Train a trucker like a pilot and you'll get safer roads

Commercial truck safety has become an even hotter topic than usual after the Supreme Court ruled last week that freight brokers can be held liable in an accident involving a carrier hired by a broker.

The unanimous decision means that brokers, which match truckers with loads, will have to be much more careful about the carriers they allow to bid on cargo. This may be difficult given that the industry has tens of thousands of small trucking companies, many of which are individuals who own and operate a single truck.

Although Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion said that the ruling “should not be read to mean that brokers will routinely be subject to state tort liability,” that’s the most likely outcome. Share prices for large brokers such as RXO Inc. and C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. initially dropped after the ruling but later rebounded on the bet that small brokers will suffer the most and that consolidation could take place among the more than 28,000 registered cargo brokers in the US.

Besides leading to higher insurance costs and legal risk, the ruling will also increase broker scrutiny on driver qualifications. That isn’t a bad development and will give the industry a welcome opportunity to improve driver training and safety.

That’s vital because a shortage of drivers is already brewing and a wave of new recruits is on the horizon. This paucity of drivers doesn’t stem from a cargo rebound as in past trucking recoveries - demand has remained flat - but from a crackdown by the Department of Transportation to flush out foreign truckers who don’t have a command of English or lack proper work permits.

For now, trucking companies are cheering the crackdown because it has led to a 40% increase in spot-market trucking rates from a year ago, helping break a three-year downturn. But they are also scrambling to hire to make sure they don’t get caught flat-footed in the coming driver squeeze.

Truck-driving schools are under pressure to recruit and train thousands of new drivers as more foreign drivers exit. This influx could degrade highway safety at first because new drivers as a group are more likely to be involved in an accident. It takes time to improve driving skills and gain experience that makes seasoned truckers less likely to be involved in accidents.This isn’t a minor issue. Every year on US roads, more than 5,000 people are killed in accidents involving commercial trucks, and tens of thousands are injured. The deaths and injuries come in drips and drabs of tragedy, which makes it easier to ignore the high toll. The public outcry would be deafening if there were an equivalent 25 fatal airliner accidents with each carrying 200 passengers and crew.An impactful way to improve safety would be to raise the standards for training students who are seeking to obtain their commercial driver’s licenses (CDL). Inexperienced drivers are the most dangerous on the road, and this conundrum can only be managed, not solved. In April alone, driving academies trained more than 35,000 drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Taking a page from the airline industry, trucking schools should add simulator training to the classroom and hands-on instruction. It would expose new drivers to real-life scenarios that they would otherwise encounter only on the road. The cost of simulators has dropped, and the computing power to mimic the real world has improved greatly.

Even though data shows that truck drivers are not at fault in a majority of accidents involving large trucks, simulators could help train them on how to avoid or mitigate dangerous actions by other motorists.

The top-notch driving schools already use simulators as part of their curriculum. Unfortunately, the quality of instruction varies widely across schools because the states regulate them and the FMCSA only provides a registry. As part of the driver crackdown, the Transportation Department has been removing noncompliant training centers from the registry. About 9,900 have been delisted, the FMCSA said on its website.

Simulators obviously shouldn’t take the place of the behind-the-wheel instruction that the FMCSA requires for entry-level driver training. It would be supplemental and expose students to the most frequent causes of accidents as well as rare situations. The FMCSA should set standards for the simulator equipment and the training scenarios. Companies could specialize in providing this additional simulator training so that schools don’t have to invest in the equipment.Congress appears keen to weigh in on truck safety. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in March approved Dalilah’s Law, which essentially stamps into law the restrictions on foreign drivers that are backed now by executive order. The legislation goes even further with a mandate for all CDL holders to complete a recertification process within six months. There were 3.8 million CDL holders in 2023, according to the latest FMCSA data. One can imagine the chaos at the state-run departments of motor vehicles, which are tasked with issuing these licenses.Simulator training for new drivers makes sense to include in this safety push. If successful, it might lead to mandatory refresher training for active drivers. Airline pilots undergo simulator training at least every year and often more frequently to keep their skills sharp. The airline industry also has comprehensive standards for simulator equipment and training courses that could serve as a guide for the trucking industry.

For sure, a requirement for simulator training for new truck drivers would add to the cost of obtaining a CDL. Any decrease in the thousands of lives that are lost on US roads every year would make that extra cost well worth it.

This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Thomas Black is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the industrial and transportation sectors. He was previously a Bloomberg News reporter covering logistics, manufacturing and private aviation.