.png)
The commercial auto industry has spent years trying to price its way to profitability. After 14 uninterrupted years of insurer underwriting losses that have contributed to higher premiums, the gap between knowing and doing is getting harder to ignore.
It’s a central theme of SambaSafety’s 2026 Driver Risk Report, an annual analysis drawing on nearly 50 million motor vehicle records (MVRs), 28 million telematics events, 13 years of claims analysis, and industry safety research.
Together, the data paints a picture of an industry rich in tools and evidence, but still falling short on execution. That shortfall has a price tag. Claims severity has climbed 64% since 2015, and thermonuclear verdicts, jury awards exceeding $100 million, rose 81% in the period studied, according to research cited in the report.
Those costs don’t stay inside the industry. For fleet operators, years of double-digit premium increases have followed, and the behaviors driving them show no signs of letting up.
The Behaviors Behind the Losses
The report puts the behavioral picture in sharp focus. The trends are persistent, and in some cases, accelerating. Drawing on SambaSafety’s violation and telematics analyses, NHTSA data, and third-party safety research, the report identifies several behaviors:
- Speeding accounts for 36.5% of all major motor vehicle violations and contributes to 29% of all traffic fatalities nationwide
- Distracted driving violations increased 31% over a two-year period
- Inattentiveness behind the wheel climbed 168% from 2024 to 2025
- Driver fatigue is involved in up to 9.5% of crashes, nearly 8x higher than federal estimates based on police reports alone
The trends aren’t surprises. Speeding and distraction have been in the commercial auto risk news for years. What’s changed is the cost of getting them wrong. Higher verdicts, longer litigation cycles, and a liability environment that turns a preventable crash into a multimillion-dollar exposure. Whether the industry is keeping pace with that reality is another matter entirely.
The Proven Playbook the Industry Keeps Leaving on the Table
For all the pressure the industry is under, the answers aren’t hard to find: the solutions exist, and they work. SambaSafety’s 13-year claims analysis found that combining continuous driver monitoring with targeted training produced a 22% reduction in claims frequency, a 24% drop in claims costs, and a 50% reduction in bodily injury claims—the category most likely to trigger catastrophic verdicts. In another study, that translated to roughly $2.5 million in projected costs avoided for a portfolio of companies.
And yet, according to SambaSafety’s 2025 Telematics Report, 66% of fleets still struggle to act on the data they already have, and 70% don’t share it with their insurer or broker. The report makes it clear that the gap isn’t about having the right tools; it’s about using them.
“Three years into this research series, we’ve seen meaningful progress in technology and the connection of safety and risk stakeholders,” said SambaSafety CEO Matt Scheuing. “The dialogue is deeper, the technology stack is more capable, and compliance is being integrated more deeply into safety programs.”
That progress, however, is happening against a backdrop that keeps raising the stakes.
The Data Makes a Case for What’s Still Possible
Fleets that treat safety as a business strategy rather than a compliance obligation are already seeing measurable outcomes. Insurers actively moving from reactive pricing to proactive risk management improve their ability to sustain profitability. This progress isn’t theoretical; it’s happening even as outside investors poured $16.1 billion into personal injury lawsuits in 2024, a practice known as third-party litigation financing, effectively turning litigation into a financial product.
The SambaSafety 2026 Driver Risk Report doesn’t describe an industry without answers. It describes one that hasn’t yet closed the gap between knowing what works and doing it consistently. The report makes the case that the rest of the industry has everything it needs to follow.
