrosion.

“We’ve tested a variety of anti-corrosion products, and honestly, soap and water is just as effective as anything,” he said.

“That has extended the life cycle of our trailers by about three years,” said Grand Island Express’ Albert of regular washing. Grand Island Express uses an auto-grade detergent solution for its vehicles, which go through the company’s wash bay every week.

Severe Weather Forces DOTs to Clear Roads in New Ways

April 23, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“Corrosion from road de-icers is a multi-billion-dollar issue for fleets…once it starts, it starts eating everything alive,” said Atro Engineering Systems area sales manager, Brian Herrington.

The de-icing methods involving road salts, sand, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride have been a go-to for areas experiencing the often-dangerous effects of winter weather on roads. Still, it’s well-known that these methods can cause huge corrosion issues for fleets, and now, many states across the country are aiming to solve this issue.

Corrosion inhibitors and brine technology are now making their way into the de-icing game, so that states can lessen the amount of product and chemicals needed to keep roads clear and safe.

The amount of salt utilized to clear roads has been on the incline over the last few years as more states develop more bare-road policies and as more drivers expect clear pavement–and are unable to drive otherwise. This increase in salt use has also been creating more problems for equipment and the environment as a whole, explained Phill Sexton, the CEO of WIT Advisers. WIT works with winter management and landscaping companies throughout the continent.

“We’re finding out salt is a pollutant in a major way to fresh-water resources,” Sexton explained, noting that chlorides are not biodegradable and cannot be diluted. “It is killing off aquatic ecosystems and becoming a drinking water hazard.”

To salt or not to salt is one of the trickiest decisions for Fairbanks maintenance district superintendent for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Dan Schacher, because he understands the real effects of these environmental hazards.

“It impacts people,” he said. “It impacts my budget, but there is a societal cost to a crash, and there is a really big societal cost to a fatality. If I can show we’re reducing accidents and fatalities, then I am comfortable making that decision. If you wash your equipment or use these salt-away products we use on our equipment, it will be fine.”

Road-Weather Technology, which uses automated vehicle-location equipment and mobile data decision support, has been extremely useful to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which has been utilizing this tech to be able to monitor and apply an appropriate amount of material to roads depending on current weather conditions, explained MnDOT’s maintenance research and training engineer, Thomas Peters.

Other DOTs have been focusing on updating equipment in more efficient ways to reduce the amount of salt they use, which Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute research scientist, Laura Fay, said is the case in her state. Fay is also a program manager for cold climate operations and systems and infrastructure longevity and sustainability at the school.

“A big part of this has been motivated by reduced and shrinking budgets over time,” Fay explained. “They can’t just keep buying salt because they can’t afford it, or it is [a] heavy winter and they cannot get more salt in time.”

WIT Adviser’s Sexton explained that Brine technology has been particularly helpful in lowering the amount of product needed for road clearing, as rock salt doesn’t tend to become effective for de-icing until it converts to a brine.

According to Fay, salt brine is a solution of 23.3% salt, as opposed to 100% salt, which is much more corrosive. By using liquids, only 40 gallons of salt brine are needed to de-ice one lane mile as compared to the 250 pounds of rock salt that would be needed for the same stretch of road.

Additionally, the anti-icer liquid can be laid out onto a road well in advance, which can be much more convenient for city workers, Fay noted.

“If they know a big storm is coming in, they can go out 12 hours in advance. They can treat the roads when they’re on shift and not on overtime,” she said.

Brine can also be applied where desired without any material loss, and, once activated, the brine will prevent snow or ice from bonding to pavement.

“When you go and plow, it makes plowing much easier,” added Fay.

“Why wouldn’t you do that?” asked Sexton, who noted that the amount of salt needed for his roads was reduced by at least 70% when switching to a brine method. “There are economic and environmental benefits to doing this.”

“You’re putting much less product onto the road and into the environment,” Fay agreed, also saying that long-term cost savings are more than worth the initial investment that brine-making equipment may require.

“Brine has the advantage of being cheaper and ensures the material sticks directly to the road surface,” said Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman, Matt Bruning. “Salt offers a little traction and extends the ice melting process by taking more time to go into solution.” Brine also only costs pennies per gallon to create, Bruning added.

New International Roadcheck Dates Set For September 9th-11th

October 5, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Like many events previously scheduled to take place this year, 2020’s International Roadcheck was postponed and rescheduled. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced this month that the event, originally scheduled to take place in March, is now set for September 9th through the 11th.

“Although the coronavirus pandemic understandably shifted priorities and personnel during the spring, the commercial motor vehicle law enforcement community has reasserted its focus on the roadside inspection program and enforcement duties,” said Sgt. John Samis, President of CVSA. “Jurisdictions are nearly back to their pre-pandemic capacity with a strengthened concentration on identifying and removing unfit vehicles and drivers from our roadways using federal safety standards and the out-of-service criteria.”

The International Roadcheck has occurred right on schedule every year for the past 32 years, so the decision to postpone was “thoroughly and thoughtfully discussed,” Samis explained.

“This experience is unprecedented in our modern society, and we need to do all that we can to help stop the spread of this global pandemic,” he said at the time of postponement.

2020’s Roadcheck will be a 72-hour, boosted effort focusing on the category of driver requirements. CVSA-certified inspectors across North America will conduct visibility inspection and enforcement efforts including motor vehicle and driver inspections at weigh-in stops or inspection stations, which may be part of roving mobile patrols or specific fixed locations.

Throughout the three-day event, commercial motor vehicles will be thoroughly checked for federal regulation compliance, and law enforcement personnel will inspect for any item violations with the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

“As we urgently respond to this time-sensitive crisis, we must remain diligent and committed to ensuring that the commercial motor vehicles and drivers providing essential goods and services to our communities are following motor carrier safety regulations,” said Samis. “Safety doesn’t take a break. It is always our top priority.”

Inspectors will collect and verify a driver’s documents during the driver portion of the inspection. They will be careful to accurately identify the motor carrier, check records-of-duty status, examine the driver’s license, and check periodic inspection reports. If needed, the inspector will also check the Medical Examiner’s Certificate, the driver’s daily vehicle inspection report, and the Skill Performance Evaluation Certificate.

Drivers will also be checked for illness, fatigue, proper seat belt usage, and any drug or alcohol possession or impairment.

Any commercial motor vehicle drivers operating without all necessary credentials, driving while ill, fatigued, or otherwise impaired, in violation of any hours-of-service rules, or under the influence of or possessing any drugs or alcohol could be placed out of service.

When placed into an out-of-service status by an inspector, the vehicle will become restricted from any travel until all violations are corrected.

The inspection portion for vehicles include thorough checks of: brake systems, cargo security, coupling devices, drive-line components, drive-shaft components, presence of the driver’s seat, exhaust systems, frames, fuel systems, lighting devices, steering mechanisms, suspensions, tires, van and open-top trailer bodies, wheels, rims, hubs, and windshield wipers.

All American commercial motor vehicle inspections are an effort to check for compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Canadian standards are based on many provincial and territorial mandates along with the National Safety Code, and Mexican commercial motor vehicles are checked for compliance with Normas Oficiales Mexicanas standards.

Inspectors will typically perform the North American Standard Level I Inspection during an International Roadcheck. This inspection consists of 37 steps within two main categories, along with a driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness examination. Hazardous materials and dangerous goods may also be a third category component of a Level I Inspection, if needed.

CVSA’s International Roadcheck partners with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Mexico.

The International Roadcheck gives particular emphasis to one specific category of violations each year. This year’s focus on driver requirements comes after FMCSA’s data from last year’s Roadcheck showed that out of approximately 3.36 million inspections, 952,938 driver violations were found, and 199,722 of those were out-of-service conditions.

In the News – Week of September 2nd

September 6, 2019 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

New Data Provides Further Insight on Chicago’s Scooters

A new study conducted by DePaul University researchers has discovered that the electric scooters the city recently adopted as part of a four-month long trial are now being used as legitimate choices for commuting during morning and evening rush hour periods. What was once deemed a fad that many cities throughout the United States were quickly shutting down due to safety hazards and an overall lack of regulations for the public has now shown that maybe they are more useful than originally thought. The study, which was done by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Planning, looked at 12 hours of data from a single day in the month of July. Ultimately, what this data was able to show was that in the roughly 2000 scooters trips that were taken in single day, a majority of the rides took place between 7-9am and 5-7pm.

As many in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs already know, traffic in the city can be grueling. Just like any large city, it seems that the traffic will simply never end. This new research seems to suggest that some individuals throughout the city may be turning from public transportation and vehicles altogether, and joining the scooter sharing fleet. Joseph P. Schwieterman, one of the researchers who conducted the study stated “I thought perhaps scooters were a novelty and people would use them in their leisure time, to make their social activities a little easier, but what we found is that rush hour is when most of the money is being made.” Such results from the pilot program are very important to note. While the scooters may seem like non-factor in the larger view of the city’s infrastructure as a whole, the reality is that people will go to great lengths to make their trips quicker in the morning and evening. While Chicago has clearly experienced the negatives associated with scooters, data such as this may begin changing people’s perspectives of the scooter sharing program altogether.

Of course, just because people are beginning to adopt the pilot program, does not mean it is in the best interest of city residents. As we have continuously covered, allowing scooters within city limits poses a severe risk to pedestrians and bicyclists in the city, as well as the scooter riders themselves. At this point, there have not been any developments regarding the most pressing issue – the fact that the scooter companies have failed to establish insurance coverage for riders. This effectively creates an insurance gap which could place riders in a dangerous and expensive situation if an accident were to occur. All of this is to say that while the scooters become more popular and the city becomes accustomed to seeing them, the city should also be making strides to make them much safer and establish further regulations that ensure that riders and the surrounding public are protected legally as well.

Lightfoot to Hold Town Hall on Budget Spending; Updates Expected Regarding the City’s Infrastructure

Mayor Lightfoot has announced that she will be holding several town hall meetings for Chicagoans in September 2019 to allow for open discussion regarding the City’s budget as a broader attempt to provide transparency to the city’s residents. One of the topics that will likely be discussed is how the city plans on spending the significant increase in funding it is set to receive as part of Governor Pritzker’s $45 billion capital plan that was announced in May of 2019.

We previously wrote on the plan’s overall impact on the crumbling infrastructure throughout the state, especially the roads and freeways connecting Chicago to the surrounding suburbs. Mayor Lightfoot’s townhall should hopefully provide some further updates on announced projects, such as the Kennedy Expressway reconstruction and the I-80 Ridge Road to Lincoln Highway rebuild. While these projects will likely take a significant amount of time to be completed, its important they are followed through as it was announced earlier in May that Illinois drivers were losing roughly $18.3 billion per year due to poor infrastructure and traffic.

Further, the City of Chicago has released a 2020 Budget Survey that asks city residents which areas of the budget should receive reduced or increased spending. If you are interested in attending any of the meetings, see below for further information:

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 4 at the Copernicus Center on 5216 W. Lawrence Ave.
9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 14 at Roberto Clemente High School on 1147 N. Western Ave.
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19 at Southeast United Methodist Youth and Community Center (The Zone) at 11731 S Ave.
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 25 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, 6130 S. Wolcott Ave.

FMCSA Altering Motor Carrier Scoring

August 8, 2019 by Jay Stefani Leave a Comment

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently announced a plan to remove some types of truck crashes from how it tracks and scores trucking companies’ safety records. The FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) site, which compiles safety data on the nation’s motor carriers, had been criticized in the past for including collisions that may not have been the fault of the truck driver or trucking company. The agency has been testing the revised system since 2017, but now plans on making the changes more permanent.

FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System

“The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) core mission is to prevent crashes, injuries, and fatalities related to large trucks and buses on our Nation’s roads.” Working toward this goal, the SMS is designed to help motor carriers incorporate federal safety rules into their operations. Adherence to these regulations is assessed by reviewing on-road performance and compliance, then analyzing the data into seven categories: Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours- of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance (HM), and Driver Fitness. These categories are referred to as Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, and are commonly referred to as a BASIC score. The BASIC score for every motor carrier in the United States is used to create a percentile-based safety ranking.

The Crash Indicator category had included all crashes involving a motor carrier’s trucks, regardless of fault. While this made the scoring system easier from a data-collection standpoint, it drew the ire of the trucking industry because it arguably penalized a truck or bus driver for a crash that was caused by someone else.

Certain types of truck crashes eligible for review

The “new” program will allow carriers, including owner-operator truck drivers, to contest certain crashes. If the crash is determined not to be the fault of the carrier or driver, the resulting points would be removed from the Crash Indicator score, thereby improving (or, more accurately, not reducing) the percentile ranking.

With the program, the following types of crashes are eligible for review:

When the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) was struck by a motorist driving under the influence (or related offense)
When the CMV was struck by a motorist driving the wrong direction
When the CMV was struck in the rear
When the CMV was struck while legally stopped or parked, including when the vehicle was unattended
When the CMV struck an individual committing or attempting to commit suicide by stepping or driving in front of the CMV
When the CMV sustained disabling damage after striking an animal in the roadway
When the crash was the result of an infrastructure failure, falling trees, rocks, or other debris
When the CMV was struck by cargo or equipment from another vehicle

Beginning in October, the FMCSA will begin accepting review requests for the following additional types of truck and bus crashes:

When a truck is hit by a vehicle that did not stop or slow in traffic.
When a truck is hit by a vehicle that failed to stop at a red light, stop sign or yield sign.
When a truck is hit by a vehicle that was making a U-turn or illegal turn
When a truck is hit by a vehicle driven by a driver who experienced a medical issue that caused the crash.
When a truck is hit by a driver who admits to falling asleep or being distracted (by a phone, passengers, etc.)
When a crash involves a driver under the influence.
When a crash involves a driver operating in the wrong direction, even if the truck was hit by another vehicle other than the one driving in the wrong direction.

Potential impact

As with many revisions to regulations and review processes, the potential impact will likely not be fully seen for some time. From a common sense standpoint, it seems fair that carriers shouldn’t be penalized for a crash that is neither their nor their driver’s fault. While that is true, there are questions that need to be addressed:

Who reviews the requests?
What kind of investigation is involved in the review?
Will there be transparency?
Will the review process be adequately funded and staffed? Or will a backlog of requests lead to nothing happening?

If the plan works as intended, it should result it more accurate safety rankings for carriers. This would, in theory, lead to safer motor carriers have better scores, and less safe motor carriers having worse scores. Obvious as this may seem, it is critically important for people who care about highway safety. A more credible scoring system would allow companies to select safer carriers to transport their cargo. A more reliable safety ranking would let shippers avoid carriers that cut corners and ignore rules and regulations intended to protect the general public.

Speaking from experience handling numerous truck crash cases, the truck is not always at fault. Or, I should say, one of the trucks isn’t always at fault. In many of our trucking cases, we represent a truck driver who was hit by another truck. Being on the road so frequently, it stands to reason truckers are more exposed to getting hit by other trucks. In a very real sense, safe trucking benefits truckers. Adhering to hours-of-service limits, hiring qualified drivers, and implementing drug awareness programs are all examples of actions carriers should be rewarded for. Safe truckers and truck companies that follow the rules should be advocating for any system that ranks them higher than those that do not.

Correctly identifying who is safe and who is not is a step in the right direction for everyone.