In collaboration with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), ATRI has reviewed the effectiveness of current regulatory compliance efforts in the trucking industry, as well as emerging opportunities for addressing safety on a more voluntary basis. Findings revealed that FMCSA’s one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating the safety of motor carriers has dissimilar impacts for carriers of different fleet sizes. Specifically, ATRI collected five years of compliance and safety data demonstrating that small carriers experience greatly reduced crash rates following detailed compliance reviews, however, these safety returns diminish as fleet size increases.
The research team has proposed guidelines for developing a pilot program that offers an alternative to traditional compliance, offering incentives and relieving carriers of certain obligations in exchange for adopting proven best practices. An evaluation based on this pilot study would offer insight into improving safety at a time when crash rates are already at an all time low.
