Latest NTI crash report imminent

Leading heavy-vehicle insurer NTI has previewed its latest safety report at Trucking Australia 2017

Inappropriate speed, fatigue, truck fires and driver experience continue to be big issues in major heavy vehicle insurance losses – those are just four themes to come out of National Transport Insurance's latest crash findings report, which it previewed at the ATA's recent Trucking Australia 2017 conference in Darwin.

The major insurer of Australia's heavy-vehicle industry, NTI's crash research is carried out by its National Truck Accident Research Centre, an independent research body established by NTI to identify and keep track of trends in heavy-vehicle losses.

Published every two years (click here to read our story on NTI's last report), the report focuses solely on NTI losses where each incident ran to $50,000 or more.

The 2017 report, which is due to be released in full in August, was previewed in Darwin by Owen Driscoll, NTI's National Manager, Industry and Government Relations.

Also Vice Chair of the ATA's TruckSafe program, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics, and 2015 'Icon of the Industry' for the National Road Transport Hall of Fame, Mr Driscoll said the latest results continued the overall positive trend for heavy vehicle road safety, given the increasing road freight task.

The freight task has increased by 40 per cent according to NTI data since 2002/03, while the insurer says serious accidents have decreased by 46 per cent since December 2002.

Those figures relate purely to NTI data, not the wider industry, but such is the firm's footprint in the Australian market that its reports remain as a primary point of reference for truck accident statistics in this country.

By NTI's own definition, the 'major incidents' which form the basis of the report concern only those where the cost of the incident amounted to $50,000 or more.

Counting the cost

As such, in 2015 the insurer experienced a total of 606 losses that cost the firm $85.4 million, with an average cost of $140,800 per claim.

Of those 606 incidents, some 21.4 per cent were the result of inappropriate speed and 7.9 per cent were due to non-impact-related fires, while 12.2 per cent were due to fatigue – the worst result for fatigue since 2007.

Inappropriate speed does not necessarily mean the vehicle was speeding – the truck could have been doing 35km/h when 25km/h was actually an appropriate speed for the load and/or conditions.

While heavy vehicles were found to be at fault 60 per cent of the time in multi-vehicle collisions, in multi-vehicle collisions resulting in a fatality light vehicles were found to be at fault in 93 per cent of cases.

Not surprisingly, three-quarters of these major losses occurred on highways and regional roads.

SMEs doing it tough

What sort of driver is accounting for a disproportionate rate of major incidents? Mr Driscoll says the latest data has revealed a worrying trend.

"Where we've got a bit of an issue, and it depends on the freight task, is the SME [small to medium enterprise] situation in the middle that are really doing it hard and struggling to survive," he said.

Mr Driscoll said these operations, with around 10 to 20 trucks, are doing it tough, while owner/drivers and fleet drivers are generally faring well in the accident stats. Fleet drivers accounted for 59.2 per cent of the losses but represent 65 per cent of the insurer's portfolio.

The average age licence duration for those involved in major incidents was 10.9 years, which highlights another trend.

"We can have a lot of 50-year-olds who only have five years of experience and that's something we've got to monitor," said Mr Driscoll.

However, the accidents relating to fatigue continue to be of concern. While a major improvement was recorded for WA, possibly due to the reduced emphasis on mining, fatigue-related crashes increased in NSW and Victoria. Once again, the danger zone for fatigue is between midnight and dawn.

"Think very seriously about operating guys through the night – park them up," said Mr Driscoll, who also underlined the importance of communication between the driver and his or her operations manager.

"It's not about the logbook looking pristine, it's about fitness for duty and knowing your drivers and what they are up to, what their personal situation is and whether they've got issues," he said.

"That's driver management."

The lion's share of fatigue-related crashes occurred on the highway – 86 per cent.

Fire risk continues

Fires also continue to play a major role, with 60 per cent of fire cases related to electrics.

"Get really serious about looking at your wiring and ensuring it's in good nick," said Driscoll.

"Ensure you've got no scuffing or rubbing. An extinguisher is almost a waste of time – these fires are hot."

B-doubles continue to be under-represented compared to single trailers relevant to the freight task, while as far as individual states are concerned WA is the best performing jurisdiction. NSW and Victoria are over-represented in the latest report, while Queensland and SA have both improved.

The full NTI crash report will be released in August and will be available for download at www.nti.com.au.

Latest NTI crash report imminent

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