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Since 2018, according to the CDC and DOT, there have been over 938,000 car accidents and over 2,840 people killed in the United States due to distracted driving. Distracted driving is driving while doing another activity that takes your attention away from the road. Activities like sending a text message, talking on the phone, using a navigation system, and eating while driving are all distractions.

There are Three Main Types of Distractions:

• Visual – taking your eyes off the road
• Manual – taking your hands off the wheel
• Cognitive – taking your mind off driving

Consider the Following to Minimize Distractions While Driving:

• Adjust mirrors, temperature controls and entertainment console when you first get into the vehicle.
• Input your destination into your GPS before embarking on your trip.
• Turn off cell phones and have a programmed message informing the caller that you are driving, and you will call them after you arrive at your destination.
• If you must use your cell phone, pull off the road to a safe area before making the call.
• If you stop for food, eat it while your vehicle is stopped.
• Do not perform personal grooming while driving.
• Review and familiarize yourself with driving directions and maps before leaving.
• Purchase and install GPS mounts that allow drivers to keep their heads up.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) leads the fight nationally against distracted driving by educating Americans about its dangers and partnering with the states and local police to enforce laws against distracted driving that help keep us safe.    

The foundation of NHTSA’s efforts on distracted driving and other risky driving behaviors is their partnership with the states and local police. The states determine laws affecting distracted driving, but NHTSA provides federal investments in the locally driven strategies that address the states’ specific needs. One of the highlights of this relationship comes during April’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which pairs a national advertising campaign with a law enforcement crackdown called U Drive. U Text. U Pay.

State Laws

Your state legislature and governor make the laws regarding distracted driving. Many states now have laws against texting, talking on a cell phone, and other distractions while driving. The Governors Highway Safety Association outlines the laws of the individual states.

Currently there is no national ban on texting or using a wireless phone while driving, but state laws and fines are becoming more aggressive in efforts to thwart distracted drivers:

• 21 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam banned all drivers from hand-held phone use while driving 
• 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam banned texting while driving for all drivers
• 39 states and the District of Columbia prohibits all cell phone use by novice drivers
• 20 states and the District of Columbia prohibit school bus drivers from cell phone use while driving

Company Policy

Every company should have a policy that prohibits the use of cell phones while driving. Just having a policy is not enough. The policy must be communicated to the affected employees, compliance must be monitored, and violations enforced. The National Safety Council has a free cell phone policy kit that will help you develop your policy. There is information to assist with understanding the issue, obtaining buy-in from leadership and educating employees. There is also a sample cell phone policy to use as a blueprint for your organization. Not having a policy opens your organization to potential liability.

There are severe consequences if one of your employees is involved in a fatal accident while on company business and they are found to be distracted because they were using a cell phone at the time of the accident, especially if your organization does not have an established cell phone policy. There have been numerous documented lawsuits with multi-million-dollar settlements awarded by juries to the victims involving distracted drivers.

What Should Truck Drivers Know About Distracted Driving?:

New FMCSA regulations prohibit texting and hand-held mobile phone use while operating a commercial motor vehicle used in interstate commerce. Drivers caught texting or using hand-held mobile phones are subject to fines, disqualifications, and being put out-of-service.

The FMCSA rules do not apply to devices used for dispatching, as long as they are used as part of the company’s fleet management system and are not being used for texting.

Research shows that CMV drivers who text were more than 23 times likely to be involved in a safety-critical event than those who do not. CMV drivers dialing mobile phones were 6 times more likely to be involved in a safety-critical event.

How Does the FMCSA Define ‘Distracted Driving’?

The FMCSA, in the interest of public safety, kept it short and simple regarding the use of mobile devices by truck drivers:

• No Reaching
• No Holding
• No Dialing
• No Texting
• No Reading

Texting, as defined in the new FMCSA regulations, “means manually entering alphanumeric text into, or reading text from, an electronic device.” This includes pressing more than one button to initiate or terminate a call, or texting on a dispatching device.

The FMCSA also Issued a Separate Rule that Defines Using a Mobile Device as:

Using at least one hand to hold a mobile phone to make a call;

Dialing a mobile phone by pressing more than a single button; or

Reaching for a mobile phone in a manner that requires a driver to maneuver so that he or she is no longer in a seated driving position, restrained by a seat belt.

What this means for a truck driver is that, with the exception of contacting law enforcement or in an emergency, texting or dialing or phone calls need to be “hands-free.”

This will normally involve using an earpiece-speaker phone, hands-free dialing, or hands-free mode. Hands-free generally means being able to safely activate a mobile device by touching a single button, while safely and properly seated and restrained. 

What are the Penalties for Distracted Driving?:

Penalties for truck drivers caught driving while distracted:

• Drivers can be fined up to $2,750.
• Repeat offenses will result in the driver being disqualified or put out of service for up to 120 days.
• The driver’s employer can be fined up to $11,000 if they knowingly allow or require drivers to use hand-held devices while driving.
• Violations will negatively affect the employer’s SMS (Safety Measurement System) ratings.
• Violations are considered “serious traffic violations” and penalties are taken from existing FMCSA guidelines.

The penalties for using a hand-held device while driving are in addition to whatever the driver’s employer dishes out for violating any of their particular policies on the subject.  Most employers will have policies in line with the laws, as distracted drivers who cause a wreck while operating under the company flag are giant lawsuits waiting to happen.

More information can be obtained regarding the use of wireless communications devices by clicking the following link – FMCSA Final Rule Limiting the Use of Wireless Communications Devices..

Distracted driving is a complicated issue and must be approached through multiple channels. Enacting laws banning the use of cell phones and increasing the penalties for violators will deter some, but not all drivers. Continued driver education and awareness are vital tools in changing the behaviors of drivers. CMV drivers need to know and understand the laws regarding distracted driving.  They should be practicing common sense safety procedures every day out on the roads.

A good way to summarize a nuclear verdict is an award that is significantly higher than would be expected given the injuries in the case.  Generally, they are jury judgments that award penalties over $10 million.  Nuclear verdicts have been a consistently increasing theme in trucking over the past several years and the heat and pressure on carriers from rising insurance premiums appears to have no end in sight. This is despite the fact that the number of deaths and injuries from accidents involving large trucks have been declining.  Rising insurance premiums and nuclear verdicts are often cited in carrier bankruptcies as the primary causes for shutting down.

One challenge of analyzing and predicting nuclear verdicts is their intangible nature. They are often so disconnected from reality in terms of the award amounts compared to actual economic damages that there are no computers or algorithms that can be effectively employed for forecasting or managing risk.  A handful of nuclear verdicts is enough to drive double digit annual insurance inflation for the entire trucking industry. It is not unusual for premiums for a smaller fleet to rise 50 to 100% or more in any given year.

Why are Nuclear Verdicts Increasing in Number and Size of Awards?

The proliferation of nuclear verdicts in trucking has really gained steam over the last decade or so. The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released comprehensive research (the report is available on ATRI’s website) –https://truckingresearch.org/2020/06/29/understanding-the-impact-of-nuclear-verdicts-on-the-trucking-industry/ that confirms that large verdicts against trucking fleets are increasing dramatically, both in number and in size of awards.  ATRI’s research is partially based on a newly created trucking litigation database that provides detailed information on 600 cases between 2006 and 2019.  In the first five years of the data, there were 26 cases over $1 million, and in the last five years of the data, there were nearly 300 cases. In response to arguments that nuclear verdicts reflect real-world cost increases, the research documents that from 2010 to 2018, the size of verdict awards grew 51.7 percent annually at the same time that standard inflation grew 1.7 percent and healthcare costs grew 2.9 percent.

Not surprisingly, insurance rates have increased at similar rates as litigation awards.  Over the last two-to-five years, commercial truck insurance premiums have increased annually between 35 and 40 percent for low-to-average-risk carriers, according to the expert surveys. Also, most insurance companies are directly factoring CSA scores into their insurance rating system. So, if a motor carrier score is not right, their insurance rates are likely to increase.  In terrible scores, insurance companies might not even consider providing coverage.

Plaintiff’s lawyers are increasingly moving away from blaming individual drivers to blaming a lack of systemic corporate oversight and adequate safety procedures and regulations. It is paramount that carriers, brokers and shippers have the proper procedures and training in place that will help protect them to the greatest degree possible.

Perhaps more telling is the map showing the plaintiff win rate by state:

Look at how many states have a plaintiff win rate of more than 90%. Are truckers responsible for 90% of all truck-involved fatal crashes in those states? It appears that the trucking industry is losing cases that it should be winning.

What is the “Dirty Five”?

The “Dirty Five” generally refers to the following:

1. Fatigue
2. Distracted driving
3. Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol
4. Lack of equipment maintenance
5. Inexperienced/improperly trained driver

If a plaintiff attorney can effectively prove or demonstrate any of the above took place, the potential for a nuclear verdict grows significantly. It makes perfect sense that mitigating these risks is the best place to start when improving truck fleet and vehicle safety.

With the advent of technologies including sensors and cameras, fleets can now record incidents and reduce their legal risk. For fleets that don’t have sufficient video evidence, fighting a legal battle could be financially debilitating. As fleets cannot be certain what will happen, the only way to mitigate risk is to enforce training programs for employees and continuously look to reinforce best practices. Safety can often be overlooked, which eventually ends up badly for the trucking fleet.

How Can Fleets Minimize the Risks and Improve Safety?

There are ways to minimize the risks, improve the safety of your trucks and drivers, and to protect your operations. Improving safety and avoiding accidents must be the main priority of trucking firms. Also, implementing programs and technology to maintain evidence that your fleet meets or exceeds industry standards and safety practices is a must. There is a combination of factors that need to be considered to do this successfully: how you run your fleet, how you recruit, train and manage your drivers, and truck safety technology.

How You Run Your Fleet

Making safety a part of the corporate culture begins with excellent communication.  Repetition of the safety message serves to increase daily awareness. Consequences for violations of the company safety policy must be clearly laid out and enforced. Also, take time to review company safety policies and look at what is working well along with what is not. Be flexible and adjust your safety policies and practices as needed.

Compliance with internal policies and procedures is a crucial factor. The FMCSRs provide some guidance on what policies a trucking company needs to have, but the trucking company must create its policies or hire a consultant to create them. Once the policies are in place, the trucking company must distribute and ensure compliance with its policies. Make sure that you are doing more than the minimum, with respect to safety and compliance. In addition, create and implement a catastrophic action plan so you have some steps in place should anything happen.

How You Recruit, Train & Manage Your Drivers

Make sure that you are adhering to all regulations, whether it relates to hiring, training or qualifying your drivers.  Driver recruitment and training are important; both initial and ongoing training and supervision.When recruiting safe drivers, make sure to look at the history of alcohol/drug-related violations, DOT crashes, violations related to speeding, prior driving experience, and background checks.  Also, make sure that your system of organizing all records is absolutely perfect.

When a new driver is hired, it is necessary to train them on all the information the driver will need to perform the job.  Existing drivers should also be trained regularly.  All drivers should have access to information on safe driving strategies and techniques, including instruction in defensive and distracted driving.  While driver training is not required under the FMCSRs after a driver already has his CDL, many motor carriers have some on-going training available to or required for drivers. Making sure that training is documented is essential to successfully stave off an attack.

Crash prevention is the best way to avoid a nuclear verdict and that starts with a thorough review and assessment of your safety training and practice.  ATRI researchers found that “the more safety activities motor carriers engaged in to prevent crashes the lower the likelihood that a nuclear verdict would result,” but they also said most trucking companies “do not allocate enough resources toward safety and crash prevention.”

How You Integrate Truck Safety Technology

Technology is crucial to the future of trucking – for everyone’s safety.  There are a variety of safety technologies that you can invest in and implement.  In any crash, a carrier must be able to reliably demonstrate what happened – and where the fault lies. And more importantly, where it doesn’t lie. A high-quality connected camera system is fundamental and should be the bare minimum protecting a truck. An inward-facing camera shows exactly what the driver was doing at any point in time. These systems protect the driver and the carrier and provide powerful, incontrovertible evidence in the event of an accident.

Plaintiffs will look not only at the context of the crash and the immediate journey leading to it but also at the history of the driver and the operator. So not only is training, record keeping, compliance, and maintenance of vehicles fundamentally important, but truck technology that captures incidents and alerts fleet managers to potential issues could make all the difference.

With nuclear verdicts not going away any time soon, carriers can protect themselves, their drivers – and all road users by following the steps laid out above.

What is the CSA Program and its Purpose?

The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program is run by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).  It is designed to hold motorists, including owner-operators, accountable for their role in road safety.  The FMCSA groups carriers with those who have a similar number of safety events and assigns each carrier a percentile risk.  The safety data is held online in the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) and is updated monthly with new data from roadside inspections.  The SMS data is organized into seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs).

What Goes Into a CSA Score?

CSA scores are calculated with roadside inspection and crash report data from the SMS from the last 24 months.  The calculations consider factors like crash severity, how long ago the event occurred, and annual vehicle miles traveled.  Carriers receive a CSA score for each of the seven BASICs:

• Unsafe Driving BASIC – Operating a commercial vehicle in a dangerous manner, such as speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, or improper lane changing.
• Crash Indicator BASIC – Based on state-reported crash data, this BASIC contains historical patterns of frequency and severity of crash involvement.
• HOS Compliance BASIC – Operating a commercial vehicle when sick or fatigued and not maintaining records of duty status for six months.
• Vehicle Maintenance BASIC – Failing to properly maintain the commercial vehicle, such as improper load securement or faulty brakes or lights.
• Controlled Substance BASIC –

Operating a commercial vehicle under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs.

Hazardous Material BASIC –

Handling hazardous materials in an unsafe manner, such as having leaking containers and failing to label hazardous materials as such.

Driver Fitness BASIC – Operating a commercial vehicle by an unfit driver, such as lack of a valid CDL, and failing to maintain driver qualification files.

Do Drivers Have CSA Scores?

Drivers do not have their own CSA scores.  CSA scores are assigned to carriers based on their DOT number.  If a driver receives a violation, it is assigned to the carrier and not the driver.  Drivers do have unique Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP) records with the FMCSA.  A good practice for maintaining CSA scores is to check driver PSP records prior to hiring them and to only hire drivers who are honest about their driving records and have a track record of low-risk and responsible driving.

Where Can Carriers Check Their CSA Scores?

CSA scores for trucking companies can be checked online at  https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/.  All that is needed is a DOT number. Scores are between 0 and 100, the lower the better – each violation adds points to your score.  Some violations are a cut and dry point system, while others are calculated by the severity of or volume of the violation.  After two years, violations are removed from you record.

To view additional data, including data not available to the public such as the Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance BASICs, a carrier will need to login with their FMCSA-provided PIN.  If you don’t have it, then you can request it at – https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration

How Does a CSA Score Affect Your Business?

There are several ways that your CSA score can positively and negatively affect your business.  Here are a few of the main ones:

Investigation and Intervention Risk – A poor CSA score may put you at a higher risk for FMCSA intervention and investigations. In extreme cases, this can result in an out-of-service order for your business.

Revenue – Shippers often look at the available data to help choose safe, reliable carriers.  Poor scores can prevent a carrier from getting the most profitable loads.

Insurance – Insurance companies use BASIC scores in their evaluation of a carrier’s risk profile.  Often, higher CSA scores lead to higher premiums and deductibles.

How to Improve the CSA Score?

If compliance, safety, and accountability are a genuine concern, then your trucking company will already have a system in place for checks and balances.  This includes initial training, recurrent training, scheduled in-house inspections, preventative maintenance, checklists, and consequences for violations.  The best way to improve your CSA score is to implement and maintain a system of checks and balances and use your current score as one of the ways in which you update your internal operations.  Track which violations are most common – or which ones are on the rise.  This will help you to determine the areas in which you need to improve, so that you can adjust your training accordingly. Once you understand how to answer the question – “What is the CSA Program?” you can begin to work on improving yours.

More useful tips to improve the CSA score –

1. Use PSP Reports in your hiring. By using these reports, you can make intelligent hiring decisions and lower your crash rate by 8% and driver out-of-service rates by 17%, according to FMCSA data.
2. Implement dual-facing dashcam solutions. Dashcams have a proven impact on accident reduction.  They may prevent about 15% of accidents involving heavy duty trucks each year according to a recent study.
3. Get proactive about vehicle maintenance. By using a pre and post-trip inspection tool that’s mobile, you can significantly improve the effectiveness of your inspections.
4. Challenge incorrect violations. It is possible that incorrect or incomplete violations will be added to a CSA score at some point, so if this happens then challenge it.
5. Use a weigh station bypass solution. Fewer weigh station pull ins means fewer inspections, and potentially fewer violations.
6. Choose the right ELD solution. Many of the most common and costly violations are Hours of Service related.  Choose ELDs that are easy to use, reliable and include document management.

Madison, WI – Fleetworthy Solutions, a Madison, WI-based leading provider of Intelligent Compliance solutions to the transportation industry, announced today the acquisition of RapidLog. This is another strong growth signal to the market as Fleetworthy expands its technology advantage in providing end-to-end regulatory compliance and risk management services to motor carriers and fleets in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

ELD integrations offered through the RapidLog software will enable much more rapid and efficient onboarding of new customers alike. RapidLog’s gallery of integrations include ELDs from BigRoad, EROAD, GeoTab, KeepTrucking, OmniTracs, Pedigree, Trimble, RandMcNally, Samsara, Verizon, and Zonar to name a few. RapidLog began as log auditing software that guaranteed speeds of up to 400% faster than competitors with better quality and accuracy. It featured an amazing ability to read virtually any hours-of-service (HOS) log, as well.

“RapidLog fits perfectly with our vision of a single platform to manage all safety and regulatory compliance issues,” explains Mike Precia, CEO of Fleetworthy Solutions. “We are thrilled to be in a position to strengthen our offerings in relevant technologies. Our customers, our companies, and the industry have bright futures as this binding of components enhances carrier fleets’ abilities to not only comply with FMCSA regulations and safety directives, but also they can use it to go beyond the minimum requirements and focus on their businesses.”

This deal dramatically enhances Fleetworthy’s integration capabilities and reinforces Fleetworthy’s strategic goal of connecting to any ELD and TMS system in the market. Due to evolving regulations –  like the ELD Mandate – and the massive amounts of data being generated, companies need seamless integrations between IT systems more than ever to provide safety and compliance executives with a single version of the truth.

For over 30 years, RapidLog has been providing leading edge technologies that deliver ultimate flexibility at the lowest total cost. With the addition of RapidLog, Fleetworthy could streamline compliance platform data transfers for many private and for-hire carrier fleets with which they already work. Pre-built integrations to leading ELD and TMS providers make onboarding a smooth and quick process.

“Having accurately audited over 1 billion logs, RapidLog helps fleets ensure compliance in an environment suddenly populated with inexperienced providers. Even certified ELDs comply only with data transmission, retention and fault detection, but can be woefully naïve regarding detecting hours of service violations and notifying both drivers and carrier management. RapidLog and Fleetworthy help ensure these blind spots don’t turn into costly liabilities.” – Larry Steinbecker, RapidLog Founder and CEO

Together with RapidLog, Fleetworthy’s suite of compliance tools help motor carriers adhere to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Hours-of-Service regulations. The HOS rules are designed to keep fatigued commercial motor vehicle operators out of the driver’s seat and off the nation’s roadways; however, they are among the most-often violated regulations adding to the operational costs in all commercial motor carrier fleets – usually meaning declining profits.

Recently, the International Registration Plan (IRP) and International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) groups came together to agree on a very important, far reaching new ruling regarding IRP cab cards and IFTA licenses. The new agreement is known as the “Electronic Credentialing Program.”.

Motor carriers, state associations, and law enforcement should have received notifications from the IRP and IFTA groups already. These communications can be seen here:

Motor Carrier Notification

Law Enforcement Notification

To summarize – starting on Jan 1^st, 2019, drivers for commercial motor carriers will have the ability to produce digital images of their cab cards / licenses to law enforcement using a range of electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets. That said, paper forms will still be acceptable as well.

Click here to view the full implementation timeline of this change.

There is specific language in the new allowance that limits the content that is viewable on those devices by law enforcement. That said, it is recommended to advise drivers that these devices may be temporarily taken by law enforcement to verify those credentials.

This ruling applies to all US states and Canadian provinces. The key to the new electronic formats is that the documents be accurate, accessible, and readable.

IRP states that a best practice is to save the file as a PDF format and save it onto the device itself, instead of in the cloud. This ensures a greater chance at viewability and accessibility. They recommend this as a work around in areas with no wifi or poor or no cell service.

It is recommended that drivers carry both paper and electronic versions for the first year to work out any issues that may arise with law enforcement.

For many, this new method of proving credentials may take time to get used to. We suggest working with your local and state authorities to develop compliance and operational best practices. Further, a training and education program for your drivers would be a great idea to implement.

Feel free to reach out to Fleetworthy Solutions if you would like help in making sure your fleet and drivers are ready for this change.