Much like we all experienced in elementary and high school, every quarter, FMCSA updates and posts on its website a document called the “Motor Carrier Safety Progress Report” (Progress Report, for short). This Progress Report is essentially a self-generated ‘report card’ on how FMCSA is doing implementing various safety-related programs and, more importantly, how its efforts are influencing on-road safety outcomes.

The Agency’s most recent Progress Report was posted in late April 2020 and includes data in two main categories: (1) Safety Outcomes, and (2) Program Outputs. The Safety Outcomes category lists the number of truck- and bus-involved crashes, fatalities, and injuries for the three most recent calendar years (2017-2019). As many of you probably know, these crash outcomes are unfortunately trending in the wrong direction. The Program Outputs category includes data on the number of:

• Carrier investigations
• Violations cited during investigations
• New entrant audits
• Roadside inspections
• The latest driver and vehicle out-of-service rates from inspections

This data is presented in a user-friendly format and is easy to track and review from quarter to quarter, just like the report cards of our youth. We will resist the temptation to provide a grade on this latest FMCSA report card.

If you’ve never seen these Progress Reports, or haven’t reviewed them recently, here are links to the latest one, as well as to the Progress Report archives.