Link between driver working conditions and safety could be clearer with more data: report

Washington — Additional research may help the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration better understand why safety performance varies among motor carriers “despite uniformity in compensation methods and working conditions.”

That’s the conclusion of a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Requested by Congress as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the report states that not enough data is available to determine the extent to which driver working conditions and compensation affect safety.

However, FMCSA should further examine the issue, says NASEM, which suggests possible research interventions to combat “proprietary” carrier data and other obstacles identified in the report.

The report notes that “a multitude of factors related to the driver, carrier and environment” can affect trucking safety, including the training methods and safety culture of the carrier, driving conditions, equipment, and working conditions. However, this often complicates “efforts to isolate the safety-related effects of individual factors,” NASEM says.

The report features interviews with 45 drivers, who cited additional factors as safety concerns, including inexperienced drivers, driver detention times, lack of access to parking and electronic logging device rules.

“Long-distance truck and bus drivers are essential workers who ensure that people and goods safely and quickly get to where they need to be, all across the country,” B. Starr McMullen, professor emeritus at Oregon State University and chair of the committee that wrote the report, said in a press release. “Obtaining relevant, actionable data on this sprawling industry is difficult, but this report identifies potential opportunities for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to efficiently and resourcefully tap other research and data collection efforts and shed some light on issues that may affect these drivers and the industry as a whole.”