The US commercial transport sector is undergoing a fundamental reset. For years, safety has been viewed primarily as a compliance function, measured by looking in the rear-view mirror at lagging indicators such as crashes, audits and violations. Increasingly, regulators, industry associations and fleet operators are recognising that safety cannot remain a standalone compliance activity. It needs to be embedded into everyday decisions, operations and culture.

That change is already being reflected in policy and investment. The Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) recent FMCSA Modernization & Reform White Paper advocates for a more resourced, data-driven approach to commercial vehicle safety. While the paper focuses on broader agency reform, the message for fleets is clear: identifying risk earlier and investing in proven safety technologies will be central to improving outcomes.

Another area of importance to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the 2026 Unified Regulatory Agenda. Through this work, the DOT has emphasised the importance of future technologies as it continues to advance its “Safe Integration of Automated Driving Systems-Equipped Commercial Motor Vehicles” rule making (RIN 2126-AC17). This proposal would update the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations governing Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs) operations, inspection, repair, and maintenance to accommodate automated driving systems (ADS)-equipped trucks while distinguishing between human operators and automated systems. The new recommendations are designed to prioritise safety while promoting innovation and creating a consistent regulatory approach for ADS-equipped CMVs. Driver monitoring systems such as Guardian will no doubt be a critical component of future efforts to transition the trucking fleet to more automated capabilities.

The operational reality for fleets

Inside the cab and across the back office, the definition of safety is evolving. Commentary from the Commercial Carrier Journal highlights a broader industry shift, with safety increasingly recognised not as the responsibility of a single department, but as an organisational value embedded across operations, leadership and decision-making.

For fleets, this means looking beyond individual events and considering how everyday choices shape risk. Dispatch decisions, commercial pressures and workplace culture all influence safety outcomes. Creating meaningful change requires shared accountability, supported by the right processes, data and technology.

This aligns with the direction outlined in the TCA white paper and wider industry discussions, which highlight the need to move beyond historical, event-based assessments of safety performance towards more continuous, data-informed risk management. To make that transition, fleets need visibility into the behaviours and conditions that precede incidents, using leading indicators to identify and address risk before it escalates.

Precision technology as the catalyst

As fleets look to incorporate more meaningful leading indicators into their safety programs, advanced driver monitoring systems (DMS) are becoming an increasingly important part of operational infrastructure. However, the capability and accuracy of these systems can vary significantly.

Traditional safety technologies have often relied on discrete events, such as a single distraction trigger, or basic head-position tracking. But driver behaviour is complex, and distraction in particular is rarely a single moment in time. It is a pattern of behaviours that can gradually reduce a driver’s awareness of their surroundings. This challenge led Seeing Machines to develop attention-sharing detection for Guardian Generation 3.

Using automotive-grade AI, Guardian continuously tracks a driver’s eye gaze to understand how visual attention is being allocated. Rather than focusing only on prolonged periods looking away from the road, the system measures cumulative eyes-off-road time and identifies repeated short glances that can increase risk. By recognising these patterns, Guardian provides drivers and fleet managers with real-time insight into emerging distraction risks.

The goal is not to replace human judgement, but to enhance it. By providing objective, continuous insights into driver behaviour, fleet managers can move from reactive reviews after an event to proactive coaching conversations that help prevent risk from escalating.

Looking ahead

The convergence of federal investment, industry-led reform and next-generation technology signals a broader transformation in commercial transport safety. The fleets best positioned for this next era will be those that move beyond a reactive approach and integrate safety into their policies, culture and daily operations.

Continuous risk management will require more than compliance alone. It will depend on the ability to combine the right processes, data and technology to identify risk earlier and support better decisions. For modern fleets, the opportunity is not simply to meet evolving safety expectations, but to help shape what effective safety performance looks like in the future.