9/12/2011
For National Truck Driver Appreciation Week we encourage you to plan something in honor of the truckers who make it possible for us to enjoy our ‘creature comforts’. As the ATA says, “Trucks Bring It!” A few facts to consider:
- From 1988 – 2008 there has been a 47% increase in registered large trucks and a 65% increase in miles traveled by large trucks.
- In this same time period the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes has declined by 24% and the vehicle involvement rate for large trucks in fatal crashes has declined by more than 22%.
- In 2008 the large truck fatal crash rate was a record low of 1.64 fatal crashes per 100 million miles traveled, compared with 1.85 fatal crashes per 100 million miles in 2007. This is a 64% decrease from 4.58 in 1975, the first year the USDOT began keeping records.
- In the last decade the large truck fatal crash rate dropped by 30%.
- Truck-involved fatalities decreased by 33% since the Hours-of-Service regulations went into effect in 2004.
- A Virginia Tech (2006) analysis of two studies conducted for the DOT found that 78% of crashes were caused by passenger car drivers.
- The trucking industry has zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use. The latest violation rate for alcohol use on the job, based on random testing of truck drivers is just two-tenths of one percent (0.2%)!
As you can tell the safer roads we all enjoy has been in large part due to the increased professionalism and diligence of the truck drivers on the roads today. (Statistics taken from the ATA Trucking Safety Facts)