Mark Murrell
It’s now 2025, which means I’ve officially been designing and building learning management systems (LMS) for 25 years. Much has changed in that time, and technology and the Internet have allowed us to develop online training tools we wouldn’t have imagined in the early 2000s.
When we launched CarriersEdge in 2005, online training for trucking companies wasn’t a thing. While other blue and white collared industries were using online systems to help in their training and educational programs, the trucking industry did it the old-fashioned way by training employees in a classroom-type setting. While in-person training remains an essential piece of a comprehensive training program in trucking, the use of online training has become the norm among fleets as learning management has advanced and become more available in the industry.
In fact, while scoring the 2025 edition of the Best Fleet to Drive For, for the first time ever in the 17 years we’ve produced the program, online training was the default training method across participating fleets.
As fleets increasingly rely on online training activities, choosing the right online system to support your operation and its safety goals is essential. When you select an online training provider, you should demo or trial the service to see if what’s offered is easy for users to manage and what tools you can use to deliver training courses to your employees effectively. In trucking, a few industry-specific features you should look out for include:
Compliance and audit support
Support for compliance tracking and audits is critical in trucking. With multiple enforcement agencies and insurance reps regularly wanting to verify training records and history, fleets need to be able to pull up training records quickly. Those records need to be accurate, and they should be detailed as well.
While many blue-collar learning management systems track compliance – whether users are currently up to date with required training – trucking needs more than that. Fleets often need to show that drivers were compliant at specific points in the past or have never been out of compliance. That goes well beyond what’s available in most general-purpose LMS.
The base assumption for all types of online systems is that a human is deciding the training requirements for a given population of workers, but in trucking, that’s no longer the case. With telematics and dashcams highlighting gaps in driver skills and knowledge, machines are increasingly involved in the process, and fleets need ways to integrate them easily.
A trucking LMS must recognize that human administrators and outside systems will be identifying training needs. There also needs to be ways for fleets to get both groups working together towards the same goal. Auto-assigning training is necessary, but the human managers need to be in the loop, so they always know what’s happening.
Managing driver options
It’s not uncommon for drivers to get moved from one fleet manager to another as their routes change. Most learning management systems assume workers are fairly static in their locations and roles, so they have minimal features to streamline the process of making changes.
To effectively serve the trucking industry, online systems need to make it easy to change not only manager and location assignments but also training requirements. If a driver moves from one customer to another or moves from regional to local or cross-border work, the types of training they need will change, too. The online system needs to handle that and automatically update the assignments consistently and reliably.
Driver turnover management
All blue-collar environments have employee turnover to deal with, but trucking is unique because a significant percentage of those exits often return at some point in the future. Fleets commonly delete accounts when drivers leave, but when those people return, it’s better to have the old account saved rather than having to create a brand new one.
Since that driver likely completed training during the previous employment, that history should come back, too. Forcing every returning driver to go through all the training they’ve already completed again because the previous history got wiped when they left, is a waste of time.
A trucking LMS needs to seamlessly handle drivers quitting and returning, making it easy to remove accounts when drivers leave, reactivate when they return, and retain all training history accurately to expedite onboarding.
Even if those drivers don’t return, that history may be needed in the future for lawsuits or when audits come up. It’s critical to keep it available but not clutter up the interface with records for people not currently employed at the fleet.
Drivers, safety and ops
Safety and operations teams often oversee drivers together. Ops teams may be responsible for the individual drivers (acting as the direct managers for them), but safety managers also play a role in overseeing safety programs and outlining what should be done to stay compliant and minimize the fleet’s risk profile. Learning management for trucking needs to recognize and support all three groups effectively. Safety managers may be the ones setting up the training programs and deciding when and what training drivers need to complete, but the operations team needs to be in the loop. They need to know what’s required of their drivers and when and what courses drivers are completing. The LMS needs to be easy for anyone to use so that all teams can see where drivers are at in their training, pull records, or input information when they need to without a lot of manual work.
Using an online system to help manage aspects of your overall safety program should make life easier as an administrator. If it’s too complex or doesn’t offer the right tools to more efficiently manage tasks, you’re using the wrong one. When deciding on which provider to use, make sure the capabilities offered will assist you in reaching your safety goals.
Joem Ohr
Cargo crime is no longer a problem confined to physical break-ins or rogue insiders. It has evolved into a sophisticated threat ecosystem where traditional theft intersects with cybercrime, organized fraud, and international criminal networks.
Estimated annual supply chain losses from fraud, intercepted shipments, and cargo theft have reached an eye-watering $15-35 billion according to data from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency. For today’s transportation leaders, understanding this complexity—and responding to it with a unified strategy—is no longer optional. It’s essential for survival in a high-risk logistics environment.
The spectrum of cargo crime now ranges from opportunistic pilferage to coordinated heists involving stolen identities, fake carriers, and manipulated telematics data. Increasingly, criminal organizations are targeting weak points in digital infrastructure—posing as legitimate brokers, intercepting sensitive shipment data, and using that intelligence to steal freight without ever setting foot near the loading dock.
In 2024 alone the industry saw a 27% increase in the number of reported cargo theft incidents over the previous year, according to CargoNet 2024 Supply Chain Risk Trends Analysis. While this is a significant increase, it unfortunately does not accurately represent the total scope of the issue as a significant number of incidents are not properly reported or investigated.
This evolution underscores a troubling reality: The transportation industry is now squarely in the crosshairs of cyber-enabled organized crime. The line between a cyber incident and a cargo theft event is increasingly blurred.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to solving the cargo crime epidemic, but the industry must align its response across the three interrelated spheres of responsibility.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Cybersecurity: Defend against account takeovers, identity theft, spoofed email communications, and data leaks that enable fraud and theft.
- Operational security: Verify trading partners and carrier identities, implement robust, consistent vetting procedures for all load assignments, and monitor for deviations in carrier behavior during dispatch, and have multiple verification methods and processes before any banking information is changed.
- Physical security: Use tamper-proof locks and tracking hardware, leverage geofencing and trailer immobilization technology, and partner with local law enforcement to monitor potential criminal activity in, or near, facilities and yards.
The cybersecurity controls that exist where these domains intersect hold the key to preventing cargo crime — cybersecurity controls support operational resilience, and physical safeguards often depend on cybersecurity systems or defenses to function securely and reliably. None of these practice areas can operate in a vacuum.
The cargo crime prevention ecosystem is vast and interconnected. Shippers, carriers, brokers, warehouse operators, technology vendors, insurers, regulators and law enforcement each hold a part of the solution — but no one entity holds all of it. For example, the complexities of the federal law enforcement system with its multiple agencies, task forces, and directives often self-limits its own effectiveness through unclear communication channels, competing priorities, and differences in prosecution thresholds. Add in those same nuances with state and local law enforcement — who are additionally hampered by jurisdictional limitations — and the issue becomes exponentially more complicated.
Effective prevention depends on synchronization of actions across many different entities. Cybersecurity experts must collaborate with fleet dispatch operations and broker’s carrier audit teams. Law enforcement must receive timely, accurate intelligence from private sector partners. Insurers and regulators must create incentives for proactive risk management and information sharing.
Transportation executives must understand that cargo theft is no longer just a security or financial liability issue, it is a business continuity and reputational risk issue as well.
A single fraudulent pickup can result in six or even seven-figure losses, potentially unrecoverable through insurance.
A successful telematics platform compromise could give thieves access to an entire fleet’s location data.
A compromise of credentials to transportation management system (TMS) or load board accounts can expose critical details about high-value shipments and customer details which can lead to impersonation and facilitate fraudulent pickups.
Broker or carrier impersonation schemes can destroy relationships built over decades with trusted carriers or customers.
To effectively address cargo crimes in the modern era, executives must champion a holistic approach to security within their organizations. This means funding a comprehensive combination of cyber, operational, and physical security initiatives to ensure successful mitigation of the risks associated with cyber-enabled cargo crime.
Establishing relationships across the prevention ecosystem is critical. Cybersecurity is a team sport—join intelligence-sharing networks, industry associations, and joint task forces or working groups. Communicating openly will break down traditional silos between internal departments leading to more reliable identification of risks in real-time across the organization.
Accountability is key to a successful security strategy—make risk ownership clear across all business units, not just IT or dispatch operations. Cyber-enabled cargo crime is a complex and fast-moving issue, but with decisive leadership, coordinated holistic defenses, and industry-wide collaboration, we can stay ahead of this growing challenge.
To this end, the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc. (NMFTA) is working with both law enforcement and industry peers to research and develop cyber-enabled cargo crime mitigation strategies that will be released in June to support carriers, brokers, shippers and all other parties throughout the logistics supply chain.
Take decisive action now to ensure you protect your fleet/organization/company from these evolving threats.
Access free resources and learn more about the trucking industry’s only cybersecurity conference, NMFTA Cybersecurity Conference, by visiting www.nmfta.org/cybersecurity.
CCJ Staff
The J2497 is the Power Line Carrier Communications for Commercial Vehicles and successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow a nearby attacker to activate or disable a trailers brakes. There are so many sensors and computing power on a truck, you’d think the tractor would be the focus of a cyberattack, but the trailer is more likely to be the initial actual target.
Click on the link below to see video.
https://youtu.be/4gI97x5zze0
You can reduce the chances of an accident by training, monitoring, and reforming driver behavior using dash cam technology.
Mark Schedler
Identification and Correction
The best defense against an accident is not having one. But with the number of miles traveled and the realities of highway travel, you cannot avoid all accidents. However, you can reduce the chances of an accident by training, monitoring, and reforming driver behavior using dash cam technology. A dash cam system accelerates the identification and correction of unsafe behaviors and sustains the change with ongoing coaching and recognition.
Carriers that correctly use a dash cam system as part of a continual driver training process have achieved best-in-class risk mitigation. A 2019 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of carriers who used video event-based coaching and training along with other safety strategies revealed the following results:
- Seven carriers reported that their DOT crash rate decreased an average of 49%.
- Three carriers shared that their Unsafe Driving BASIC showed an average 37% improvement.
- Five carriers reported an average 42% improvement in their Crash Indicator BASIC.
Fleets shared in separate study1 how they are leveraging dash cams and the results they are seeing:
- Nearly 53% said they are now analyzing hard braking events to discover driver behavior trends.
- Over 47% are using the data to improve driving training programs.
- Over 22% said their CSA scores have improved since installation.
The Best Legal Defense is Prevention
In their 2020 study, Understanding the Impact of Verdicts on the Trucking Industry, The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) in Arlington, VA, found that verdict awards over $1 million had skyrocketed.
Additional research by ATRI presented in The Impact of Small Verdicts and Settlements on the Trucking Industry showed that more than 600 cases resulted in a settlement or verdict award of less than $1 million.
Why such significant awards? Because a carrier’s actions are judged in court by what they should have known and done, not what they took the time to find and correct. A carrier must correct any unsafe situation that could affect the motoring public, which is made easier by monitoring driver behavior using video.
The study noted a correlation between cases in which carriers were accused of poor hiring or training practices and cases with drivers who had previous driving or hours-of-service violations.
The ATRI Crash Predictor Model study correlated traffic violation or conviction to the increased likelihood of a crash with examples such as:
Failure to Yield Right of Way violation . . . . . . . . . . . . 141%
Failure to Use/Improper Turn Signal conviction . . . . 116%
Reckless Driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104%
Failure to Obey Traffic Sign conviction . . . . . . . . . . . . .85%
Failure to Keep Proper Lane conviction . . . . . . . . . . . . 78%
Reckless/Careless/Inattentive Driving conviction . . . 62%
When it comes to driver training, you should actively prioritize the prevention of the most costly infractions that ATRI shares and that your dash cam videos and data reveal.
Doug Marcello
WHY IT MATTERS: Risk reduction and denuclearization is not solely the responsibility of safety and risk departments. Every department can, and must, act within their powers to reduce exposure to liabilities. This is even more important in an era of deductibles/retention and captives. The all-out effort in every department protects the public, preserves company profits, and deflates an existential threat.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM: There is a misperception that risk is limited to being a safety and risk department problem. Impose procedures. Minimize claims.
Moreover, safety and risk are misconceived as company burdens. They restrict profits. They erode the bottom line. Burdens.
While safety and risk lead risk reduction, it is company-wide effort. Every department can contribute. Do what they can to minimize exposure.
Unfortunately, these other departments are encouraged to the contrary. Sales to get loads. Recruiting to fill seats. Operations to route. Maintenance to keep wheels turning.
All these functions have elements of risk. Yet few companies encourage, let along focus, on reducing these risk bearing elements. In today’s environments, it is a “must” to do so.
WHAT CAN BE DONE: Safety and risk is not just external, addressing interaction with the motoring public and billboard lawyers. It is also an internal endeavor evangelized to all departments.
1. SALES-Risk-based pricing. Load pricing is market drive. But that pricing cannot ignore risk. The risk inherent in a load that goes to a litigious or accident fraught location.
I have clients that lament the costs of cases in “hellhole” jurisdictions. Yet, they priced the load to that location priced for less risky locations.
Sales must fulfill that role. Loads must be priced for the potential exposure. Or declined if the price does not factor the risk.
I know-easy for me to say as an attorney. But I’ve seen the alternative and the losses suffered by the failure to include risk or exposure in the pricing calculation.
2. RECRUITING-Exposure starts with drivers. Their actions, and their pasts, are potential detonators.
“Filling the seat” indiscriminately feeds the frenzy of the billboard attorneys. As I’ve said before, for them its not about the accident—it’s about the company. Systemic failures.
Questionable (dubious) hiring lobs them a soft one. The billboard attorneys can attack the company for hiring an unqualified driver to operate an 80,000 truck among the motoring public.
The defense starts with hiring. Qualified drivers. Defensible backgrounds. Training to address deficiencies.
Again, easy for me to say. But I’ve seen the alternative…and what it costs.
3. OPERATIONS: How can operations reduce risks? They just direct traffic.
Answer: a lot.
First, driver management is vital—HOS, fatigue, weather,… All of these are potential detonators.
Second, routing is risk related. Telematic companies provide insight into the most dangerous road, days of the week, times of day. These are invaluable insights that can minimize risk if employed in routing.
And one of the largest recent verdicts included an argument that weather should have been considered in routing.
Third, detention time. ATRI’s recent study found increased risk when there is excessive detention time. Not just rushing to make up time, but even enroute to get the load.
4. MAINTENANCE: Functioning vehicles reduce risk. Not just by avoiding failure caused accidents, but by minimizing driver distraction and rushing due to lost time.
Plus post-accident inspections that reveal per-accident defects are fodder for the argument of billboard attorneys that there is a systemic failure that requires a big verdict. “The company couldn’t even keep their vehicles compliant. How do you think the rest of the company operates.”
THE BIG THING: Multi-departmental safety and risk requires one overarching commitment-a safety culture. It starts at the top. With the folks who are responsible for, judged by, and profit from the bottom line.
In my current presentation, “Safety Profit”, I preach the message of this full court press by the entire company and all departments to protect profit…and the company itself. Management must buy in and make clear their commitment to the message. When that happens, safety and risk are no longer a burden. They are a profit. Keeping money on the bottom line by stemming the hemorrhage.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Safety and risk will determine your bottom line. But all departments can and must contribute. Make sure this message reaches all and is effectively enforced.
Increased insurance premiums have driven trucking companies to increase deductibles and amounts of retention.
Couple that with low margins. That makes safety and risk impactful on profits.
ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking for 2024 found that the total cost of risk, premium plus “out of pocket” is $0.135/mile; $5.43/hour. The impact is demonstrated by being seen from the perspective of the average profit margins.
Average non-LTL revenue? $3.707/mile. And operating margin? $0.111/mile and $4.471/hour. Less than the total cost of risk.
Want to increase profit? Increase safety and decrease risk.
