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Programs that work best long term, Pelz said, are practical, repetitive and embedded into daily operations. (utah778/Getty Images)

Common on-the-job driver injuries in the trucking industry, such as a slip off a trailer step or an awkward lift that leads to a back strain, can increasingly carry an outsized financial impact. For many fleet operators, the annual cost of workers’ compensation claims, driven up by rising health care expenses, now rivals or exceeds the cost of vehicle crashes.

At a time when margins are tight and operating costs continue to climb, preventing and managing driver injuries has become a core business priority tied directly to profitability and workforce stability.

Carriers that are getting results are taking a broader, more proactive approach. Fleets are emphasizing careful hiring, structured onboarding, ongoing training and a safety culture that supports early reporting and rapid response when injuries occur. The goal is to reduce risk, control insurance costs and keep employees healthy, engaged and productive.

Effective injury prevention programs include hiring practices that account for physical demands and onboarding that establishes clear safety expectations. Ongoing training and consistent communication reinforce those standards over time. And when injuries do occur, well-designed care and return-to-work programs help drivers get back on the road.

“The most effective injury prevention programs combine targeted, hands-on safety training with ongoing coaching, ergonomic interventions and active management follow-up,” said Mike Pelz, vice president of health and safety solutions at Examinetics, a provider of occupational health services for the transportation industry.

Programs that work best long term, he said, are practical, repetitive and embedded into daily operations.

Pelz identified four areas of emphasis for fleets developing injury prevention and risk management programs. First, training should be built around the injuries that workers most commonly experience.

“Build content around the injuries drivers and dockworkers actually experience,” he said, noting that slips, trips and falls account for nearly half of all injuries.

Second, fleets benefit from layered training formats that reinforce learning over time. Structured onboarding, followed by frequent microlearning sessions that review actual incidents and examine root causes, tends to be more effective than stand-alone annual classes, Pelz said.

Third, ergonomics and physical readiness play a central role in injury prevention.

“Injury prevention improves when fleets address physical demands proactively instead of responding after a claim,” Pelz said. That includes training on proper lifting, pushing and pulling techniques, safe dock practices, and matching equipment to the freight and delivery environment.

Finally, training is most effective when it is embedded into daily safety management.

“Training sticks when it is tied to leadership behavior and performance metrics,” Pelz said.

Clear standards, accountability and visible management involvement, where leaders follow the same rules and reinforce priorities consistently, are practices that drive results.

Building a Safety Culture

Company culture plays an important role in injury prevention, said Jeff Mercadante, chief safety and risk management officer at less-than-truckload carrier Pitt Ohio. Constant communication and an authentic, company-wide commitment to safety, starting at the top, are essential.

Pitt Ohio holds a 30-minute safety meeting with every employee each month and sends safety messages to drivers twice weekly through their electronic logging devices. The message, Mercadante said, is consistent across the organization. If something cannot be done safely, it will not be done at all.

Another component of Pitt Ohio’s approach is its occupational athletics program, which reframes drivers, mechanics and dockworkers as working athletes. Each shift begins with a structured routine of stretching and warm-up exercises designed to prepare employees for the physical needs of the job.

In the program’s first year, Pitt Ohio reduced strain injuries by 67%, Mercadante said. The stretching regimen is reinforced by ongoing training on safe cab entry and exit, proper lifting and material-handling techniques, and the use of pallet jacks and other tools. The exercises are designed to mirror common daily tasks.

Coaching also includes regular, non-punitive reviews of accidents and incidents, with an emphasis on learning rather than discipline. The company’s sleep apnea screening and prevention program has also had a significant impact on driver health, Mercadante said.

When injuries do occur, Pitt Ohio relies on modified-duty return-to-work programs that allow employees to resume work in limited, non-driving roles until fully recovered. The approach helps control costs while keeping employees connected to the workplace.

Pitt Ohio Transportation Group ranks No. 45 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.

Immediate Engagement

Strong safety performance and injury management depend on engagement, said Chris Hayes, assistant vice president of workers’ compensation and risk control at Travelers.

“Engagement starts on day one and has to be continuous,” Hayes said. “Drivers need to understand how to work safely, who to contact if something happens and what steps to take, whether they are at the dock or on the road.”

That process begins during orientation and is reinforced regularly. Drivers, dispatchers and frontline supervisors are trained on injury reporting protocols so that responses are quick and consistent. In many cases, Hayes said, supervisors or dispatchers are the first point of contact when an incident occurs.

Some fleets have added simple tools to support that process. Hayes described carriers that place a sticker with a QR code inside the cab. Scanning the code directs drivers to a web page outlining what to do if they are injured, who to call and how to locate a nearby pre-approved medical provider. The tool is particularly useful for longhaul drivers without regular routes.

“Safety, injury prevention and injury management are not documents that sit on a shelf,” Hayes said. “They are ongoing processes that depend on communication, trust and employees believing the company will do right by them if they are injured.”

Preventing common injuries such as slips, trips and falls requires understanding how work actually gets done, said Aaron Lilach, assistant vice president and senior risk consultant at insurance brokerage Hub International.

“Training alone is not the answer,” Lilach said. “The real question is why someone chooses to do something a certain way, even when they know what they were trained to do.”

That analysis, he said, is where insurers can help carriers examine systems, processes and supervisory practices. This includes how employees are hired, observed and coached, as well as identifying habits or behaviors that increase injury risk.

“Why are drivers doing something differently than how they were trained?” Lilach said. “And how do you adjust training and systems to correct that?”

At larger carriers, data analysis is increasingly part of that effort. Curtis Carr, vice president of safety and risk management at LTL carrier Estes Express Lines, said insurers and fleets are using artificial intelligence tools to analyze claims and incident data for trends, outliers and recurring causes.

For a carrier the size of Estes, understanding the data is essential.

“You have to be constantly aware of what you are seeing, identify trends and then act on them,” Carr said. “That also means listening to employees and keeping lines of communication open.”

Estes’ safety mantra is straightforward. If you see something, say something.

“Employees see things every day that management does not,” Carr said. “We want them to report everything, and then we must act on it. Trust is built or lost with every report.”

Estes ranks No. 8 on the TT100 list of for-hire carriers.