Safe Driver Week 2026: 1,956 Truck Tickets and Your Insurance

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) released its 2026 Operation Safe Driver Week results, and CCJ reported them on Oct. 6, 2026. The enforcement week ran July 12-18 with agencies from 36 U.S. states, seven Canadian provinces and Mexico. Officers interacted with 8,083 drivers and issued 3,968 warnings and 2,604 tickets or citations. Source: CVSA, https://cvsa.org/news/2026-osd-week-results

Truck drivers took most of the heat. Commercial motor vehicle drivers received 3,409 warnings and 1,956 tickets or citations, compared with 559 warnings and 648 citations for passenger vehicle drivers.

This year's focus was reckless, careless and dangerous driving (83 warnings and 33 citations in total), but speeding was again the most-cited behavior. For CMV drivers alone, CVSA counted 772 warnings and 342 citations for speeding, 652 warnings and 319 citations for failure to obey a traffic control device, 267 warnings and 270 citations for not wearing a seat belt, and 106 warnings and 136 citations for texting or using a handheld phone. Twelve warnings and 22 citations went to CMV drivers for possession, use or impairment by drugs or alcohol.

One fair point in CVSA's favor: more than 2,880 stops, over a third of the week's contacts, ended with a conversation instead of a warning or a ticket. A warning is the officer saying 'I'll let you off this time.' The motor vehicle record does not have that kind of sense of humor.

Enforcement weeks feel like a roadside problem. For insurance, the bill usually comes months later. A citation that turns into a conviction lands on the driver's motor vehicle record (MVR), and underwriters pull MVRs when you buy a new policy, add a driver, and at renewal. If your policy renews this fall or winter, tickets written in July are right on time to be read.

The violations CVSA counted most are the ones underwriters care about most: speeding, ignoring traffic control devices, and handheld phone use. A driver with one minor ticket is usually a conversation. A driver with several moving violations, or a serious one, can be surcharged, limited, or excluded depending on the market, and on a small fleet one problem driver can change how the whole account is priced.

Some of these are also CDL problems. Under FMCSA's rules (49 CFR 383.51), speeding 15 mph or more over the limit, reckless driving, texting while driving a CMV, and using a handheld phone while driving a CMV are serious traffic violations. A second conviction within three years means a 60-day disqualification; a third means 120 days. A disqualified driver cannot drive your truck, and a driver you list who is not legally qualified is a headache you do not want to discover after a claim. Rule text: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-383/subpart-D/section-383.51

Roadside inspection violations also feed FMCSA's Safety Measurement System, and the Unsafe Driving category is one that brokers, shippers and underwriters check. Your coverage is priced on more than your loss runs. It is priced on how your drivers look on paper.

1. Ask every driver, in writing, about tickets since July. Federal rules (49 CFR 383.31) already require CDL drivers to tell their employer about traffic convictions within 30 days, but plenty of tickets are still unpaid or waiting on a court date. You want to hear about it from your driver, not from the underwriter. Then pull fresh MVRs for anyone you are not sure about.

2. Check your roadside inspection data before renewal. Look at the Unsafe Driving and HOS categories in FMCSA's system, and if a violation is wrong or belongs to another carrier, challenge it through DataQs now; requests take time. Background: https://supremetruckinginsurance.com/blog/fmcsa-tightens-state-dataq-rules-what-truckers-do

3. Send your agent a clean driver list 60 days before renewal. Names, license numbers, dates of hire, and any known violations, with a short note on what you did about them (coaching, a phone policy, speed limiter settings). An honest file with a fix attached reads better to a market than a surprise. Fleets can start here: https://supremetruckinginsurance.com/fleet

Q: Does a warning from Operation Safe Driver Week go on my MVR?

A: A warning is generally not a conviction, so it usually does not show up on an MVR the way a ticket does. But if the stop included a roadside inspection, violations written on that inspection report can still show up in FMCSA's inspection data. Ask for a copy of any inspection report and keep it.

Q: One of my drivers got a speeding ticket. Will my premium go up?

A: It depends on the violation, the driver's full record, your carrier and your fleet size. Nobody can promise you a number before underwriting reviews it. What you can control is telling your agent early and showing what you did about it.

Q: I'm an owner-operator. Does this matter if I'm leased on?

A: Yes. The motor carrier you are leased to may review your MVR, and so does any market quoting your own physical damage or non-trucking liability. If you run under your own authority, your MVR is a big part of your rate. More here: https://supremetruckinginsurance.com/owner-operator

Supreme Trucking Insurance works with fleets, owner-operators and new authorities on auto liability, physical damage, cargo and the filings that go with them. If tickets from this summer are sitting in your driver file, call us before your renewal date and we will help you put the submission together the right way.

Call (360) 936-7196 or start a quote at https://supremetruckinginsurance.com/quote. Requesting a quote does not bind coverage. This article is general information, not legal advice.