In 2021, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reported that 5,904 large trucks and buses were involved in fatal crashes, which is an 18% increase from 2020. FMCSA also estimated that the average cost of an injury-only truck crash is around $331,000, while a fatal crash can cost upwards of $7.2 million.
Even when truckers aren’t at fault, accidents can result in significant liability and financial strain.
With distractions like cell phones, eating, and other risky behaviors becoming more common—for both truck drivers and everyday motorists—the risk of accidents is continues to rise.
To protect your business from lawsuits and devastating fines, it’s essential for trucking companies to take a proactive approach in reducing liability.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the most effective ways to decrease your trucking company’s liability in the event of an audit.
Clear safety policies are key to preventing accidents, protecting drivers, and reducing liability. A strong program goes beyond training, it sets expectations and procedures for safe, compliant operations. Policies on driver qualification, HOS, inspections, and distracted driving help build a safety-first culture and protect your business from costly risks.
Using effective, interactive training programs is beneficial in reducing accident numbers. Our experts suggest that you look for programs that are designed to inform drivers on many concepts, including driver’s responsibilities, legal requirements, accident prevention, safe driving techniques, accident response protocol, and more.
Company policy and training becomes truly effective with enforcement. This may look different for various companies, but could include policy acknowledgement, either verbal or written, post-incident enforcement, audits and spot checks, and/or safety incentives.
Let’s face it - whether it’s you or one of your drivers behind the wheel, you can’t control what other drivers are doing (or failing to do).
That’s why having strong pillars of protection - policies, training, and enforcement - is critical. These foundations help reduce your liability and risk, whether an accident is your fault or not.
Our compliance team is made up of former safety and operations managers, so we understand exactly what it takes to build strong policies, provide effective training, and enforce them when it matters most.
We can write a policy specific to your company. We offer an interactive training program that supports that policy and can be completed on-line. Finally, enforcement typically comes down to time. We can be on location, but we can take on all your administrative services for less money, allowing your managers to enforce safety with drivers, equipment, and facilities/shops
If you need support with any of these three areas, we’re here to help - just reach out.