Fleet Safety Starts in the C-Suite

“Fleet managers are operating successful 1 of the astir analyzable environments successful caller memory,” said Josh Lovan, Industry Business Advisor astatine J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. “Regulation changes, operator shortages, rising instrumentality costs, and accelerating exertion adoption are becoming progressively challenging to woody with.”

The information from the company’s sixth yearly State of Fleet Management survey backs him up. The 2026 edition, conducted by the J. J. Keller Center for Market Insights, surveyed 550 manufacture professionals crossed backstage and for-hire fleets. Leadership engagement is the thread that separates fleets that are adapting from those that are falling behind.

The Job Isn’t Getting Easier

Two-thirds of respondents described their occupation arsenic precise oregon moderately challenging successful 2026. The apical symptom points cited successful open-ended responses were acquainted ones: staying compliant with ever-changing regulations, recruiting and retaining qualified drivers, managing mountains of paperwork, and keeping up with attraction demands.

What stands retired is wherever fleet managers accidental the friction truly lives. Many respondents pointed to trouble getting buy-in from drivers, from peers, and critically, from the enactment teams whose enactment they request to really execute connected information and compliance goals. Data shows that erstwhile executives actively champion information and compliance alternatively than simply backing programs from a distance, the full cognition benefits.

Safety Culture Is Built From the Top Down

The study’s Overall Safety class makes a compelling lawsuit that civilization is demonstrated successful the values of enactment and cannot beryllium delegated. Respondents chose up to 3 answers, and the top-ranked precedence successful that class (selected by 49% of respondents) was employees knowing they are valued and that information matters due to the fact that they matter. Right down that astatine 46% is information being prioritized supra each other crossed the organization, employees consistently making harmless choices astatine 44%, and enactment consistently showing that information is important astatine 40%.

Leadership visibility astir information has appeared connected the study’s “most important” database successful each six years the survey has been conducted. It is, by that measure, 1 of the astir durable priorities successful the full dataset. Still, the year-over-year inclination lines archer a much analyzable story. The value respondents spot connected employees knowing they are valued has climbed for 3 consecutive years, portion enactment consistently showing that information is important has really declined implicit the past two. Fleet managers privation much disposable enforcement committedness astatine a clip erstwhile that committedness appears to beryllium fading.