3 Strategies for Maintaining a Safe and Well-Trained Fleet of Drivers

In an industry with a notoriously high turnover rate, the second-highest rate of fatal work injuries¹ and rising insurance costs, the importance of creating safe driver programs cannot be overstated.

Fatal crashes involving commercial trucks in the U.S. rose by nearly 40% between 2009 and 2021,² and the percentage of fatal large truck and bus crashes involving new drivers rose from 4.6% in 2017 to 7.4% in 2022.³

With this increase in frequency and severity — as well as nuclear verdicts related to serious crashes —insurers have hiked premiums for carriers from 6.4 cents per mile in 2013 to 8.8 cents per mile in 2022.⁴

With a shortage of more than 70,000 drivers and one of the highest turnover rates in any industry,⁵ commercial fleet carriers are in a constant cycle of hiring and training inexperienced drivers. However, implementing safe driving programs, offering incentives and investing in driver finishing programs can help reduce accidents and boost recruitment efforts.

Finishing off driver training

With an increasing number of drivers entering retirement, the industry has been tasked with looking for new recruits. However, inexperienced commercial drivers — regardless of age — have higher rates of accidents. In fact, drivers with less than a year of experience are more than twice as likely to have a recordable crash during their tenure compared with more seasoned drivers.⁶

Driver finishing programs are one way to help reduce risk and ensure inexperienced drivers are ready for the road. These programs can range from assigning mentors to ride along with new drivers and provide assistance, to creating a full educational curriculum requiring as many as 200 hours behind the wheel with a trainer.⁵

Incentivizing a culture of safety

To improve overall safety among both new and experienced drivers, create an incentive program — complete with driver rewards and recognition — to encourage safe driving behaviors. These programs are not only effective — particularly those with monetary rewards — but can also help promote retention and boost morale.

Adding these types of programs will also make your fleet a more attractive risk to insurers. To create a successful program, fleets should:

• Define the program. Whether it’s a finishing or incentive program, ensure all aspects of the program, from requirements to benefits, are defined and disseminated to both prospective and current drivers. To obtain buy-in, ask current drivers for their input before finalizing the plan. This may include gauging driver interest in mentoring inexperienced drivers in a finishing program or asking drivers what incentives would be the most meaningful to them for engaging in safe, accident-free behaviors.
• Specifics are key. For a driver training program, ensure any training is specific to the types of vehicles in your fleet and include a thorough review of your company’s policies, procedures and expectations for drivers. Specifics are also key for incentive programs: Criteria for acquiring a reward for safe driving behaviors should be spelled out along with the rewards — such as a modest cash bonus or variant pay scale for drivers that meet certain telematics thresholds. Allowing drivers to have a daily or weekly actionable dashboard of their scores can also be an effective motivator for improvement.
• Be inclusive. With the current influx of immigrants to the U.S., it makes sense for any motor carrier to ensure that both programs and driver-facing materials are multilingual. Although a federal regulation requires that truck drivers be able to read, understand and respond in English, many states are removing the requirement in an effort to find more candidates qualified to drive. A multilingual driver educational management system can also assist in learning.
• Present your program successes to underwriters. Insurers favorably view fleet carriers that have taken extra steps to educate, train and incentivize good behaviors among their drivers. Presenting data that shows the program’s success in reducing accidents and promoting safe driving behaviors can help any motor carrier at renewal. Integrating improved telematics scores tied to driver learning and education in a real-time dashboard, like HUB Drive Online, can prompt insurance underwriters to offer discounts that provide a return on your investment.

Contact HUB International’s transportation insurance experts to learn more about how to improve your safety profile through recruiting and retention. You can also learn more about HUB’s commercial trucking insurance services here.

¹ Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Number and rate of fatal work injuries, by private sector,” accessed May 31, 2024.
² TruckInfo.net, “Truck Accident Statistics — 2023 Edition,” May 17, 2023
³ Freight Waves, “Crash data involving new truck, bus drivers getting worse,” April 25, 2024.
⁴ Freight Waves, “What’s behind rising insurance costs?” October 27, 2023.
⁵ Freight Waves, “Why trucking embraces alarming turnover rates,” November 22, 2023.
⁶ National Service Transportation Safety Center for Excellence, “Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Risk Based on Age and Driving Experience,” April 17, 2020.