We frequently write about the efforts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). This federal agency is the one most explicitly tasked with preventing commercial vehicle accidents and better ensuring the safety of commercial vehicles in general. Like all agencies, sometimes the FMCSA’s efforts are successful in advancing its mission and sometimes they ultimately prove to be futile. Thankfully, some of the FMCSA’s most recent efforts aimed at reducing trucking accidents have gotten off to a successful start.

A FMCSA report released last month indicates that the agency’s Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) seems to be resulting in lower commercial vehicle crash rates for those drivers who are exposed to the program. According to the report, “The overall adjusted improvement in the crash rates for the PSP group, across all size classes, was statistically significant.”

In particular, fleets utilizing the PSP for new drivers have witnessed an average decline in crash rates of eight percent. The latest data does indicate that crash rates have fallen more significantly for carriers employing between six and 100 drivers than for very small and very large fleets. However, the PSP program has resulted in an added bonus across the board. Fleets utilizing the PSP program have witnessed an OOS violations rate decline of 17.2 percent on average.

Though not all federal safety initiatives are ultimately successful, the initial data from the PSP program suggests that for mid-range carriers, new protocol may help to inspire safe driving habits and ultimately prevent devastating commercial vehicle crashes.

Source: TruckingInfo, “FMCSA Study Says PSP Program Lowering Crash and Driver OOS Numbers,” Evan Lockridge, Nov. 21, 2013