ATA Disputes AJA’s Safety Conclusions
Aug 27, 2009 12:23 PM
Despite allegations by the American Association of Justice (AAJ) of poor safety and compliance in the trucking industry, the truck-involved fatality rate is now at its lowest since the U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping those statistics in 1975, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
The ATA says that results from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Roadcheck 2009, the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial vehicles in the world, show nationwide improvements and the highest compliance rates ever for the NAS Level I inspections -- the most comprehensive roadside inspection.
Regarding AAJ’s mention of the July 2009 Government Accountability Office study, except for two references, the report is focused exclusively on bus companies. ATA supports efforts by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to put unsafe trucking companies out of business, and supports giving further resources to FMCSA to help them prevent those companies from reopening under a new name.
The overwhelming majority of fatal truck-involved crashes are caused by passenger vehicles. According to a 2002 study by the American Association of Automobiles, 80 percent of fatal truck-involved crashes are caused by passenger vehicles. A 2006 Virginia Tech analysis of two studies conducted for the Department of Transportation found that 78 percent of crashes were caused by passenger car drivers. ATA has policies in its progressive safety agenda that focus on changing these dangerous actions by drivers to help improve the safety of all motorists sharing the road.
ATA’s 18-point safety agenda will further reduce the number of highway-related fatalities and injuries for all drivers on the nation's highways. ATA’s policies include promoting greater safety belt use by commercial drivers; re-instituting a national maximum speed limit for all vehicles; improved truck crashworthiness standards; electronic speed governing of all large trucks; tax incentives for safety technologies; and a decade-long initiative to create a national clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results.
The ATA’s tonnage index rose 2.1% in July after falling 2.4% in June. Compared with July 2008, tonnage is off 10.4%. That is the narrowest year-over-year gap between 2008 and 2009 volumes since February this year, noted Bob Costello, the group’s chief economist. “It is not unusual for an economic indicator to become volatile before changing direction,” he said.
Though truck tonnage should continue to be choppy in the months ahead, Tavio Headley, staff economist with ATA, told FleetOwner that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “It suggests things have bottomed out” he said. “We’re bouncing around a seven-year low in freight volumes, and you typically see that ‘choppiness’ when you’ve reached bottom.”
Many other economic indicators that impact trucking started turning positive in recent months as well, noted Headley. For example, after falling steadily from a peak in July 2007, The Conference Board’s leading economic index (LEI) for the U.S. has increased sharply in the last four months, reaching 3.0% in July (a 6.2% annual growth rate). Over the last six months, that number is up substantially from negative 2.8% (a negative 5.4% annual growth rate) posted for the previous six months.
“The LEI gauges economic activity three to six months out, and it’s suggesting moderate economic growth for the second half of the year, which is consistent with our view,” Headley said.
Durable goods orders – which include cars, household appliances, and aircraft parts – surged in July at their fastest pace in two years, increasing 4.9%. “[It’s] a signal that capital equipment demand in the U.S. and abroad has turned the corner,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, told the Wall Street Journal.
New-home sales also increased sharply in July by 9.6% – their fourth straight monthly increase – which is another sign of a recovery taking hold in the housing market. More importantly for trucking, housing construction is on the upswing, with single family home construction up 1.7% in July, delivering the fifth straight month of increased construction in the single-family dwelling segment.
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