The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) newest Atlantic hurricane outlook is calling for a below-normal 2026 season. It’s welcome information, on its face, for any fleet that has spent years threading dispatch schedules round tropical storm warnings and coastal evacuations.
In keeping with Lytx®’s 2026 Highway Security Report, drawn from greater than 341 billion miles of driving information throughout 6.3 million business drivers, a quieter storm season doesn’t imply a quieter 12 months on the highway. In truth, collisions within the development business rose 28% in 2025, the steepest enhance of any sector Lytx tracks.
“A light hurricane forecast is genuinely excellent news, however it’s the type of headline that may create a false sense of safety,” mentioned Brendon Hill, Lytx’s Senior Vice President of Product. “Fleets shouldn’t learn a quiet storm season as a quiet 12 months. There are different dangers on this information which can be simply as crucial.”
Why climate isn’t the total story
If climate isn’t driving 2026’s danger image by itself, Hill mentioned the larger challenge is how most fleet security packages are constructed within the first place.
“Plenty of security packages are nonetheless constructed on fastened thresholds like a velocity restrict or a following-distance rule that don’t account for the truth that the identical habits carries totally different danger relying on situations,” Hill mentioned. “Threat is at all times evolving. If it’s not climate, it’s distracted habits, or a piece zone that adjustments block by block. You want instruments that adapt to the state of affairs, not a rulebook that stays fastened it doesn’t matter what’s occurring on the highway.”
That’s the considering behind Lytx’s dynamic danger platform, which layers real-time climate information, roadwork-zone detection and speed-for-conditions alerts on prime of driver-behavior scoring, fairly than treating each mile the identical no matter what’s occurring across the car. Lytx’s information exhibits fog alone makes a extreme crash almost thrice extra probably than regular situations, and federal crash information attributes roughly 23% of large-truck crashes to touring too quick for situations, not essentially over a posted restrict.
A steep, sector-specific spike
Building posted the smallest enchancment in near-collisions of any business Lytx tracks, that means fleets in that area aren’t catching the identical defensive-driving positive factors exhibiting up elsewhere. Hill pointed first to what’s occurring contained in the cab.
“We’re seeing in-cab inattentiveness up sharply 12 months over 12 months, pushed by cellphone use, basic distraction, and drivers merely not retaining their eyes on the highway,” Hill mentioned. “That’s an actual alternative to speak to drivers about teaching. To be clear, this isn’t about blaming particular person drivers. It’s about giving fleets the visibility to proactively coach earlier than an incident happens.”
The report exhibits that inattentiveness climbed 168% as a contributing think about collisions and near-misses 12 months over 12 months, spanning handheld machine use, distraction, and eyes off the highway. Fleets look like responding, although. Gadget-use teaching classes have been up 40% in 2025 alone, and following distance, already the only most-coached habits industrywide, held its place on the prime.
Why the development sector particularly? The offender isn’t instantly clear from the info, however operational pressure is a probable issue.
That strain comes at the very least partly from the info middle buildout. The timing and the mechanism line up. The development business was brief 439,000 employees as of final November, due partly to the expansion of information facilities, which now quantity greater than 400 underneath lively improvement nationwide. These roles are likely to pay roughly 30% above typical development wages, pulling expert tradespeople like electricians and pipe layers away from different job websites and stretching the crews left behind.
Getting higher on the worst outcomes, worse on the small ones
One of many extra counterintuitive findings on this 12 months’s report is that near-collisions fell 23% throughout each sector Lytx tracks, at the same time as collisions ticked up. Hill mentioned that cut up is because of two totally different traits shifting directly.
“Fleets are actively coaching on defensive driving, and it’s working,” Hill mentioned. “Close to-collisions are leveling out, and probably the most extreme crashes have truly declined as a result of drivers are taking actual precautions, easing off the pedal, overlaying the brake.”
Lytx has leaned into that momentum on the popularity aspect, too. Its Security Recognition instruments let fleet managers observe the share of drivers with zero coachable occasions every quarter and challenge customizable certificates to reward them, reinforcing the identical defensive habits behind the drop in near-collisions.
Surprisingly, lower-severity collisions rose 16% whereas the higher-severity ones dropped. “That’s not the ‘crashes are getting worse’ story individuals anticipate. It means security packages are getting higher at stopping the worst outcomes, at the same time as smaller incidents nonetheless slip by.”
What fleets ought to truly do that quarter
Requested what a development fleet supervisor ought to change within the subsequent quarter, Hill didn’t level to a brand new coverage or a stricter rule.
“Construct in an actual situations examine, not only a static rule that will get utilized the identical means each time,” Hill mentioned. “Building zones are precisely the type of setting the place danger adjustments block by block, and a program that responds to that in actual time will catch issues a fixed-rule program merely can’t.”
And if a fleet solely has the bandwidth to repair one habits this 12 months, Hill is constant on distracted driving.
“Distraction is the only largest shift on this 12 months’s information, so it’s the highest-leverage place to begin,” Hill mentioned. “But it surely’s value pairing that repair with a conditions-aware lens. The identical distracted-driving occasion is way extra harmful in fog or a piece zone than in clear climate on an open freeway. Fixing the habits and accounting for the place and when it’s riskiest must go hand in hand.”
The larger false impression, in response to Hill, is treating security as one thing that will get set as soon as and left alone.
“As soon as a program is ‘set,’ it’s simple to cease asking whether or not the underlying rule nonetheless is smart for the situations it’s truly being utilized to,” Hill mentioned. “That’s what provides fleets false confidence, and it’s precisely the type of considering a quiet hurricane forecast can reinforce in the event you let it.”
NOAA could also be predicting a calmer storm season, however Lytx’s information means that fleets nonetheless have to be ready for different challenges by data-driven determination making.
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