Fundamental problem
Steve Bryan, chief executive officer of Vigillo LLC, which provides a suite of CSA Scorecards that is the No. 1 reporting system used in the industry, adds another dimension. “A fundamental problem with CSA is that it doesn’t include mileage based activity,” he said. “In other words, is there more or less exposure? If the nationwide fleet is traveling more miles, a drop in the growth in accidents is actually a larger improvement than what would appear at face value.”
FMCSA also doesn’t determine the impact of different causes on crashes, Bryan noted. “For example, we have data that shows a spike in events when weather is having an impact on road conditions in certain parts of the country,” he stated. “That’s a clear indicator of a geographical and seasonal effect, which could be measured and applied to safety data.”
For fleets, identifying major types of events and their causes would enable a better understanding of the value of the wide range of safety systems that are available on vehicles. For example, if weather and road conditions are causes does opting for automatic traction control systems make sense? If speeding or following too closely are major causes are road speed control and active cruise with braking systems part of the solution? If driver fatigue is a factor would a lane departure warning systems be a good investment?
“The question,” Bryan said, “is whether any solution is right for a particular operation, the freight it hauls and its drivers, and that’s something that can only be answered when trucking companies have accurate data to evaluate accident rates and their causes.”
Zero accidents
Regardless of what available data reveals, fleets remain on a path toward achieving a goal of zero accidents. More effective driver training and better-maintained vehicles are part of that approach, along with new technologies backed by test data.
Three years ago, FPInnovations’ Performance Innovation Transport (PIT) Group, a not-for-profit engineering and research group for the North American trucking industry, tested a collision avoidance system. While the technology is certainly even more advanced today, the results were clear.
“Several situations were simulated on a test track using a pick-up truck instrumented with speed and time recording equipment,” reported Bernard Ouellet, CCLP, operations leader at the PIT Group. “The tested collision avoidance system was installed on a 2011 tractor used in actual fleet service, which was equipped with a GPS system to record speed and time.
“The best response was noted with the test tractor on cruise control at a constant speed of 80 km/h [about 50 MPH], following the pick-up traveling at a constant speed of 50 km/h [about 30 MPH],” Ouellet continued. “The system slowed down the tractor behind the pick-up truck. However, with the cruise control off the tractor driver had to brake to avoid a collision.”
With interest growing in safety technologies, Ouellet added, PIT Group members, more than 50 fleets from across North America that utilize the group’s engineering and technical expertise to evaluate and provide unbiased results on a wide range of technologies, have proposed a project for reviewing and evaluating collision mitigation systems.
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