My colleague Gary Buchs recently invoked the dynamic of a seemingly daily onslaught of a new proposed regulations or legislation to create regulations. The nature of Buchs’ story was this dynamic’s distracting nature for us, sometimes, when it comes to the needs of our own businesses. I would add that in our constant fights to repel unwarranted efforts put forward in the name of safety (speed limiters that would increase car-truck interactions, massive insurance increases that would do little more than put the smallest carriers out of business), too many are distracted from where a big trucking safety problem lies.
It’s in a different kind of distraction entirely: that of the motoring public we share the road with.
Comparatively, truckers are seldom the cause of accidents, as various studies have shown through the years.
We are tackling a battle over speed limiters, never mind the fact that common sense, and this or that study, shows that such a move would increase interactions between trucks and four-wheelers, which to my mind can only increase the risk of accidents.
Ambulance-chasing lawyers have weaseled a proposed bill into House of Representatives that would increase insurance coverage, with not regard to the damage it would cause to the industry and small business.
If manufacturers thought rates were stupid with the introduction of ELDs and the capacity that cut into, wait until hundreds of companies go out of business due to an increase in insurance rates and slowing down trucks to delay deliveries.
Still, there is some validity to pursuing an increase in true safety measures. Fatality rates involving big trucks (not considering fault or even preventability) have increased in recent times. I find it kind of coincidental that within the same time period, the incidence of distracted driving-related accidents have overtaken drunk driving accidents among members of the motoring public. Drunk-driving accidents appear more severe, killing more people, but the problem of distraction results in more accidents — the issue is plain to see. Every day I see car after car pass me with a driver on the phone, manipulating the device in hand and driving with their knees.
