Are you searching for the safest trucking companies in the transportation industry? There are considerable risks that are simply part of the safety equation for this industry. Large equipment that is constantly in motion, heavy loads, the potential for driver errors and more, make safety one of the most significant topics in the transportation industry.
The safest trucking companies understand that this represents an ethical concern that is core to their business. They care about keeping employees safe and regard their well-being as top priority. Beyond the issue of ethics, accidents and safety violations have a real financial impact to a company and to society as a whole.
A single bad accident can have an avalanche effect. The average verdict size for a lawsuit above $1 million involving a truck crash increased nearly 1,000% from 2010 to 2018 alone – rising from $2.3 million to $22.3 million. These “nuclear verdicts”, defined as jury awards that surpass $10 million, are driving up insurance rates for even the safest trucking companies (see Source 1). Add to that OSHA safety violation fines, workers comp claims, product damages and replacements – and you can see how the costs simply skyrocket. At Momentum Transportation, an award-winning Landstar Agent, we recommend that you do in-depth analysis of these three criteria when choosing which are the safest trucking companies to partner with:
Criteria 1: Accident Frequency for Landstar, the Safest Trucking Companies
A sign of a good preventative safety program is reflected in a metric based on how frequently accidents take place, called Accident Frequency. We measure Total Accident Frequency per million miles traveled, per year. Landstar is an industry leader in safety with an average of just 2.22 accidents for every million miles in 2023. What’s more, Momentum, an award-winning Landstar agent, beats Landstar’s industry leading low accident rate with an even lower average of 1.54 accidents for every million miles traveled last year.
Criteria 2: Cargo Claim Frequency among Safest Trucking Companies
The second criteria for assessing the safest trucking companies you may be considering doing business with is the Cargo Claim Frequency, defined as the number of damaged cargo claims per 1,000 freight bills processed. Shippers want to be certain that their cargo will arrive at the designated destination on time, safely, and without damage. At Landstar, we achieved an industry leading low 0.55 claims per 1,000 freight bills processed in 2023. Exacting dispatch and securement protocols, plus customized high value cargo protection SOP’s are just a few examples of how we achieve this low cargo claims rate.
Criteria 3: Load Securement Practices and Standards among Safest Trucking Companies
As an enabler for the safety and injury prevention among everyone on the road, securing a load to the fullest extent necessary to prevent accidents is imperative. This applies to every kind of shipment that travels over the road, but is especially the case for oversized, bulky or heavy haul shipments where the risks of an accident and injury from a shifting load can be even higher.
When it comes to Load Securement, Momentum is an expert. We successfully deliver more than 3,000 Heavy Haul shipments every year. Our operational teams are skilled at vetting exact dimensions, identifying and implementing securement methods (straps, tie–downs, tarps etc.), and loading and unloading cargo using carefully vetted rigging and lift equipment.
In addition, Momentum Transportation provides a comprehensive 2-day training for cargo securement, which covers everything from the North American Cargo Securement Standard to Working Load Limits, Inspection requirements up to and including, hands-on practical applications. Our load securement experts even travel to customer sites for load securement reviews to train and reinforce our best practices!
Let Us Be Your Most Trusted Partner among Safest Trucking Companies
Landstar offers a global transportation network built for the 21st century. Compared to an ordinary logistics company, Landstar is among the safest trucking companies you can work with industry-leading safety performance statistics. We offer reliable transportation capacity with greater visibility and flexibility to meet our customers’ evolving needs.
Landstar is a $5.3 billion company with 1,100 operating agency offices, over 9,800 trucks, more than 18,500 trailers, plus over 76,000 3rd party capacity partners. More than 25,000 businesses worldwide count on Landstar to deliver, because they know Landstar can handle whatever customers send our way. Whether you’re looking to work with Landstar, Landstar trucking or heavy hauling companies, we have a solution for you!
Contact us today at www.landstar-agent.com
1 Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/rise-in-nuclear-verdicts-in-lawsuits-threatens-trucking-industry.html