Swift’s accident rate is their own fault

I have done the math here before, but if you divide 1.8 billion miles by the number of recordable accidents that they have in a given year and compare it to pretty much any carrier with more than 10 trucks you will see that Swifts numbers are pretty f****** astonishingly good.

Now consider that the numbers you see on the government site are for 2 years and 4 billion miles driven by mostly drivers with under a year of driving experience... Last I did the math, it was 1 recordable accident per 6 million miles. Thats 1 accident per 6 careers worth of driving.

And then consider also that 80 percent or better of accidents involving cmv are not the fault of the commercial driver. 6 million accident free miles and when there is an accident theres better than an 80 out of 100 chance that it wasnt swifts fault. Much less that its the companys fault directly regardless. Hell they dont even want you chaining your tires and driving when weather is bad.

 

All true.
But since there are so many drivers it is easier to dig up dirt on them.

I hear more about Swift accidents from QC messages than I ever see here, including from the person here that likes to highlight them.

They are always on our butt telling us to slow it down, give more following distance, shut it down when conditions are unsafe, etc..., just because so many accidents happen that should never have happened.

And there is never a bad word said or any other repercussions when I shut it down because I feel unsafe driving in certain conditions. Or for any other reason that is not directly in my control.
Heck, Swift even gives me options when considering a load so that I can turn it down if I do not think I can do it safely in my own time.

But they do watch us, and there are words said when I follow too closely for too long a time or have a hard braking event. I have to account for those things, each and every time.


I'm unsure how much blame to assign for these things.
Is it simply the driver, or also some DM's that like to push things too far?
The training methods, and sometimes lack thereof?