Could missing crash data change how carriers are judged?

by TRUCKERS VA
(UNITED STATES)

What happens when the data used for safety decisions isn't complete?

If you run a trucking company, your safety record isn't just a bunch of numbers sitting on a government website. Those numbers can influence how your company is evaluated, investigated and targeted for safety interventions.

So here's the uncomfortable question: What happens when the data behind those decisions isn't complete or accurate?

That's exactly why questions are being raised about FMCSA crash data.

The data doesn't magically appear at FMCSA

FMCSA's crash information comes from federal, state and local enforcement agencies. FMCSA says the crash data it receives is reported through state and federal programs—and the agency has systems specifically designed to measure the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of that information.

In other words, there's a chain of information.

A crash happens.

Law enforcement records it.

The information gets reported.

FMCSA receives it.

Then that information can become part of a carrier's safety record.

If something gets lost, delayed or entered incorrectly along the way, the number attached to a carrier may not tell the whole story.

Why this matters to carriers

FMCSA says crash records are used by its Safety Measurement System to help prioritize carriers for safety interventions. Complete driver and vehicle information is important because it helps connect crashes to the correct driver, vehicle and carrier.

That creates a pretty obvious problem.

Bad data can create bad conclusions.

A missing crash could make a carrier's record look better than reality.

But incorrect information can also make a carrier look worse than reality.

And that's why the issue isn't simply "trucking companies want fewer crashes on their records."

It's about whether the right crash is attached to the right company, the right vehicle and the right driver.

FMCSA already has a system for fixing questionable data

Here's the part that shouldn't get overlooked.

FMCSA has a system called DataQs that allows carriers, drivers and others to request a review of federal and state crash, inspection and violation information they believe is incomplete or incorrect.

And this isn't some tiny paperwork operation.

FMCSA says that in 2024, DataQs received 8,314 requests involving crash data and more than 63,000 requests involving inspections and violations.

That doesn't prove the entire safety-data system is broken.

But it does prove that correcting safety data is a significant enough issue that FMCSA has an entire process dedicated to it.

Here's where things get really interesting

FMCSA's own data-quality program evaluates states on things such as:

Completeness — Is the necessary information there?
Accuracy — Is the information correct?
Timeliness — Was the crash reported when it should have been?
Consistency — Does the information line up correctly?

FMCSA currently publishes state-by-state ratings for these measures.

So the federal government isn't pretending data quality doesn't matter.

It clearly does.

The bigger question is how much imperfect data should influence decisions about a carrier?

And there's another side to this argument

Let's be fair.

Better data isn't automatically better news for trucking companies.

If missing crashes are discovered and added to the system, some carriers could actually look worse—not better.

That's the part that often gets lost in these debates.

The goal shouldn't be to make the numbers look good for carriers.

The goal should be to make the numbers accurate.

If a carrier has a genuine safety problem, regulators need to know about it.

But if a carrier is being judged because of an error, duplicate record, incorrect company identification or information that doesn't match the underlying crash report, that carrier should have a meaningful way to challenge it.

FMCSA's DataQs system specifically allows challenges involving issues such as incorrect company or USDOT numbers, duplicate crashes, missing crash records and incorrect crash information.

The bottom line

Safety data matters.

But accurate safety data matters even more.

Regulators need reliable information to identify dangerous carriers and keep the roads safer.

Carriers need reliable information so they're not judged on somebody else's mistake.

And drivers need to understand that the numbers attached to a company or driver record can have real-world consequences.

The question isn't whether trucking should be held accountable.

Absolutely it should.

The question is simpler:

Are we confident the numbers being used to judge trucking are telling the whole story?

That's a question worth asking before another spreadsheet becomes another safety decision.