Advanced safety systems

Freightliner adds nifty changes to fifth-generation Cascadia

YPSILANTI, Mich. – The fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia from Daimler Truck North America features some nifty changes to the market-leading Class 8 over-the-road truck.

But a major makeover, it isn’t. 

Coming to market about five years after the current-generation truck – called the New Cascadia when introduced in 2019 – the fifth-gen tractor is scheduled for production in mid-2025. It claims a modest 1.9% improvement in fuel efficiency over the current model, part of a lineage that covers...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightliner-adds-nifty-changes-to-fifth-generation-cascadia

Better safety systems could help fleets avoid nuclear verdicts

Better safety systems could help fleets avoid nuclear verdicts (Photo: Shutterstock)

Within the trucking industry, legal battles over road accidents are nothing new. However, verdicts in trucking accidents have steadily become more costly, partly due to the legal environment that incentivizes lawsuits. This has led to the nuclear verdicts of today in which a jury awards over $10 million in compensation, crippling many fleets and forcing several to bankruptcy. 

In a report, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) observed that while the average size of verdicts was...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/better-safety-systems-could-help-fleets-avoid-nuclear-verdicts

The Moneyball effect: Controlling out-of-control insurance premiums

Lawyers drive truck crash insurance settlements higher

One large trucking company recently renewed its insurance coverage at a lower cost than it paid in 2019.

In 2020, that statement is as implausible as it gets when it comes to trucking insurance, but a participant during one session of the recent Truckload Carriers Association’s Virtual Safety & Security meeting promised this did happen.  

“[For] well-run motor carriers that are doing it right, there will be a competitive market,” Chris Mikolay, vice president of national accounts for underwriter...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/the-moneyball-effect-controlling-out-of-control-insurance-premiums