Con-way Truckload announced that its 3,500 drivers set a company record for safe driving in 2008, reducing its total accident frequency rate by 29 percent over the past four years to a 21-year low.


The company's drivers have reduced its accident frequency every year since 2004, with 2008 coming in 10 percent below 2007 to mark the lowest rate since the company started keeping records in 1987, noted Herb Schmidt, Con-way Truckload's president.

The accident frequency milestone is particularly noteworthy given the strict standards the company uses to measure safe driving performance, noted Randy Cornell, the company's vice president of safety and recruiting. "Our drivers know that for our company, the definition of an accident is any incident where our vehicle comes in contact with another vehicle or property and causes any visible damage whatsoever - even something as small as a scratch on a bumper," he explained. "That's a bar that's set much higher than what regulatory agencies define as a government-reportable accident."

Based on the company's definition, Con-way Truckload's drivers averaged 8.7 accidents per million miles driven in 2008. Measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation standard for a reportable accident, which is defined as an accident that renders a vehicle inoperable or causes an injury requiring immediate medical attention away from the scene, Con-way Truckload's 2008 frequency rate was .65, or one accident for every 1.4 million miles driven. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration considers a carrier to be operating safely when it achieves a reportable accident frequency rate of less than 1.5.

The company's drivers were recently honored at a special ceremony at Con-way Truckload's Joplin headquarters during a regular monthly safety meeting attended by more than 100 drivers.