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New Carriers See Increased Crash Rates, FMCSA Data Reveals
According to initial data compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, companies that entered the trucking industry since 2018 have seen a steady increase in crashes involving large trucks.
The data was presented by FMCSA statistician Dan Burrill during the agency’s annual Analysis, Research, and Technology Forum. The data was presented as an addition to an analysis of the increase in new common-carrier registrations since just before and during the pandemic.
Motor Carrier Authority Registrations Skyrocketed in 2021
The data showed that new registrations for motor carrier authority averaged 17,000 per month in 2021 compared to 8,500 per month in 2019, with new entrants with one power unit accounting for most of the surge. Starting with crash data for carriers that entered the industry in 2018, Burrill found that new carriers were in a small number of crashes in their first year of operation, but the number of crashes increased over time.
For example, new entrants were involved in approximately 1.3% of all crashes involving large buses or trucks in 2018, but by 2021, the crash rate for those 2018 entrants rose to approximately 3.5%. The FMCSA plans to conduct further analysis of this data to assess new carriers’ safety performance compared to more well-established carriers.
FMCSA Estimates 10 Times More Inspections Conducted, Presented at Forum
The forum also included presentations on Level 8 commercial vehicle inspections, a new type of safety inspection done electronically while vehicles are at highway speed with no direct interaction with an enforcement officer. The FMCSA estimates that it can conduct as many as 10 times more inspections through Level 8 inspections, helping the agency monitor the growing number of trucks on the road.
The agency is also developing an operational safety plan as a template for carriers operating automated driving systems. Despite the average number of new registrations starting to fall from a peak in 2021, it is still much higher than pre-COVID, according to Burrill.
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