Revealed: trucks not to blame for accidents

A Webfleet report reveals that trucks are not the primary cause of accidents on South Africa’s roads.

The Road Safety Report reveals that while an overwhelming majority of transport companies – operating a variety of commercial vehicles ranging from small vans to large trucks – experienced road crashes in the past year, other road users seem to be the primary cause.

Out of a total of over 14 000 vehicles represented by various companies that responded to the survey, 11 253 collisions (8.9%) occurred, ranging from minor “bumper bashings” to major collision incidents. Collision causes included other road users (33%), distracted driving (21%), driver fatigue (12%), speeding (7%), reckless driving (7%), poor road conditions (7%), drunk driving (4%), and pedestrians (1%). Other factors included animals, weather conditions, and vehicle faults.

“With the persistent culture of non-compliance amongst motorists and officials alike in South Africa, it is not very surprising that transport companies placed other road users as the leading risk factor in the collisions they experience,” says Justin Manson, sales director at Webfleet. “With news coverage seeming to place the blame on truck drivers, the reality is that other motorists contribute to the rising number of road incidents.

“Unfortunately, this and other external factors, like road conditions and weather, are out of transport operators’ control. They do, however, have the ability to substantially bring down risk in the areas over which they do have control,” he adds.

While only four companies went the entire year under review without a crash, one company in the dangerous goods sector recorded just two crashes in its entire fleet of 160 trucks running over six million kilometres per year.

Another company recorded 11 crashes in its fleet of 205 trucks running over 25 million kilometres per year. This company operates in the “white and brown” goods sector.

The trucking sector in South Africa has, for years, been unable to measure national road incident statistics – and particularly the causes – on an accurate basis. However, according to annual statistics from the Road Traffic Management Corporation, the number of road incidents is increasing.

“The difficulty in achieving improvements in this arena lies in the lack of accurate data to enable road safety practitioners to measure the actual situation, in order to manage it more effectively,” notes Manson. “Data must go further than just counting the number of road incidents or the number of deaths. There is a need to look deeper into the contributory factors and this data is not readily available in South Africa.”

Transport companies participating in the survey represented large and small operators carrying a broad spectrum of goods for a wide variety of industry sectors. Individual fleet sizes ranged from one up to 3 500 vehicles, giving a good representation in terms of small, medium, and large fleets. One respondent representing the Road Transport Management System (RTMS) steering committee replied collectively on behalf of RTMS-accredited companies operating over 4 000 trucks.

The survey revealed that the lowest rates of collision were experienced by those who maximised their efforts in driver training, safety protocols, driver health, and the use of telematics solutions.

Over 50% of respondents reported a noticeable reduction in collisions since the implementation of telematics systems that allow for the live monitoring of vehicles (including tyre pressure, engine problems, and diagnostics), road conditions, and driver behaviour.

“Telematics offers a continuously evolving data set, with road-facing and cabin-facing HD dashcam event footage displayed alongside driving data to give users the full context of road incidents,” says Manson. “Users can request footage from a specific time and position of a previous trip or instantly livestream from the road, to act immediately when an incident occurs. Over time, this data can inform road safety policy, industry best practice, and the education of general road users – saving lives, as well as billions of rands in assets lost through collisions each year.”