FMCSA administrator: Compensation, lack of parking among root causes of truck crashes

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wants to address some of the root causes of truck-related crashes that might not make it into an incident report.

“The first priority we have is to go upstream in the safety life cycle all the way to prevention,” FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson said during the Midwest Commercial Vehicle Safety Summit on Wednesday, Nov. 29 in Kansas City, Mo. “That means we have to look at some root causes of why people become unsafe in the first place. The crash that never happens – that’s what we want.”

Hutcheson added that the way truck drivers are compensated and the lack of safe places to park are among the root causes the agency needs to analyze.

“We have to dig pretty deep, and that means looking at compensation – how drivers are compensated,” Hutcheson said. “The effect of detention time – are drivers waiting too long and therefore speeding to their next location? … Why are women not joining the workforce? Do they not feel safe and secure? Are there predatory leasing arrangements that are distracting to drivers, making them unable to focus on the roadway? We know the answer is yes … Are truck drivers tired? Do they need more rest? Are they having trouble finding places to park? These are all root causes of why a driver may become unsafe in the first place.”

To address those root causes, FMCSA launched studies on driver compensation and detention time, created the Women of Trucking Advisory Board and Truck Leasing Task Force and has encouraged states to utilize grants for truck parking expansion.

The driver compensation study was mandated by Congress as part of the 2021 infrastructure law. FMCSA was directed to task the Transportation Research Board with conducting a study on the effects of various methods of driver compensation on safety and driver retention, including hourly pay, payment for detention time and other payment methods used in the industry.

Hutcheson said the compensation study’s report is scheduled to be released in July 2024.

FMCSA also is studying detention time, which occurs when truck drivers are stuck at shipping and receiving facilities for hours. The study, which is expected to be released in 2025, will collect data on truckers’ detention time and analyze it to determine its frequency and severity. In 2018, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General reported that detention time increased crash risks and costs but that the current data limited further analysis.

The Women of Trucking Advisory Board is aimed at removing the barriers that prevent females from entering the industry. The committee will submit its recommendations to FMCSA, and the agency then will have one year to deliver its own report to Congress.

The Truck Leasing Task Force was created with the goal of ending predatory lease-purchase agreements in the trucking industry. Such agreements involve programs where a carrier leases a truck to a driver for a certain amount of money and takes a percentage for the load. In some instances, drivers have claimed that they owed the carrier money at the end of the pay period. Commonly, the driver never ends up owning the truck despite making numerous payments to the carrier.

Hutcheson noted that truck drivers who are burned by these predatory programs are likely to leave the industry.

“Why do we care about lease-purchase? Because the trucker that (is in the industry) the longest is the safest,” Hutcheson said. “We need to retain them for safety.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation and FMCSA also have been vocal about the need for more truck parking nationwide. The combination of a parking shortage and regulations that limit a trucker’s driving time can lead to trucks parking in unsafe locations, such as on an off-ramp.

“There’s been more than one horrific crash where a commercial motor vehicle wasn’t parked where they should be,” Hutcheson said. “Is it totally their fault? I say no. They’re following the hours of service.”

The Midwest Commercial Vehicle Safety Summit, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, FMCSA and Kansas State University, will continue on Thursday, Nov. 30. LL