The service call may be routine. The neighborhood around it won’t be. On Halloween evening, work truck drivers can find themselves navigating children crossing between parked cars, crowded curbs, and familiar stops that need a different approach.

In an analysis shared with Work Truck, Empiric Earth examined Halloween driving patterns from 2020 through 2025. Additional truck-specific findings provided by Rui Carneiro, the company’s business intelligence lead, suggest work trucks and commercial vehicles aren’t taking the same early-evening break as other traffic.

For fleet managers, that makes the timing of a stop, and how a driver gets in and out of it, worth another look. The findings also offer a reminder that relatively steady braking data doesn’t tell the whole pedestrian safety story.

Trucks Keep Working During Trick-or-Treating

Empiric Earth examined work trucks and commercial vehicles separately from passenger cars across six Halloweens, from 2020 through 2025. Each Halloween was compared hour by hour with the same weekday earlier that month.

“The clearest finding is timing. Every year, other drivers cut back between 6 and 8 p.m. Trucks didn’t,” said Carneiro, business intelligence lead at Empiric Earth. “Their miles in that window held level with the rest of the evening, so during trick-or-treating, trucks make up a bigger share of traffic than on a normal night.”

That doesn’t establish whether trucks were safer or riskier. The truck group recorded just 11 to 32 hard-braking events per night, too few to draw that conclusion. Changes in the vehicles included and detection methods also mean the findings should be compared within each year, rather than treated as a six-year trend. And 2020 brought pandemic conditions and less trick-or-treating.

Separately, a MoneyGeek analysis of federal crash records found 45 children were killed while walking on Halloween from 2010 through 2024, more than on any other calendar date. Twenty-four of those deaths occurred between 6 and 9 p.m. Those figures describe child pedestrian deaths overall, rather than crashes specifically involving work trucks.

Give Neighborhood Stops Another Look

In Empiric Earth’s broader driving analysis, miles driven at 6 and 7 p.m. on Halloween in 2025 were 9% to 10% below an ordinary Friday, according to Carneiro. Residential streets accounted for 18.7% of hard-braking events, compared with 16.1% on ordinary evenings. These were findings from the broader analysis, rather than truck-only results.

Less highway driving accounts for part of that shift, he explained. Short local trips and pedestrians moving unpredictably also help explain the neighborhood activity.

“For delivery, utility and service fleets, a neighborhood stop on Halloween evening isn’t an ordinary stop,” Carneiro said. “Expect children in dark costumes and cars parked on both sides of the street. If a stop can move out of the 6 to 8 p.m. window, move it. If it can’t, decide where the driver will park before they arrive.”

That puts a practical task on the dispatch checklist. Review which stops can move, which must stay, and where drivers can park with a clear path to pull forward when leaving.

What Braking Data Can Miss

A relatively steady hard-braking rate can sound reassuring. But sudden stops and pedestrian safety measure different things, and a truck’s most concerning moments may never appear as a braking event.

“A driver who never sees a pedestrian doesn’t brake,” Carneiro said. “Slow maneuvers like pulling away from the curb, turning or backing up don’t register either, and that’s exactly when a truck’s blind spots matter.”

For fleets reviewing driving data, that distinction matters. A dashboard can help identify patterns, but it won’t capture every encounter around a vehicle.

“A flat braking rate means traffic wasn’t more erratic. It doesn’t mean pedestrians were safe,” he added.

Plan for the Later Shift, Too

Halloween falls on Saturday in 2026. Carneiro cautioned that Empiric Earth’s only Saturday Halloween in the sample was 2020, making predictions about this year especially limited.

Still, later activity deserves attention. In Empiric Earth’s broader driving analysis, driving at 1 a.m. exceeded the normal comparison level in every year studied. In the two most recent Halloweens, a Thursday and a Friday, the only measurable increase in driving came after midnight.

Daylight saving time also ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, in areas that observe it. Fleets with overnight operations should account for the repeated hour when reviewing schedules.

Carneiro also recommended briefing drivers about children emerging between parked cars, choosing stops that allow a forward exit, and using a spotter or conducting a walk-around before backing. Those are operating recommendations, he emphasized, rather than practices evaluated by this study.

Before drivers head out, give them more than a general reminder to be careful. Identify the neighborhood stops, talk through parking and visibility, and make sure the schedule leaves room to handle them safely. The work may stay the same, but Halloween changes what’s happening around the truck.