Recent legislation deregulating the airline and trucking industries has enhanced competition and reduced real transportation prices by putting pressure on firms to operate more efficiently. Yet, with the entry of many new small airlines and trucking firms facing the financial pressures of competition, many legislators fear that public safety will be reduced due to compromises in maintenance, equipment replacement, recruitment and training. This volume examines the theoretical and empirical issues involved in the debate on the relationship between safety and economic performance in the airline and trucking industries. Contributors discuss such factors as the role of government as provider of safety oversight personnel and airport and road space quality, and conclude that the government has not acted quickly enough to provide the additional safety resources to meet the changed needs of the two industries, though the evidence does not support the notion that deregulation has compromised safety.

This book examines causes and deterrents of transportation accidents by mode--automobiles, truck, air, recreational boating, commercial vessels and railroads--with the focus on accidents in the U.S. The examination enhances our understanding for developing effective multimodal public policies for improving transportation safety. The discussion reveals that the primary cause of accidents in one mode may not be the primary cause in another mode and equally that an effective deterrent for improving safety in one mode may not be an effective deterrent for another mode. The book will be of interest to policy makers and investigators of transportation safety. The book consists of nine chapters. Following the Introduction chapter, possible causes of highway accidents--driver, vehicle, and highway characteristics--are examined in Chapter 2 along with economic and environmental factors. Chapter 3 then discusses the effectiveness of various deterrent policies--motor vehicle inspection, the minimum legal drinking age, the speed limit, and seat belt laws--for auto accidents, as well as the effects of vehicle speed and speed variance on these accidents. This is followed by a discussion of causes and deterrents of truck accidents in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 considers air accidents, discussing the role of economic deregulation and type of air carrier. Chapter 6 addresses recreational boating accidents, with particular attention given to alcohol involvement in these accidents. Chapter 7 examines commercial vessel accidents with a discussion of safety standards and enforcement. Chapter 8 considers rail accidents, with particular attention given to the effects of deregulation. The final chapter summarizes lessons learned from the previous chapters for improving transportation safety across modes, i.e., for reducing transportation accidents, accident risk, and accident severity.

Effects of Deregulation on Safety provides a comprehensive overview of the safety experiences of these three case study industries and their implications for the U.S. nuclear power industry. The treatment of the subject is not highly technical, and hence is accessible to a wide range of readers with interests in the subject matter. The book draws on literature from roughly 250 references, ranging from brief news articles to book-length studies of deregulation in a particular industry, as well as original in-depth interviews with representatives of all three case study industries. This wealth of empirical background information allows the book to go beyond mere speculation about the possible adverse safety consequences of deregulation, to identify situations in which particular adverse safety consequences actually occurred. The experience of the case study industries indicates that economic deregulation need not be incompatible with a reasonable safety record, especially in those aspects of safety that are positively related to productivity. But that safety also cannot be taken for granted after deregulation. Careful management attention is needed in order to avoid the types of safety problems that were associated with deregulation in the case study industries.

This book examines the effects of government intervention on the operations of the freight transportation industry.

An economic analysis of the way in which the air transport industry operates and the nature of the policies that have been adopted to regulate the sector. The authors cover domestic and international air transportation with an emphasis on airlines.