I am trying to see if anyone has any pull with the government so that we can put that ground hog out of service.  Six more weeks of this cold is just too much for any of us to bear.  I seriously think that our southern clients need to request a CAB training session and bring all of their underwriters and claims associates in for a nice weather meeting. We need it.  Thankfully February is a short month and spring is on the way.  This month we report:

CVSA – The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance released the results of its October 2014 Operation Safe Driver Campaign: Speeding and failure to use a seat belt topped the list of driver violations in commercial and passenger vehicles, with non-commercial motor vehicle drivers speeding more often.  The top five warnings and citations issued to CMV drivers were: (1) speeding, (2) failure to use a safety belt, (3) failure to obey traffic control devices, (4) improper lane change, and (5) following too closely.

TRUCK FATALITIES – Large trucks traveled nearly 6 billion more miles on U.S. roads in 2013 than in 2012, and did so with greater safety results, according to American Trucking Associations’ calculations of federal data. ATA announced that truck-involved crash fatality rates declined 1.6%, to 1.441 per 100 million miles traveled in 2013 from 1.465 in 2012. The number of truck-miles traveled rose to 275 billion in 2013 from 269.2 billion in 2012 while the total number of fatalities in truck-involved crashes grew by 20 people to 3,964 in 2013. ATA also said the truck-involved injury rate decreased to 34.5 per 100 million miles traveled from 38.6. The large-truck fatality crash rate has fallen 39.2% since 2003 and the injury rate is down 34.2%.

CARGO THEFT – FreightWatch International’s Supply Chain Intelligence Center reports more than 40 thefts at truck stops and highway pull-offs at several locations in Arkansas early this month. In the incidents, along Interstate 40 between West Memphis and Forrest City, and along I-55 between West Memphis and Turrell, criminals used the “shopping” technique where they broke trailer seals then determined if the goods were of value. Stolen items include poultry and firearms.

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Dead of winter – here we are again already a month into 2015 – how did that happen?  Time flies quicker and quicker these days. There clearly is not enough time to get everything done.  We will continue to keep it short and to the point as we know your time is valuable.  This month we report:

CAB FINANCIAL RATINGS – The breakdown of the percentages of the financial rating assigned to carriers in 2014, along with prior years it available here.  While the percentage of carriers rated SATISFACTORY or FAIR increased, so did the percentage of carriers rated POOR or UNSATISFACTORY. Expected continued economic growth and lower fuel prices are considered likely to make 2015 a good year for the trucking industry but as our ratings distribution shows even in a good year a large percentage of trucking companies have financial weaknesses so it is always important to monitor the financial condition of insureds and prospective insureds.

CRASH INDICATOR REPORT – The FMCSA released a study on crash indicators this month.  The study examined (1) whether Police Accident Reports provide sufficient, consistent, and reliable information to support crash weighting determinations, (2) whether a crash weighting determination process would offer an even stronger predictor of carrier crash risk than the current assessment method, and (3) how the agency might reasonably manage and support a process for making crash weighting determinations, including the acceptance of public input.  Independent research has demonstrated that a motor carrier’s involvement in a crash, regardless of their role in the crash, is a strong indicator of their future crash risk. According to the FMCSA changing the crash weights based on a motor carrier’s role in the crash did not appear to improve the ability to predict future crash rates when all crashes are considered.  There also was concern about the reliability of using Police Accident Reports to make this determination.  The study pointed out that implementing a crash weighting effort on a national scale would require a method for uniformly acquiring final Police Accident Reports, a process and system for uniform analysis, and a method for receiving and analyzing public input.   The report to Congress can be viewed here.

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