A Multivariate Time‐Series Examination of Motor Carrier Safety Behaviors
基于社会学代理理论和资源依赖理论，利用美国联邦机动车承运商安全管理局的四年面板数据，分析了机动车承运商在危险驾驶、工时合规和车辆维护三类安全行为上的长期表现，验证了理论假设，对承运商管理者和政策制定者有参考价值。
Motor carriers’ operational safety affects multiple stakeholders including truck drivers, motor carriers, insurance companies, shippers, and the general public. In this article, I devise and test theory regarding motor carriers’ longitudinal performance for three classes of safety behaviors linked to carriers’ accident rates—Unsafe Driving, Hours‐of‐Service Compliance, and Vehicle Maintenance—tracked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability ( CSA ) program. Specifically, I draw on core concepts from sociological agency theory and resource dependency theory to devise middle‐range theory that generates never‐before‐tested hypotheses regarding carriers’ longitudinal safety performance for these classes of safety behaviors after the start of the CSA program. The hypothesized predictions are tested by fitting a series of multivariate latent curve models to four years of panel data for a random sample of 484 large, for‐hire motor carriers operating in the United States. The empirical findings corroborate the theoretical predictions and remain after robustness testing. These findings have important implications for scholars, motor carrier managers, procurers of motor carrier transportation services, and public policy makers.