📉 Avoid nuclear settlements | 🌏 Trucking at COP28 | ⚠️ CA law alert

Avoiding accidents on the road can keep your drivers safe – and give you a financial edge. Learn how to best protect your fleet from accidents in today’s edition of The Inside Lane.

Inside today's newsletter:
🚀 Escaping $10m+ "nuclear verdicts" in trucking
🚗 Reduce risks: Advanced tech & training for safer driving
🌟 Safety as a competitive edge
🌍 Climate conference impact on trucking
⏰ California's clean truck check

A practical approach to avoid nuclear verdicts

With ‘nuclear verdicts’ - settlements of over $10m - on the rise, prevention is better than the cure. Auto accidents are the second largest category of nuclear verdicts, and all those collisions are squeezing the entire industry, pushing liability insurance premiums up 40% per mile in the last decade alone.

What’s the solution? Companies can boost their driver safety measures beyond the FMCSA’s legal minimum, with extra tech like automatic braking, lane departure warnings, or dual-facing cameras all helping.

Digital safety checks can prevent errors that physical paperwork wouldn’t, and companies can increase training to make sure drivers know which split-second decisions could prevent a collision.

Why it matters: Nuclear verdicts have hit a $31.8m average. Vehicle accidents accounted for almost a quarter (22%) of work-related crashes in 2020, according to the CDC. Focusing on safety does more than just save lives - it’s a competitive edge, and one that could protect your business too.

Find out how to safeguard your fleet at CCJ Digital.

🙂 GOOD DAY:

Ryder has the first two customers for its turnkey electric van fleet solution - which includes vehicles, advice, charge points and telematics to make it easier for operators to switch.

Find out when it will all happen on Fleet Owner.

🙁 BAD DAY:

Electric-truck purchase incentives present big challenges for small fleets / owner-operators. With overlapping rules that apply to manufacturers and end users each, these incentives can be particularly hard to parse.

Learn more at OverDrive. 

How climate change is affecting trucking

The COP28 climate conference is underway in Dubai, and likely to result in further policies designed to cut carbon emissions and limit climate change. Notably, US climate envoy, John Kerry, has stressed the importance of phasing out fossil fuels and using carbon capture to support sectors where emissions are hard to abate. Decisions will be worth watching closely.

Check out the conference agenda on Bloomberg.

Dec. 31 deadline looms for Calif. trucks to comply with new law

Time is running out for fleet regulators to comply with California’s new Clean Truck Check. The rule replaces the Heavy-Duty Inspection and Maintenance regulation and - for the first time - it applies to all vehicles which operate in California, instead of the ones that are registered there. Fleets have until Dec. 31 to sign up, using CARB’s online portal.

Learn about the changes at FreightWaves.

Vehicle connectivity, electrification on the horizon in 2024

Keynote speakers at the recent Fleet Forward conference outlined key trends operators should be on top of as 2024 looms. Making use of technologies such as vehicle connectivity, AI and electrification can already give forward-thinking businesses an edge in a competitive business environment - and there are some familiar safety related challenges still to solve.

What’s on the horizon for 2024? Weight in at Automotive Fleet.

• The 3-degree difference: Can higher frozen food temps slow emissions?

• 30,000 charging ports by 2030. Can Ford meet its own deadlines?

• Hydrogen-powered vehicles? GM collab to start production in 2026.

• Survey says: A look at the latest Public Sector Fleet Industry Summary.

Quote of the Day:

“If you’re going to reduce the emissions and you’re actually going to hit the target of net zero by 2050, you have to do some phasing out. There’s no other way to get to that target.” - US climate envoy, John Kerry

I’m so glad you joined us for another information-packed edition of The Inside Lane. I’m always looking for the “next big story” that affects you and your fleet operations – let me know if you see or hear of anything we should be covering in this newsletter.

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