Compliant but not safe

Compliant on paper but unsafe on the road. Is this combo possible?  Jason Alfred has seen it, often from trucking fleets that view safety culture as just checking boxes, rather than true accountability.

Alfred is a transportation and safety consultant and a former DOT-FMCSA Safety Investigator of the Year with more than 17 years of experience in crash investigations, high-risk motor carrier investigations and compliance oversight. We turned to him for insights into motor carrier safety, what he thinks the FMCSA is getting wrong and tips for small fleets to maintain a solid safety record.

—Interview by Shefali Kapadia, edited by Bianca Prieto

What do you think is missing from today's conversations around trucking safety?

Accountability for what actually prevents crashes. Too many conversations focus on technical compliance and devices instead of measurable safety outcomes. A fleet can be fully “compliant” on paper, yet still put unsafe drivers and equipment on the road. Safety culture isn’t built with checkboxes—it’s built by holding every decision accountable to a single standard: Did this action reduce crash risk?

Transparency is also missing. Drivers and carriers deserve clarity on how safety is evaluated, how risks are identified and why enforcement actions are taken. Right now, too much is hidden inside complex formulas and inconsistent interpretations, which slows improvement. If we truly want to eliminate fatalities, we must talk less about what’s easy to regulate and more about what’s proven to work: fatigue science, proactive driver coaching and risk-based oversight that targets the real causes of severe crashes. That’s accountability with purpose.

Do you believe the current FMCSA has the right priorities for truck safety? If not, what’s one thing you would change?

No. FMCSA’s priorities are still too anchored in paperwork instead of crash-prevention. We reward carriers who can navigate rules instead of the ones who actually operate safely. Safety scores shouldn’t be a guessing game. Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) must become a transparent, crash-predictive system that the industry and the public can trust. Unsafe behaviors should raise alarms long before a fatality ever occurs.

We also need accountability at the entry point. Right now, “chameleon” carriers can shut down, reopen under a new name and be back on the road within days. That erodes safety and destroys trust. Stronger new-entrant vetting and immediate disqualification for fraud would shut that door permanently. And enforcement must be consistent nationwide, not tougher in one state and nearly nonexistent in another. When FMCSA measures what matters—safety outcomes—we move from compliance on paper to accountability on the highway, and that’s how we eliminate crashes.

With your experience investigating crashes and auditing carriers for FMCSA, what is the biggest lesson you learned that you wish fleet executives understood?

Crashes almost never “just happen.” Long before the impact, there are patterns, like ignored warning signs, repeat violations, skill gaps, fatigue issues or poor decision-making that leadership failed to correct. Safety outcomes are the direct result of what a company allows or tolerates. When a driver violates hours-of-service once and nothing happens, that isn’t an exception—it becomes the culture.

Fleet executives must treat every leading indicator—near misses, risky behaviors, high-frequency violations—as a chance to eliminate a future catastrophe. Accountability doesn’t start after the crash report; it starts the moment a risk first appears in the data. Paperwork doesn’t save lives. Proactive action does. The companies that win are the ones that enforce standards consistently, coach continuously and expect transparency at every level. That’s how you stop crashes before anyone gets hurt.

How can small motor carriers ensure they maintain a solid safety record? Is it harder for them compared to large carriers?

Small carriers can absolutely maintain a strong safety record, but the system doesn’t make it easy. Today, too many regulations are written and enforced as if every carrier has the resources of a national fleet. A single paperwork violation can trigger penalties that hit a five-truck operation far harder than a 5,000-truck one. Safety shouldn’t depend on company size, and accountability shouldn’t feel like punishment for being small.

What small fleets need most is fairness and transparency: clear expectations, consistent enforcement and accessible safety tools that actually help them reduce risk. Proactive coaching, fatigue management and data visibility shouldn’t be luxuries—they should be standard. When FMCSA evaluates real performance instead of regulatory complexity, everyone wins. Small carriers can compete and thrive. Large carriers can’t hide behind scale. And the highways become safer for everyone.

Thanks for reading today's edition! You can reach the newsletter team at editor@theinsidelane.co. We enjoy hearing from you.

Interested in advertising? Email us at newslettersales@mvfglobal.com

The Inside Lane is curated and written by Shefali Kapadia and edited by Bianca Prieto.