Simple Habits, Faithfully Followed

Sometimes, a word to the wise really is sufficient.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. found that when trucking company managers and their drivers were told how to avoid costly accidents that could result in property damage, lawsuits, crippling injuries or death, they did indeed pay very careful attention.

Since 1996, the insurance provider has investigated the makings of a safe trucking operation. Researchers found no single magic bullet, but they did observe that lots of little pellets aimed in the same direction could have a very powerful result in terms of preserving property, health and even life.

We knew a lot of after-the-fact numbers, but we didn’t know how to correlate practices to results,” said Dave Melton, a director of the insurer’s Research Center for Safety and Health in Hopkinton, Mass.

fter completing a massive 1999 survey of 162 client companies in 41 states that ran 21,130 trucks and tractors a total of 1.8 billion miles, Liberty Mutual reached some conclusions. They found six habits common to the safest carriers:

ul>

li>An official company no-tailgating policy.

li>Emergency reaction driver training.

li>On-site mirror checking stations.

li>Continuing driver education in the vehicles.

li>Driver-supervisor review of “black box” data.

li> Consistent use of motor vehicle reports to support driver hiring standards for a company.

/ul>

I>For the full story, see the May 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.