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Motor-Carrier Safety: A Review and Research Recommendations for 2020 and Beyond
Abstract
Abstract This article presents results of a systematic review of the US motor-carrier safety literature in transportation, logistics, and safety journals. The discipline has seen growth in research over the decades, and growth of the field rapidly increased in the last decade. We organize the literature into a systems framework and summarize the research across industry system levels to include government, regulators, carriers, and drivers. We then apply a goal-framing approach to reveal some of the dynamic interactions between system levels and the environment, as entities work to minimize risk to life and property during freight operations while striking a balance between the industry's welfare and societal welfare. This article provides recommendations for future research to fill gaps in the current body of knowledge and to aid government officials, regulators and law enforcement officials, carrier managers, and drivers in addressing industry challenges and maintaining safe roads in 2020 and beyond.
... Incentivizing safe motor carrier (hereafter "trucking") operations-the central goal of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the Department of Transportation (DOT)-is critical to ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of supply chains and the safety of the motoring public (Douglas 2021). The impact of trucking on the motoring public cannot be understated: FMCSA (2021) reveals a disturbing upward trend in the rate of fatal crashes involving combination trucks, with 2019 seeing 3,313 fatalities from such crashes. ...
... This research takes the first empirical look regarding how trucking companies respond to the FMCSA's announced and unannounced inspection blitzes to conduct problem driven research (Davis and Marquis 2005) that informs both our broader understanding regarding motor carrier safety (Douglas 2021) as well as our understanding regarding designing enforcement regimes (Eeckhout et al. 2010;Lazear 2006). We do this by engaging in theory elaboration (Fisher and Aguinis 2017) by extending the dominant rational cheater explanation for safety compliance (Miller et al. 2018a;Scott and Nyaga 2019;) by incorporating principles from attention-based theory (ABT) (Hoffman and Ocasio 2001;Ocasio 1997) to explain why carriers respond differentially to announced blitzes versus unannounced blitzes. ...
... The past decade has seen a surge in research on motor carrier safety (see Douglas (2021) for a comprehensive review). As our study is conducted at the firm-level-and specifically the aggregation of firms into size cohorts (Scott and Nyaga 2019;)-we focus our review on carrier-level studies. 1 The majority of carrier-level studies have sought to explain between-carrier differences in safety, with key factors including size (Cantor et al. 2016;Miller 2020;Miller et al. 2020); growth or contraction in size (Miller et al. 2018b); financial performance (Britto et al. 2010;Miller and Saldanha 2016); market conditions (Scott and Nyaga 2019); driver turnover rates (Miller et al. 2017b;Shaw et al. 2005); carrier age (Cantor et al. 2017); use of subcontractors (Miller et al. 2018a); unionization (Corsi et al. 2012) and use of technology (Cantor et al. 2009). ...
Ensuring motor carriers comply with safety rules is critical to the efficient workings of supply chains and the safety of the motoring public. However, little is understood regarding how carriers respond to changes in the likelihood of inspection (a.k.a., "crackdowns") undertaken by the Department of Transportation. Drawing on the regulatory compliance and criminology literatures, we extend the rational cheater explanation that undergirds carrier safety research by incorporating principles from attention-based theory to devise new theoretical predictions regarding how carriers respond to announced versus unannounced inspection crackdowns. To test our theory, we rely on exogenous variation in the probability of inspection from the DOT's use of announced and unannounced inspection "blitzes." We test predictions using a longitudinal dataset of nearly 10 million truck inspections from 2012 to 2016. We find firms with lower costs of compliance and higher costs of avoiding inspections improve compliance prior to and during announced blitzes. Small firms with lower costs of avoidance tend to avoid announced blitzes. Unannounced blitzes result in no changes in compliance or avoidance, providing evidence that awareness is driving our results.
... Within the trucking context, serious accidents are more likely to occur when drivers work more hours than government regulations allow or drive at excessive speeds (ATRI, 2018). Thus, the extent to which truck drivers adhere to regulations has important ramifications for carriers, the public, and policymakers (Cantor et al., 2013;Douglas, 2021;Miller and Saldanha, 2016). To help address rule breaking, monitoring employees' behavior has become the norm in many industries (Leicht-Deobald et al., 2019), and electronic monitoring provides enhanced oversight to ensure that employees are in compliance (Staats et al., 2017). ...
... Safety is especially important in operational ("blue-collar") occupations since these are generally more hazardous than professional ("white-collar") jobs. Given this important aspect, safety has been examined in the manufacturing (Brown et al., 2000;Wiengarten et al., 2019), warehousing (de Koster et al., 2011de Vries et al., 2016), and transportation settings (see Douglas, 2021 for a recent review of the literature). ...
Although safety within operational systems depends on compliance with regulations, non-compliance is common in many settings. Trucking is a meaningful industry for studying operational safety compliance given that the industry is large and important, truck accidents kill thousands annually, and such accidents collectively cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars. Although the truck driving occupation is dominated by men, significant efforts are underway to recruit more women into the profession. If women are safer behind the wheel than men, increasing their ranks could improve overall safety compliance. Building on theory and evidence suggesting that men have a greater willingness to take risky actions and break rules, we used data on 22 million truck inspections from 2010 to 2022 to identify an operational safety compliance gap between men and women truckers. Overall, men were 7.4% more likely to be cited for a major violation of rules governing working hours (known as hours-of-service or HOS rules) and 13.2% more likely to have a major unsafe driving violation. We then examined whether gap changes based on carrier size and type. We found that the HOS compliance gap is smaller for small carriers (vs. large) and private carriers (vs. for-hire), but not the unsafe driving gap. Finally, we tested whether the introduction of an intervention—electronic logging devices (ELDs) that automatically record truckers’ driving hours—closes the gap by increasing men's compliance. In line with predictions, differences between men and women disappeared after the mandate; but again, only for HOS compliance. Surprisingly, women had significantly more HOS violations in 2021 and 2022 than men—an outcome that may be tied to women truckers’ personal safety issues. In summary, the results and additional robustness checks indicate that men committed more unsafe driving violations (e.g., speeding) than women across the entire study period, while the pattern of HOS violations varied based on external events. We conclude by highlighting possible pathways for reducing the number of collisions involving trucks and thus lowering the number of fatalities and extent of economic losses.
... This systematic review comprehensively examines the various incentive structures that influence truck drivers' safety behaviors, setting it apart from previous reviews (Belzer, 2012;Mooren, Williamson & Grzebieta, 2015;Douglas, 2021) by its inclusive scope. Unlike earlier studies, which often focused solely on specific types of incentives or geographic regions, this review encompasses both monetary and nonmonetary incentives, including those not explicitly designed to enhance safety but that nonetheless have a measurable impact on safety outcomes. ...
Introduction: This systematic review investigates the effects of monetary and non-monetary incentive schemes on the safety performance of truck drivers, a critical concern within the road freight industry. Method: The review analyzes 18 studies and dissects the impact of compensation levels, compensation methods, and non-monetary benefits on drivers' safety behaviors. Results: The findings show that, in general, higher levels of compensation , both through selection and incentive effects, enhance safety performance by attracting more skilled drivers and incentivizing adherence to safety protocols. However, the structure of these compensations, particularly piece-rate wages, and payment for non-driving hours, reveals a double-edged sword; while incentivizing productivity , they inadvertently promote unsafe driving behaviors such as excessive speeding and insufficient rest due to economic pressures. Conversely, non-monetary incentives, though under-researched, show potential for improving safety outcomes by enhancing job satisfaction and work environment quality. Practical applications: This review highlights the need for future research on safety incentives to evaluate the full extent of the intersection between incentives, safety culture, and working conditions. It advocates for holistic compensation strategies that foster a safety culture in the trucking industry, marking a new direction for improving driver behavior.
... this study (Douglas, 2021) analyzes the literature on motor-carrier safety in the U.s., categorizing it by different levels of the industry system. However, the effects of policies and programs on carrier behavior remain unclear. ...
Trucks are essential for transporting goods in today’s economy, and heavy truck technology is advancing rapidly. New advancements include electric trucks, internet of things applications, and advanced safety features. However, there are challenges with adopting emerging technologies, such as autonomous trucks and artificial intelligence, as well as issues like driver shortage, safety, fuel costs, and contamination. Despite advancements, comprehensive research is still needed to address all factors impacting the industry. In this study, we conducted a systematic analysis using the PRISMA methodology to identify and analyze the factors impacting the trucking industry to better understand future driving forces. We searched the Web of Science and Scopus databases for January 2018 to July 2024 records. We analyzed 66 out of 108 selected records using the PESTLE methodology, which examines Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors. Our results show that 87% of the investigations focused on technological, social, and environmental factors, while 13% focused on other topics. Our findings show the significant impact of technology on the industry. Electric trucks introduce various implications, including fully autonomous trucks, the need for modern infrastructure, the displacement of drivers, and the demand for more advanced skills to operate increasingly high-tech trucks. The introduction of policies related to emission reduction, taxes, and subsidies for clean energy faces resistance from drivers, managers, and owners. Other key findings included the barriers to adopting alternative fuels, such as the need for charging stations and distribution networks and the need for implementing policies that support alternative energy sources.
... The dependent variable is water pollution, represented by industrial wastewater discharge. This study assumes that innovation input and patent innovation output have a certain impact on water pollution, which are represented by scientific and technological expenditure and the number of patent grants, respectively [94][95][96][97][98][99]. In addition, according to relevant research, water pollution is also affected by factors such as industrial structure, urban greening, environmental governance, population size, FDI factors, and innovation foundations. ...
The impact of technological innovation on water pollution is an important parameter to determine and monitor while promoting and furthering a region’s economic development. Here, exploratory spatial data analysis was used to analyze: the spatial patterns of technological innovation and water pollution in the Yangtze River, the changes in technical innovation and the resulting changes in water pollution, and the impact of technological innovation on water pollution. The following major inferences were drawn from the obtained results: (1) The spatial pattern of innovation input has a single-center structure that tends to spread. The patent innovation output has evolved, from a single spatial pattern with Shanghai as the core to a diffusion structure with three cores-Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing. (2) The aggregation mode of water pollution has evolved from the original “Z” mode to a new mode of core agglomeration, and water pollution is constantly being reduced. (3) The trends of change in patent innovation output and innovation input are roughly the same, while the trends of both and that of water pollution are contrary to each other. (4) The correlations between innovation input, patented innovation output, and water pollution are relatively low. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the number of cities with medium and high levels of gray correlation with water pollution is the same.
... Trucking safety has been the subject of extensive research that examines the outcomes related to poor safety and the antecedents of safety at the driver and carrier levels (for a recent review, see Douglas (2021)). Poor safety performance can increase insurance premiums (Corsi and Fanara 1988), increase tort costs (Cantor et al. 2006), and reduce revenue due to customers taking their business to safer carriers (ATRI 2011). ...
Many states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana use in the past decade, which has potential consequences on roadway freight safety. Using a state-level panel of heavy truck crash statistics from 2005 to 2019 and a difference-indifference estimation strategy, we test whether legalization has affected the crash rates of heavy trucks. Our results show that legalization does not increase average crash rates. Crash responses are heterogeneous across states, with Vermont and Washington showing large crash reductions, while Nevada shows a large increase in crashes. These results suggest that heavy truck accidents are not closely related to marijuana legalization.
... The main purpose of this empirical study is to analyze the influencing factors affecting the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance in China, clarify the effect path of each influencing factor on the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance, and provide relevant policy suggestions for improving its efficiency. Based on the relevant polycentric governance theory, political economic theory, and previous research results [54][55][56][57][58][59][60], this paper focuses on the impact of the following factors on the governance efficiency of the rural ecological environment. ...
With rapid economic development, the protection of the ecological environment has become very important. The modernization of rural ecological governance is the basis and prerequisite for the sustainable economic and social development of vast rural areas of China in the current era. It is urgent to analyze the influencing factors and to improve China’s rural ecological environment governance efficiency for Rural Revitalization in the new era, and to promote the modernization of the national environmental governance system and governance capacity. This paper empirically examines the influencing factors on rural ecological environment governance efficiency in the whole country, and in the eastern, central and western regions separately, at the provincial level, using the Tobit regression model. The results show that, at the national scale, the level of rural economic development, the size of village committees and rural public participation all have positive roles in promoting the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance. Rural population agglomeration, financial support for agriculture. And environmental protection social organizations have negative roles, hindering the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance. From the perspective of the eastern, central, and western regions, the factors affecting the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance are different due to regional differences. According to the results of empirical analysis, it is proposed that the key issue in improving the efficiency of rural ecological environment governance in China is to promote differentiated regional coordinated governance mechanisms.
Historically, the U.S. Gulf Coast region carries more burdens than other communities, including generated air pollution, delays and crashes, and frequent floods. Thus, there is a strong need to improve the efficiency of freight transportation and reduce environmental impacts by using emerging technologies. This study aims to explore the perceived usefulness of using Autonomous Trucks in logistics in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Data were collected using an online survey from 72 members of the Trucking Associations in the U.S. states of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The participants' perceptions were captured using 14 pre‐determined perceived usefulness on a five‐point level of agreement. A Likert scale was developed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics Software—Version 29. The results showed mixed perceived usefulness. Items related to efficiency were mostly supported, and items related to effectiveness were mostly neutral. Items related to overall satisfaction were mostly not supported. In addition, some participant groups reported higher levels of agreement with the examined items than others. For example, those who worked in a business with 500 employees or more, had much knowledge of autonomous trucks, worked in sales, had two or fewer years of work experience, and worked in a business with international market coverage. In addition, participants who worked in businesses transporting agriculture, food, and livestock cargo reported higher levels of agreement with the examined perceived usefulness than those who worked in companies transporting construction, fuel, machinery, waste, and mixed freight. This study contributes to the academic literature by adding more insights about the perceived usefulness of autonomous trucks in logistics. The results would benefit academics, researchers, logisticians, supply chain managers, autonomous truck manufacturers, policymakers, and other interested stakeholders. They can also help develop future research projects in a similar domain.
Many states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana use in the past decade, which has potential consequences for roadway safety. Using a state‐level panel of heavy truck crash statistics from 2005 to 2021 and a difference‐in‐difference estimation strategy, we test whether legalization has affected crash rates. Our results show that legalization does not increase crash rates on average; however, responses are heterogeneous across states, with Colorado, New Jersey, and Washington (state) showing crash reductions, while Connecticut and Virginia saw crashes increase. These results suggest that marijuana legalization does not have a straightforward relationship with heavy truck accidents, warranting continued research and policy scrutiny.
Logistics organizations' cultures inherently produce tension between safety and operational requirements. Perhaps counterintuitively, such tension is important for organizations to achieve safe practice and effective operational outcomes. In this study, we evaluate how logistics managers and workers create, identify, and manage various tensions between operational requirements and personnel health and safety during an extended period of uncertainty. Using a grounded theory (GT) approach, this research draws on multiple data sources from six global U.S. Air Force logistics organizations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A six-stage GT empirical analysis process revealed a tension-centered approach to safe, effective logistics, presented as a substantive (middle-range) theory with an accompanying process model. Data demonstrate operations- and people-focused cultural elements are activated based on respective requirements, thus inducing tension between potentially competing, yet interrelated, areas. In high-performing organizations, logistics managers and workers address tensions via a balanced focus to alleviate conflicts and conduct safe, effective logistics. This research responds to calls for organizational culture research using qualitative methods while offering implications for theory and practice. Specifically, logistics leaders can use the process model to prepare personnel to safely and effectively handle dynamic operational logistics in the face of unforeseen crises or changes.
The body of literature on truckload (TL) transportation procurement decisions by firms (shippers) and their transportation service providers (motor carriers) has been driven by real‐world challenges faced by a large and important segment of the economy. The field has received the attention of researchers from a wide range of domains. While this attention demonstrates the appeal of these complex procurement problems, it also underscores a key challenge: the literature is dispersed and uncoordinated. This makes it difficult to identify meaningful new streams of research, risks slowing progress in the field, and limits the exposure of the research to wider supply chain audiences. With this review of the existing literature, we coordinate the growing set of research in this domain and demonstrate how the TL procurement literature is positioned within the broader streams of service procurement research. We develop a framework that describes the types (make vs. buy) and timing (strategic or execution stage) of decisions about the procurement of TL transportation services, organized by which actor's perspective is taken—the shipper's or the carrier's. We suggest areas of future research informed by an existing set of industry‐led research and the gaps we have identified in the academic literature.
The relevance of conducting a situational analysis of the cargo transportation market is based on its overall strategic importance in the context of economic development of the Russian Federation. Namely, being actively involved in both domestic and foreign economic activity, cargo transportation is a key one in the supply of goods, resources, food, and other cargo.
Such an analysis is of particular interest regarding the immediate pandemic and consequent period. It offers an opportunity to draw certain conclusions on change in quantitative indices (the total number of cargo transportation carried out decreased that somewhat complicated the situation of a number of business entities) as well as, to a certain extent, on adaptation of the tools of situational analysis to situations rather strongly influenced by unusual factors.
The subject of study described in the article is the process of conducting a situational analysis of the cargo transportation market to identify the main patterns for road, rail, and sea transportation. Besides, the data obtained through the analysis are the basis for making basic forecasts for the future state of the entire cargo transportation sector.
The study involved in its context methods of analysis and synthesis of economic and statistical sources of information; at the same time, the author relied also on several empirical research methods and a SWOT analysis.
The results of the current study are ambiguous: on the one hand, one can observe overall development of the industry from the position of changing the structure composition of the market of cargo transportation, as well as note its sustainability relative to other areas. At the same time, the analysis of the state of cargo transportation that took shape during the pandemics can be considered as dependent to great extent on further impact of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entire economy. It is nevertheless important that the cargo transportation has shown high adaptation ability regarding tuning of the activity under the conditions of fast changes in external economic environment and market situation.
The logistic activity most visible to the general population is the presence of trucks transporting goods across the nation's highways. Transportation also represents the largest portion of total logistics costs and a large percentage of the problems. At times, these problems arise in the form of accidents, even tragedies, as trucks collide with automobiles. Car-truck accidents, though expensive, are an unfortunate cost of doing business and motorists' behaviors are out of the control of the transportation manager. Recently, the federal government and private industry have attempted to educate motorists concerning dangerous spots around trucks. Programs such as the Share the Road campaign, though mildly successful at directing behaviors of motorists near trucks, do not address motorists' perceptions of trucks—which may determine how they behave around the larger vehicles. This article is one of the first that directly examines motorists' perceptions of trucks on the highway and the effect these perceptions have on support for stricter safety regulation of the trucking industry. Based on a national random sample of U.S. motorists, these results suggest that the general U.S. driving population's perception of trucks is predominately negative, and these perceptions are significant predictors of support for stricter truck speed regulation.
Workers often have discretion over their schedules and the tasks they perform. One factor likely to
influence a worker’s scheduling decision is the work environment – some environments are better than
others. We study how workers change their productive output and select different tasks as the desirability
of the work environment changes. We pair longitudinal data from more than 16 million inspections
conducted by roadside inspectors across the continental United States with weather data at the time of
inspection. We find that inspectors reduce their output in bad weather – up to 16.2% on unusually cold
days, and more in the rain and snow. Inspectors are more likely to choose tasks with less exposure to the
weather on days with bad weather, and find fewer violations per inspection. Consistent with prior
research, inspectors find fewer violations as they grow fatigued; they also select easier tasks. This
research has implications for job design, inspection bias, and transportation safety.
Introduction:
Truck crashes contribute to a large number of injuries and fatalities. This study seeks to identify the contributing factors affecting truck crash severity using 2010 to 2016 North Dakota and Colorado crash data provided by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Method:
To fulfill a gap of previous studies, broad considerations of company and driver characteristics, such as company size and driver's license class, along with vehicle types and crash characteristics are researched. Gradient boosting, a data mining technique, is applied to comprehensively analyze the relationship between crash severities and a set of heterogeneous risk factors.
Results:
Twenty five variables were tested and 22 of them are identified as significant variables contributing to injury severities, however, top 11 variables account for more than 80% of injury forecasting. The relative variable importance analysis is conducted and furthermore marginal effects of all contributing factors are also illustrated in this research. Several factors such as trucking company attributes (e.g., company size), safety inspection values, trucking company commerce status (e.g., interstate or intrastate), time of day, driver's age, first harmful events, and registration condition are found to be significantly associated with crash injury severity. Even though most of the identified contributing factors are significant for all four levels of crash severity, their relative importance and marginal effect are all different.
Conclusions:
For the first time, trucking company and driver characteristics are proved to have significant impact on truck crash injury severity. Some of the results in this study reinforce previous studies' conclusions.
Practical applications:
Findings in this study can be helpful for transportation agencies to reduce injury severity, and develop efficient strategies to improve safety.
While systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have contributed substantially to developing knowledge in fields such as medicine, they have made limited contributions to developing knowledge in the supply chain management domain. This is due to the ontological and epistemological idiosyncrasies of research in supply chain management, which need to be accounted for when retrieving, selecting, and synthesizing studies in an SLR. Therefore, we propose a new paradigm for SLRs in the supply chain domain that is based on both best practice and the unique attributes of doing supply chain management research. This approach involves exploring existing studies with attention to theoretical boundaries, units of analysis, sources of data, study contexts, definitions and the operationalization of constructs, as well as research methods, with the goal of refining or revising existing theory. This new paradigm will push supply chain management research to the frontier of current methodological standards and build a foundation for improving the contribution of future SLRs in the supply chain and adjacent management disciplines.
For the journal version: https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12145
In spite of increasing governmental and organizational efforts, organizations still struggle to improve the safety of their employees as evidenced by the yearly 2.3 million work-related deaths worldwide. Occupational safety research is scattered and inaccessible, especially for practitioners. Through systematically reviewing the safety literature, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of behavioral and circumstantial factors that endanger or support employee safety.
A broad search on occupational safety literature using four online bibliographical databases yielded 27.527 articles. Through a systematic reviewing process 176 online articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria (e.g., original peer-reviewed research; conducted in selected high-risk industries; published between 1980-2016). Variables and the nature of their interrelationships (i.e., positive, negative, or nonsignificant) were extracted, and then grouped and classified through a process of bottom-up coding.
The results indicate that safety outcomes and performance prevail as dependent research areas, dependent on variables related to management & colleagues, work(place) characteristics & circumstances, employee demographics, climate & culture, and external factors. Consensus was found for five variables related to safety outcomes and seven variables related to performance, while there is debate about 31 other relationships. Last, 21 variables related to safety outcomes and performance appear understudied.
The majority of safety research has focused on addressing negative safety outcomes and performance through variables related to others within the organization, the work(place) itself, employee demographics, and—to a lesser extent—climate & culture and external factors.
This systematic literature review provides both scientists and safety practitioners an overview of the (under)studied behavioral and circumstantial factors related to occupational safety behavior. Scientists could use this overview to study gaps, and validate or falsify relationships. Safety practitioners could use the insights to evaluate organizational safety policies, and to further development of safety interventions.
Logistics has evolved from a description-based discipline to one based upon theoretical grounding from other business disciplines to define, explain, and understand complex interrelationships, resulting in the identification of the discipline's primary domain and major concepts—the “what's” of logistics. General theories, however, lack the domain specificity critical to understanding the inner workings within key relationships—the how's, why's, and when's—that drive actual outcomes. Middle-range theorizing (MRT) enables researchers to focus on these inner workings to develop a deeper understanding of the degree to and conditions under which logistics phenomena impact outcomes as well as the mechanisms through which such outcomes are manifested. This study seeks to spur logistics research at the middle-range level by presenting a context and mechanism-based approach to MRT, outlining a process with guidelines for how to theorize at the middle range, and providing a template and examples of deductive and inductive MRT.
Starting with initiatives dating back to the mid-1800s, we provide a high-level review of the key trends and developments in the application of applied psychology to the field of occupational safety. Factory laws, basic worker compensation, and research on accident proneness comprised much of the early work. Thus, early research and practice very much focused on the individual worker, the design of their work, and their basic protection. Gradually and over time, the focus began to navigate further into the organizational context. One of the early efforts to broaden beyond the individual worker was a significant focus on safety-related training during the middle of the 20th century. Toward the latter years of the 20th century and continuing the move from the individual worker to the broader organizational context, there was a significant increase in leadership and organizational climate (safety climate) research. Ultimately, this resulted in the development of a multilevel model of safety culture/climate. After discussing these trends, we identify key conclusions and opportunities for future research.
Introduction: Provide an updated examination of risk factors for large truck involvements in crashes resulting in injury or death.
Methods: A matched case-control study was conducted in North Carolina of large trucks operated by interstate carriers. Cases were defined as trucks involved in crashes resulting in fatal or non-fatal injury, and one control truck was matched on the basis of location, weekday, time of day, and truck type. The matched-pair odds ratio provided an estimate of the effect of various driver, vehicle, or carrier factors.
Results: Out-of-service (OOS) brake violations tripled the risk of crashing; any OOS vehicle defect increased crash risk by 362 percent. Higher historical crash rates (fatal, injury, or all crashes) of the carrier were associated with increased risk of crashing. Operating on a short-haul exemption increased crash risk by 383 percent. Antilock braking systems reduced crash risk by 65 percent. All of these results were statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level. Other safety technologies also showed estimated benefits, although not statistically significant.
Conclusions: With the exception of the finding that short-haul exemption is associated with increased crash risk, results largely bolster what is currently known about large truck crash risk and reinforce current enforcement practices. Results also suggest vehicle safety technologies can be important in lowering crash risk. This means that as safety technology continues to penetrate the fleet, whether from voluntary usage or government mandates, reductions in large truck crashes may be achieved.
Practical application: Results imply that increased enforcement and use of crash avoidance technologies can improve the large truck crash problem.
Motor carrier safety impacts the well-being of the traveling public and the economic well-being of the shippers who entrust motor carriers with safely transporting freight. Shippers are affected by motor carrier safety due to accidents damaging their cargo and disrupting their customers' operations. One characteristic frequently theorized to predict motor carrier safety is motor carriers financial performance. However, the literature offers mixed evidence linking motor carrier financial performance to safety. This does not help practitioners or policy makers and necessitates research to resolve these inconsistent findings, which we undertake in this research. We extend previous work by developing a theoretical framework based on strain theory to explain why both absolute (static) financial performance and year-to-year change in financial performance should uniquely affect carrier safety. We test our hypotheses by fitting mixed-effects models to a repeated-measure, longitudinal database of publically traded motor carrier financial performance and safety measures. Results indicate that financial performance measures uniquely affect carrier safety. These findings attempt to resolve the inconsistencies in the past literature and, carry important implications for researchers studying motor carrier safety, motor carrier managers, shippers, and policy makers.
The logistic activity most visible to the general population is the presence of trucks transporting goods across the nation's highways. Transportation also represents the largest portion of total logistics costs and a large percentage of the problems. At times, these problems arise in the form of accidents, even tragedies, as trucks collide with automobiles. Car-truck accidents, though expensive, are an unfortunate cost of doing business and motorists' behaviors are out of the control of the transportation manager. Recently, the federal government and private industry have attempted to educate motorists concerning dangerous spots around trucks. Programs such as the Share the Road campaign, though mildly successful at directing behaviors of motorists near trucks, do not address motorists' perceptions of trucks-which may determine how they behave around the larger vehicles. This article is one of the first that directly examines motorists' perceptions of trucks on the highway and the effect these perceptions have on support for stricter safety regulation of the trucking industry. Based on a national random sample of U.S. motorists, these results suggest that the general U.S. driving population's perception of trucks is predominately negative, and these perceptions are significant predictors of support for stricter truck speed regulation.
Modern American folklore describes independent owner-operator truckers as the last cowboys or frontiersman. If accurate, the individualistic nature of the independent trucker would mitigate the effectiveness of “corporate culture” in modifying behavioral intentions. The modern independent owner-operator exists in a unique environment characterized by high regulation and low supervision, with highly undesirable consequences for bad decisions. This study used owner-operators' perceptions of carrier safety climate and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1991) to understand drivers; intentions to engage in potentially unsafe driving behavior. The relationships were tested with data from nearly 300 owner-operators who conduct national, regional, and local driving operations. Results supported the individualistic nature of owner-operators. Results also indicated that a carrier's use of supportive (versus directive) safety practices, combined with drivers' attitudes towards and perceived behavioral control of unsafe driving, significantly and directly influenced drivers' intentions to commit unsafe driving actions. These key findings inform carriers about adopting more resourceful safety training and awareness programs that provide drivers the necessary tools and skills to drive safely and avoid potential danger outside their control.
This article reports results of an investigation of safety technology adoption practices among the largest firms in the U.S. motor carrier industry. A national survey was conducted to determine firms' adoption patterns of available and leading-edge safety technologies. It was found that, in general, motor carrier firms are at the early stages of safety technology adoption. Further, it was discovered that the larger firms, with a broad geographic scope of operations, are the leaders in safety technology adoption. It is the authors' hope that the article will stimulate increased interest in the pursuit of research on this important topic.
This study aims to advance safety climate research by applying sociotechnical systems theory to investigate the moderating effect of occupational tenure (as an external influence) on the safety climate and driving safety behavior relationship. Safety climate research has largely focused on the internal work environment, but, from a systems perspective, long-haul truck drivers are highly influenced by the external environment of their organization because they are a distributed workforce. Although drivers are exposed to their company’s internal message that safety is important, their knowledge of the overall trucking industry and their experiences external to their company may interact with their perception of safety climate. The sample consisted of long-haul truck drivers from seven U.S. trucking companies. Results were consistent with those of prior research in that safety climate had a positive impact on driving safety behavior for long-haul drivers and safety behavior mediated the relationship between safety climate and near misses. Additionally, and unique to this study, driving safety behavior was less dependent on safety climate for drivers with longer occupational tenure compared to those with shorter occupational tenure, albeit with that moderator accounting for a small percentage of variance. Implications regarding examining safety climate and safety outcomes in the trucking industry, and also regarding external and internal organizational influences affecting safety climate, will be discussed.
An individual's temptation to violate regulations for personal gain increases with the economic payoff to do so. Firms, however, adopt strategies to reduce undesirable behavior from their employees. This article examines how individuals change their propensity to violate regulations as the price for their services varies. We posit that individuals will commit more intentional, but not unintentional, violations as the payoff to do so increases, and that this effect will be moderated by the size of the firm for whom he or she works and whether the firm or the individual owns the assets used for production. To test our hypotheses, we link data from millions of inspections of truck driver logbooks with spot market prices observed over the same 4‐year period. We find that drivers who operate independently intentionally violate restrictions on their work hours more frequently when prices increase—violating 34% more frequently when prices are at their highest versus lowest—but larger firms and the firm's ownership of the assets reduce a driver's responsiveness to price changes. At the extreme, drivers for large asset‐owning firms are completely unresponsive to prices. Asset‐owning drivers are responsive to market prices, even for the largest firms.
This study analyzes how truck drivers’ compensation affects their safety performance, using moving violations as a proxy for safety. In addition to drivers’ pay per
mile driven, we employ fringe benefits as independent variables. The result suggests that the rate of pay per mile driven, and employment-based health insurance,
significantly decrease the probability of moving violations. The result provides support for the hypothesis that high compensation for drivers improve drivers’ safety
performance, though other forms of compensation are not significantly related to the incidence of moving violations
Introduction:
Safety research in the U.S. motor carrier context remains important, as the trucking industry employs approximately 1.7 million large truck drivers. Drivers face many competing pressures in this unique high risk, high regulation, and low direct supervision context. They represent the cornerstone of safe carrier operations.
Methods:
Using a multi-theoretical approach, this study investigates how drivers' perceptions of carrier safety climate influence their safety-related attitudes and intentions.
Results:
Responses from nearly 1500 over the road drivers provide evidence that safety climate directly influences drivers' attitudes toward safety, safety norms, and driver risk avoidance, and indirectly influences drivers' intentions to commit unsafe acts. These findings replicate previous findings and also extend the nomological network of theory in this context, adding driver risk avoidance as a central factor to the driver safety theoretical framework. Additionally, carrier managers are encouraged to reflect on the study's evidence and pursue a better understanding of their drivers' risk perceptions and tolerance, while minimizing avoidable risk through prudent safety and operational policies, procedures, and processes. Future research in this area is highly encouraged.
With few exceptions, motor carriers operating in the United States were required to install electronic logging devices (ELDs) as of December 18, 2017. Noncompliance exposed carriers to risk of fines from enforcement agencies. This research examines compliance behaviors of small and medium size carriers in the four months leading up to the ELD mandate, focusing on the effects of carriers’ size and geographic range of operation (e.g., regional vs. national). Drawing on sociological agency theory, new institutional theory, and theory regarding regulatory compliance, we explain why (1) carriers’ size displays a nonlinear relationship with ELD compliance, (2) the positive effect of carrier size on ELD compliance diminishes as the enforcement deadline approached, (3) carriers with operations covering wider geographic areas have higher rates of compliance, and (4) the effect of wider geographic range of operations on compliance will become more pronounced as the enforcement deadline approached. We test our theory using ELD compliance data collected by an industry data vendor, CarrierLists, from September 2017 through December 2017 from 3,910 motor carriers. Results from a series of discrete choice logistic regression models corroborate our predictions. These results have important implications for carriers, shippers, and regulators.
Problem statement:
In the U.S., a safety rating is assigned to each motor carrier based on data obtained from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) and an on-site investigation. While researchers have identified variables associated with the safety ratings, the specific direction of the relationships are not necessarily clear.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to identify those relationships involved in the safety ratings of interstate motor carriers, the largest users of the U.S. transportation network.
Method:
Bayesian networks are used to learn these relationships from data obtained from MCMIS for a 6-year period (2007-2012).
Results:
Our study shows that safety rating assignment is a complex process with only a subset of the variables having statistically significant relationship with safety rating. They include driver out-of-service violations, weight violations, traffic violations, fleet size, total employed drivers, and passenger & general carrier indicators.
Application:
The findings have both immediate implications and long term benefits. The immediate implications relate to better identification of unsafe motor carriers, and the long term benefits pertain to policies and crash countermeasures that can enhance carrier safety.
There is convincing evidence to suggest that older truck drivers are a highly valued cohort in the transportation industry. Thus, ensuring the safety, health and wellbeing of this workforce should be a priority so that transportation industry employers can develop strategies to keep them driving for as long as they are safe on the road. As a first step in achieving this goal, the aim of this study was to better understand the key factors associated with managing the safety, health and wellbeing of older drivers in the trucking industry. Two focus groups with safety managers (n = 15) trucking companies in the United States were conducted to gain an understanding of the barriers and facilitators in planning and managing the safety of older truck drivers. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and involved a broad categorisation of all meaningful data into four key areas (i.e., advantages, concerns, current strategies and challenges). Themes were subsequently identified within each of the four key areas. The results confirmed that older truck drivers are valued in the workforce for their work ethic and safety attitudes; however, there are multiple and interrelated factors influencing the safety management of older truck drivers. It was also found that there are few interventions that are targeted to the specific needs of older truck drivers and aligned to the challenges in managing the safety risks. Overall, the findings of this study support recommendations to address the barriers associated with managing the safety of older truck drivers.
Accidents involving large commercial trucks kill over 3,000 motorists every year in the United States. A substantial number of these accidents stem from truck drivers operating their trucks while excessively fatigued. This concern has resulted in regulatory agencies establishing hours-of-service (HOS) rules that carriers must ensure their drivers abide by. In this study we examine the relationship between carriers' capability at monitoring their truck drivers using electronic technologies and carrier-level compliance with HOS rules. Drawing on principles from deterrence theory, we explain why this relationship should be sigmoidal (S-shaped) in nature such that motor carriers receive the greatest gains from investing in electronic monitoring capability when they have a moderate level of this capability. We subject our theorized prediction to empirical testing using a longitudinal research design that combines primary data on motor carriers' electronic monitoring capability and secondary data from regulators regarding carrier-level compliance with HOS rules. Results from our econometric analysis corroborate the hypothesized sigmoidal relationship, which stands up to stringent robustness testing. These results hold important implications for theory and practice.
Although research has found advanced safety technologies to be effective at preventing large truck crashes, limited empirical data exists regarding their cost effectiveness to the U.S. society. Without these data, carriers are hesitant to adopt costly technologies and government agencies are hesitant to create regulation mandating their use. The objective of this study was to provide scientifically-based estimates of the societal benefits and costs of large truck automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning (LDW), and video-based onboard safety monitoring (OSM). For each technology, benefit-cost analyses were performed for installing the technology on all large trucks (including retrofitting existing trucks) and for equipping new large trucks only. Sensitivity analyses examined three cost estimates (low, average, high; values technology-specific), two estimates of system efficacy (low and high; values technology-specific), and three discount rates (0%, 3%, 7%) for each technology. Equipping trucks with LDW and video-based OSM systems were found to be cost effective for all combinations of costs, efficacy, and discount rates examined, for both new and existing trucks. Results for AEB and were mixed. Only a $500 AEB system was cost effective when equipping new trucks and retrofitting existing trucks. However, all cost estimates were cost effective with a 28% efficacy rate when only equipping new large trucks. Overall, these data suggested all three technologies can be cost-effective for new large trucks provided the current costs and efficacy rates can be maintained or improved upon.
Ensuring safe operations of large commercial vehicles (motor carriers) remains an important challenge, particularly in the United States. While the federal regulatory agency has instituted a compliance review-based rating method to encourage carriers to improve their safety levels, concerns have been expressed regarding the effectiveness of the current ratings. In this paper, we consider a crash rate level (high, medium, and low) rather than a compliance review-based rating (satisfactory, conditional satisfactory, and unsatisfactory). We demonstrate an automated way of predicting the crash rate levels for each carrier using three different classification models (Artificial Neural Network, Classification and Regression Tree (CART), and Support Vector Machine) and three separate variable selection methods (Empirical Evidence, Multiple Factor Analysis, Garson's algorithm). The predicted crash rate levels (high, low) are compared to the assigned levels based on the current safety rating method. The results indicate the feasibility of crash rate level as an effective measure of carrier safety, with CART having the best performance.
Road freight transportation represents a long-standing public health and transportation safety problem in the United States. Despite the United States’ aging population, and predictions of an aging road freight transportation workforce, there is little information about the unique safety issues faced by older truck drivers, whether they pose an increased safety risk or how to inform the development of new evidence-based preventive strategies. This study represents the starting point for addressing these issues by exploring differences in crash characteristics and injury outcomes in older and middle aged driver groups. Two sets of data in the United States (i.e., Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the National Automotive Sampling System General Estimates System) were used to analyze trends and compare truck drivers aged 60 years and older to their younger counterparts (i.e., 27–50 year olds). The results of this study both support and refute previous research. No differences were identified in crash outcomes and characteristics between older and middle aged truck drivers, representing a departure from previous research conducted with non-professional drivers. Furthermore, older drivers were found to display some safer driver behaviors (i.e., safety belt and alcohol use) compared with middle aged drivers. The results support the need for future research in this area and countermeasures that leverage the knowledge and experience of older truck drivers in managing safety in the transportation industry.
Motor carrier safety is an important concern of shippers, carriers, policy makers, consignees, insurance providers, and the motoring public. One aspect of carrier safety that has garnered substantial attention is whether carriers making greater use of owner–operators are more or less safe vis‐à‐vis carriers making greater use of employee drivers. Currently, conflicting theoretical predictions exist regarding the direction of this relationship. In this article, we offer a reconciliation of the alternative theoretical predictions by developing a coherent theory that merges sociological rational choice theory and theory regarding motor carrier safety. We subject our theory to empirical testing by fitting a series of seemingly unrelated regression models to a vector of safety measures tracked as part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance, Safety, and Accountability program. Our results are consistent with our proposed theory of owner—operator safety and provide meaningful theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research.
Motor carrier safety remains a highly relevant issue for supply chain managers and scholars because carriers’ safety affects supply chains as well as the welfare of the motoring public. This article enriches understanding regarding this topic by investigating how motor carriers’ growth or contraction since the start of the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program in 2010 affects their safety performance. Drawing on core principles from theories regarding internal adjustment costs from economics and nonscale free capabilities from management, we explain why carriers’ growth or contraction should differentially affect various safety metrics tracked by the CSA program. To test our theory, we assemble a multiyear panel data set for over 1,000 of the largest for‐hire motor carriers operating in the United States by melding together several different governmental data sources. We fit a series of multivariate seemingly unrelated regression models to test our hypothesized effects. Our results corroborate our theorized predictions and are robust to alternative model specifications. We conclude by detailing how this work contributes to extant theory, summarizing managerial and policy implications, highlighting limitations, and suggesting directions for further pursuit.
Commercial truck crashes cause thousands of fatalities and serious injuries every year in the United States. One aspect of motor-carrier safety that has received limited attention, both theoretically and empirically, is the safety of new entrant motor carriers. This limited attention is surprising given regulators perceive new entrants as posing substantial safety concerns. This research seeks to fill this void by drawing on generative mechanisms from old institutional theory and population ecology to theorize that new entrants are likely to follow one of two safety trajectories. This complements prior work that has sought to explain safety differences between new entrants and established carriers. To test our theory, we collect longitudinal safety data from the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability program for a large sample of new entrant carriers and fit a series of mixed-effects models to estimate new entrants' safety trajectories. Our results provide corroborating evidence for our theorized trajectories and identify how one new entrant characteristic, size, affects these firms' safety trajectories.
Fatigue causes decrements in vigilant attention and reaction time and is a major safety hazard in the trucking industry. There is a need to quantify the relationship between driver fatigue and safety in terms of operationally relevant measures. Hard-braking events are a suitable measure for this purpose as they are relatively easily observed and are correlated with collisions and near-crashes. We developed an analytic approach that predicts driver fatigue based on a biomathematical model and then estimates hard-braking events as a function of predicted fatigue, controlling for time of day to account for systematic variations in exposure (traffic density). The analysis used de-identified data from a previously published, naturalistic field study of 106 U.S. commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. Data analyzed included drivers' official duty logs, sleep patterns measured around the clock using wrist actigraphy, and continuous recording of vehicle data to capture hard-braking events. The curve relating predicted fatigue to hard-braking events showed that the frequency of hard-braking events increased as predicted fatigue levels worsened. For each increment on the fatigue scale, the frequency of hard-braking events increased by 7.8%. The results provide proof of concept for a novel approach that predicts fatigue based on drivers' sleep patterns and estimates driving performance in terms of an operational metric related to safety. The approach can be translated to practice by CMV operators to achieve a fatigue risk profile specific to their own settings, in order to support data-driven decisions about fatigue countermeasures that cost-effectively deliver quantifiable operational benefits.
This article summarizes the recommendations on data and methodology issues for studying commercial motor vehicle driver fatigue of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study. A framework is provided that identifies the various factors affecting driver fatigue and relating driver fatigue to crash risk and long-term driver health. The relevant factors include characteristics of the driver, vehicle, carrier and environment. Limitations of existing data are considered and potential sources of additional data described. Statistical methods that can be used to improve understanding of the relevant relationships from observational data are also described. The recommendations for enhanced data collection and the use of modern statistical methods for causal inference have the potential to enhance our understanding of the relationship of fatigue to highway safety and to long-term driver health.
Given the relatively young age of the supply chain management (SCM) discipline, SCM academic programs must be able to validate their effectiveness to compete for university resources. The research herein supports this by extending a longstanding series that evaluates publication productivity across six major SCM journals. This edition ranks the top 25 most productive SCM schools between 2014 and 2016. With the series now celebrating 50 years, the results therefore allow evaluation of a half century of SCM research. The series also evaluates authorship concentration to assess the continued growth of the SCM discipline. Like previous editions, the results reveal that a core set of schools continue to lead SCM research with some holding strong performance throughout the entire 50 years. However, a moderately large portion of the top-25 schools continues to change as new SCM programs emerge globally. The author concentration analysis confirms these results as the growth of new scholars and new SCM programs continue to consistently expand. As a point of concern, however, the global diffusion of SCM authorship and schools graduating new SCM scholars are slowing.
Introduction:
There is ongoing concern at the national level about the availability of adequate commercial vehicle rest areas and truck stops for commercial vehicle drivers to rest or to wait for a delivery window.
Methods:
A retrospective case-control study was conducted to determine the association between the occurrence of sleepiness/fatigue-related (cases) vs. all other human factor-related commercial vehicle driver at-fault crashes (controls) and proximity to rest areas, weigh stations with rest havens, and truck stops.
Results:
Commercial vehicle driver at-fault crashes involving sleepiness/fatigue were more likely to occur on roadways where the nearest rest areas/weigh stations with rest havens/truck stops were located 20 miles or more from the commercial vehicle crash site (Odds Ratio [OR]=2.32; Confidence Interval [CI] 1.615, 3.335] for 20-39.9 miles vs. <20 miles; and OR=6.788 [CI 2.112, 21.812] for 40+ miles) compared to commercial vehicle at-fault driver crashes with human factors other than sleepiness/fatigue cited in crash reports. Commercial vehicle driver at-fault crashes involving sleepiness/fatigue also were more likely to occur on parkways compared to interstates (adjusted OR=3.747 [CI 2.83, 4.95]), during nighttime hours (adjusted OR=6.199 [CI 4.733, 8.119]), and on dry pavement (adjusted OR 1.909, [CI 1.373, 2.655]).
Conclusions:
The use of statewide crash data analysis coupled with ArcGIS mapping capabilities provided the opportunity to both statistically determine and to visualize the association between rest area/weigh station with rest haven/truck stop distance and the occurrence of commercial vehicle driver at-fault crashes involving sleepiness/fatigue. Implementation and evaluation of commercial vehicle employer policies and interventions such as the use of commercial vehicle driver fatigue alert systems may help to reduce fatigue and sleepiness in commercial vehicle drivers. These results can be used by state and local highway transportation officials to inform and increase truck parking availability, especially on parkways.
Motor carriers’ operational safety affects multiple stakeholders including truck drivers, motor carriers, insurance companies, shippers, and the general public. In this article, I devise and test theory regarding motor carriers’ longitudinal performance for three classes of safety behaviors linked to carriers’ accident rates—Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, and Vehicle Maintenance—tracked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program. Specifically, I draw on core concepts from sociological agency theory and resource dependency theory to devise middle-range theory that generates never-before-tested hypotheses regarding carriers’ longitudinal safety performance for these classes of safety behaviors after the start of the CSA program. The hypothesized predictions are tested by fitting a series of multivariate latent curve models to four years of panel data for a random sample of 484 large, for-hire motor carriers operating in the United States. The empirical findings corroborate the theoretical predictions and remain after robustness testing. These findings have important implications for scholars, motor carrier managers, procurers of motor carrier transportation services, and public policy makers.
This article presents results of a systematic review of the conceptual and empirical literature published in the area of environmentally sustainable freight transportation (ESFT) since 1990. The research has been largely atheoretical and descriptive, though that has begun to change with the dramatic growth in this literature since 2010. The literature to date provides interesting insights into the way that ESFT practice has evolved. Following an input–transformation–output model, the topical focus of the research began with an emphasis on transformation processes or activities, and then considered inputs (represented by drivers/facilitators), barriers as moderators of the process, and outcomes of practice, or outputs. This article provides extensive suggestions for future research in each of the topical areas to help fill some of the gaps in theory and to enhance practice.
The trucking industry is the lifeblood of supply chains. Truck driver turnover and motor carrier safety are two salient issues affecting this industry. While turnover by itself presents a challenge due to the cost of replacing drivers, it takes on additional urgency because turnover may affect motor carrier safety. However, driver turnover research has focused predominantly on identifying factors affecting turnover, thus resulting in limited understanding of how turnover affects motor carrier performance, particularly with regard to safety. This reduces our ability to provide guidance to managers who have to address driver turnover. In this article, we extend prior research by drawing from several theoretical lenses to develop and test theory of the turnover-safety relationship. Furthermore, we investigate whether carrier managers can mitigate the effect of turnover on safety by embedding knowledge in carriers' routines using activity control, a formal management control mechanism. We employ a longitudinal data set composed of primary and secondary data sources to test our hypotheses. We find the turnover-safety relationship is best characterized by a monotonic negative attenuated pattern and that high levels of activity control mitigate the negative effect of driver turnover on motor carrier safety in domains more under drivers' control.
Introduction:
This paper presents the cost benefits of two different onboard safety systems (OSS) installed on trucks as they operated during normal revenue deliveries. Using a formal economic analysis approach, the study quantified the costs and benefits associated with lane departure warning (LDW) systems and roll stability control (RSC) systems.
Methods:
The study used data collected from participating carriers (many of these crashes were not reported to state or Federal agencies), and the research team also reviewed each crash file to determine if the specific OSS would have mitigated or prevented the crash. The deployment of each OSS was anticipated to increase the safety of all road users, but impact different sectors of society in different ways. Benefits that were inherent in each group (e.g., industry, society) were considered, and different benefit-cost analyses (BCAs) were performed.
Results:
This paper presents two BCAs: a BCA focused on the costs and benefits in the carrier industry by implementing each OSS, and a BCA that measured the societal benefits of each OSS. In addition, a BCA for a theoretical mandatory deployment option for each OSS is presented.
Conclusions:
BCA results for LDW and RSC clearly showed their benefits outweighed their costs for the carrier and society. Practical applications: Cost information is a crucial factor in purchasing decisions in carriers; similarly, regulators must consider the cost burden prior to mandating technologies. The results in this study provide carrier decision makers and regulators with information necessary to make an informed decision regarding RSC and LDW.
Multiple stakeholders have a vested interest in motor-carrier safety because it affects the welfare of the general public and companies' supply chain operations. This article develops new theory about motor carrier safety by utilizing processes from attention-based theory and new institutional theory to answer questions regarding carrier safety since the rollout of the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program. This research examines the propensity that carriers flagged for poor performance on hours-of-service (HOS) compliance when the program was fully implemented in late 2010 exited this status at least once during the subsequent 3.5 years. Conversely, it examines whether carriers not flagged for poor HOS performance at the start of the program come to receive a safety warning at least once during the subsequent 3.5 years. It further examines how carrier size affects these respective hazard rates. Hypothesized effects are tested using panel data from N = 484 large, for-hire carriers by fitting a series of discrete time hazard models. The results are consistent with the theory put forward. The article concludes by describing theoretical contributions, explaining managerial and public policy implications, noting limitations, and making recommendations for further inquiry.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in understanding the contributory factors to run-off-road (ROR) crashes in the US, especially those where large trucks are involved. Although there have been several efforts to understand large-truck crashes, the relationship between crash factors, crash severity, and ROR crashes is not clearly understood. The intent of this research is to develop statistical models that provide additional insight into the effects that various contributory factors related to the person (driver), vehicle, crash, roadway, and environment have on ROR injury severity. An ordered random parameter probit was estimated to predict the likelihood of three injury severity categories using Oregon crash data: severe, minor, and no injury. The modeling approach accounts for unobserved heterogeneity (i.e., unobserved factors). The results showed that five parameter estimates were found to be random and normally distributed, and varied across ROR crash observations. These were factors related to crashes that occurred between January and April, raised median type, loss of control of a vehicle, the indicator variable of speed not involved, and the indicator variable of two vehicles or more involved in the crashes. In contrast, eight variables were found to be fixed across ROR observations. Looking more closely at the fixed parameter results, large-truck drivers who are not licensed in Oregon have a higher probability of experiencing no injury ROR crash outcomes, and human related factor, fatigue, increases the probability of minor injury. The modeling framework presented in this work offers a flexible methodology to analyze ROR crashes involving large trucks while accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. This information can aid safety planners and the trucking industry in identifying appropriate countermeasures to help mitigate the number and severity of large-truck ROR crashes.
Highway safety has been one of the most important public policy issues discussed in recent years. Accidents involving commercial vehicles result in many negative effects, both personal and economic. Although the numbers of highway accidents have been declining in the past decade, many people still suffer from the effects of severe highway accidents. As public policy makers struggle to improve safety on our highway system, they are looking for analytical tools to help them assess and leverage the impact of scarce public resources. This research effort used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for benchmarking the efficiency of public policy factors (regulatory and financial) known to have an influence on safety performance. The results of this research can provide objective safety performance and improvement recommendations for commercial transportation and therefore serve to be instructive to those states with lower levels of safety performance. Our findings suggest that government agencies could focus on more effective policy making (emphasizing road condition improvement and capital outlay utilization vs other investments) to reduce highway fatality rates.
Due to the importance of the recent Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requirement that all motor carriers participate in the New Entrant Safety Assurance Program (NESAP), the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of the NESAP to motor carrier safety performance. Our study finds that carriers who entered the industry before the NESAP program (e.g., more experienced carriers) have significantly better safety performance in comparison to new entrant carriers. We also demonstrate that new entrants who successfully complete the requirements of the NESAP have significantly better safety performance than new entrants who fail to complete the program successfully. The implications of the study are also discussed.
There were an estimated 438,000 truck crashes in 2014 that led to approximately 110,000 injuries and 3903 deaths (HTSA and DoT, 2014). Truck driver fatigue has been cited as a major reason for these accidents Federal Motor Carrier Safety & Administration, 2015. In July 2013, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) revised its hours of service (HOS) regulatory policy, which restricts the number of duty and driving hours a truck driver can operate in order to reduce the fatigue related accidents involving trucks. The revision changed the unlimited restart (allows truck drivers to reset their duty time log back to zero) provision by restricting it to 1 restart per 168 h (1 week) and added that the restart must span two consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Lawmakers suspended these two aspects of the restart provision in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations act on December 16, 2014 until more analysis was completed on the efficacy of these regulations due to unintended consequences that allegedly negatively affected motorist's safety. Countering truck driver fatigue is an important issue and an extremely difficult task because of the many confounding aspects that can cause fatigue. The new regulation set forth in July 2013, was supposed to lessen fatigue and thus reduce accidents caused by truck drivers. The current HOS regulation was in place for approximately 16 months, producing enough data for a statistical analysis of its effects on truck driver safety. This research found that by comparing truck driving safety data prior to the change in July of 2013 (the unlimited restart provision) to truck driving safety data during the enactment of the 1 restart per 168-h restriction and 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. provision that the percent of accidents caused by truck drivers did not decrease. Furthermore, this research found that the HOS changes implemented on July 1, 2013 have not led to a significant change in accidents involved and caused by truck drivers. These results suggest that other factors appear to be linked to motorists’ safety, rather than the updated HOS regulation.
Many researchers and practitioners in the trucking industry have expressed concerns with the implementation of Compliance, Safety and Accountability (CSA), which is a safety management initiative created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). CSA assigns Behavior Analysis Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) scores to carriers, based on driver and vehicle performance. This technique of assigning BASIC scores to carriers is a cause of concern for many stakeholders in the industry. This article presents a structural equation model (SEM) to understand the relationship between the BASIC scores and crash records of the carriers. Exogenous variables are Unsafe Driving, Fatigue Driving, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, and Vehicle Maintenance. Crash-Per-Million-Miles is the endogenous variable in the SEM. We observed existence of a latent variable driver characteristic, which in turn influences three of the exogenous variables. Based on the SEM model output we concluded that four of the exogenous variables—Unsafe Driving, Fatigue Driving, Driver Fitness, and Controlled Substances/Alcohol—have significant influence on the endogenous variable.
Motor carriers are facing a shortage of drivers. Traditional recruiting and retention incentives have become commoditized. This research investigated the effects of perceived safety climate on job attitudes and intentions to leave. The theory of work adjustment provided a model that was tested using responses of 553 truck drivers. Safety Climate was strongly and positively associated with Overall Job Attitudes. Overall Job Attitudes were, in turn, strongly and negatively associated with Intentions to Leave. This suggests that firms facing recruiting and retention challenges could leverage non-traditional occupational factors (like Safety Climate) to inform human resource strategies.
Introduction:
Long-haul truck drivers in the United States suffer disproportionately high injury rates. Sleep is a critical factor in these outcomes, contributing to fatigue and degrading multiple aspects of safety-relevant performance. Both sleep duration and sleep quality are often compromised among truck drivers; however, much of the efforts to combat fatigue focus on sleep duration rather than sleep quality. Thus, the current study has two objectives: (1) to determine the degree to which sleep impacts safety-relevant performance among long-haul truck drivers; and (2) to evaluate workday and non-workday sleep quality and duration as predictors of drivers' safety-relevant performance.
Materials and methods:
A non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed to collect survey and biometric data from 260 long-haul truck drivers. The Trucker Sleep Disorders Survey was developed to assess sleep duration and quality, the impact of sleep on job performance and accident risk, and other relevant work organization characteristics. Descriptive statistics assessed work organization variables, sleep duration and quality, and frequency of engaging in safety-relevant performance while sleepy. Linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate relationships between sleep duration, sleep quality, and work organization variables with safety composite variables.
Results:
Drivers reported long work hours, with over 70% of drivers working more than 11h daily. Drivers also reported a large number of miles driven per week, with an average of 2,812.61 miles per week, and frequent violations of hours-of-service rules, with 43.8% of drivers "sometimes to always" violating the "14-h rule." Sleep duration was longer, and sleep quality was better, on non-workdays compared on workdays. Drivers frequently operated motor vehicles while sleepy, and sleepiness impacted several aspects of safety-relevant performance. Sleep quality was better associated with driving while sleepy and with job performance and concentration than sleep duration. Sleep duration was better associated with accidents and accident risk than sleep quality.
Discussion:
Sleep quality appears to be better associated with safety-relevant performance among long-haul truck drivers than sleep duration. Comprehensive and multilevel efforts are needed to meaningfully address sleep quality among drivers.
Introduction:
The focus of this paper is on illustrating the feasibility of aggregating data from disparate sources to investigate the relationship between single-vehicle truck crash injury severity and detailed weather conditions. Specifically, this paper presents: (a) a methodology that combines detailed 15-min weather station data with crash and roadway data, and (b) an empirical investigation of the effects of weather on crash-related injury severities of single-vehicle truck crashes.
Method:
Random parameters ordinal and multinomial regression models were used to investigate crash injury severity under different weather conditions, taking into account the individual unobserved heterogeneity. The adopted methodology allowed consideration of environmental, roadway, and climate-related variables in single-vehicle truck crash injury severity.
Results and conclusions:
Results showed that wind speed, rain, humidity, and air temperature were linked with single-vehicle truck crash injury severity. Greater recorded wind speed added to the severity of injuries in single-vehicle truck crashes in general. Rain and warmer air temperatures were linked to more severe crash injuries in single-vehicle truck crashes while higher levels of humidity were linked to less severe injuries. Random parameters ordered logit and multinomial logit, respectively, revealed some individual heterogeneity in the data and showed that integrating comprehensive weather data with crash data provided useful insights into factors associated with single-vehicle truck crash injury severity.
Practical applications:
The research provided a practical method that combined comprehensive 15-min weather station data with crash and roadway data, thereby providing useful insights into crash injury severity of single-vehicle trucks. Those insights are useful for future truck driver educational programs and for truck safety in different weather conditions.
Information disclosure programs (IDPs) are an increasingly common aspect of organizational existence as stakeholders seek to shape organizations' actions by measuring and revealing information regarding performance in various domains. In this manuscript we extend research on how organizations respond to IDPs in three ways. First, we extend theorizing regarding institutional waves to explain why organizations' rate of change on disclosed metrics are likely to follow a tapering pattern such that improvement occurs most rapidly immediately following the start of an IDP and then slows with time. Second, we explain why organizations that exhibit the worst initial performance are also likely to exhibit more pronounced tapering in their rates of change. Third, we begin to reconcile competing predictions regarding how organizational size affects organizations' responses to IDPs by theorizing and testing temporal moderation effects between size and [1] rates of initial improvement and [2] extent of tapering. We test our theory using panel data on motor carrier safety obtained from governmental databases following the implementation of a new IDP in 2010. Our results from fitting mixed-effects models offer new insights regarding the effectiveness of information disclosure programs and, moreover, contribute to our understanding of how institutional pressures affect organizations.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between motorcarrier firm size and safety outcomes. Leveraging insights from the resource-based view of the firm, we develop hypotheses regarding this important relationship. To test our hypotheses, we constructed an original commercial motor-carrier safety database, drawing on data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System and the Safety Measurement System. The results demonstrate that there is a significant and positive relationship between firm size and safety performance as measured through a carrier's number of crashes, unsafe driving violations, hours-of-service compliance, and vehicle maintenance violations. The impact of firm size on safety performance varies according to industry segment. This study has important academic and public policy implications.
Driver safety is consistently a top concern of motor carrier industry leaders at all levels. Efforts to improve safety performance span a variety of domains, and one key element of the safety problem is the behavior of the commercial motor vehicle operator - the driver of the “big rigs” we share the highways with on a daily basis. The purpose of this paper is to tell the story of an ongoing research program designed to understand safe/unsafe driving in the unique occupational context of the North American commercial motor vehicle driver (i.e., truck driver). As part of a broad, multi-year effort, the investigators immersed themselves in that culture at several motor carriers and were granted unique access to their employees. By allowing the employees (safety professionals and drivers alike) to inform the research direction, overlaid with extant psychosocial behavioral models post hoc, a promising stream of research was developed that led to a more integrated and comprehensive theoretical framework. The framework informs the development of interventions in hiring and training designed to improve driver safety. Recommendations for how this approach can be applied to other domains are provided.
