Trucking Industry Decides to Invest $9.5 Billion for Safety Purpose
As per the recent report of American Trucking Associations (ATA), the industry decides to invest at least $9.5 billion per year. The total amount will be invested for safety purpose. Of the total investment, 36% spending is fixed for driver safety training which a big concern across the nation. The investment also includes technologies such as video event recorders, collision avoidance systems and Electronic logging devices.
This mammoth investment is broken down into four main categories:
- Driver Training: This is the largest category with around 36% of the total investment. This category mainly includes staff wages, consultants, safety training and hazardous materials training.
- On-board technology: This category focuses on several technological gadgets including blind spot warning systems, stability control, collision avoidance systems and electronic logging devices (ELD).
- Rewards for safety compliance: The fund will also be used as awards and bonuses for those who will show improved safety performance.
- Regulatory compliance: This category includes drug & alcohol testing, motor vehicle & driver record checks along with safety consultancy.
The only drawback of this big investment plan is it doesn’t include general & routine maintenance costs. This would cover expenses related to new tires and new brakes that would definitely increase the total amount significantly.
The investment and the effort from ATA seem to be paying off, especially when looking at the crash rates frequency. The number of fatal crashes has declined by 32% since 1980, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Administration.
Bill Graves, President and CEO of ATA said in a press conference “Safety is job one for ATA and its
members, and the efforts we’re making to improve it are remarkable and, for the first time, quantifiable.”
After seeing the statistics, the truck industry can definitely iterate the same.
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