Five trucking companies on Wednesday, Sept. 29, announced their support for legislation introduced by U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that would require trucking companies engaged in interstate commerce to install electronic onboard recorders in all trucks in order to verify the duty status of their truck drivers.
The five companies – J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Knight Transportation, Maverick USA, Schneider National and U.S. Xpress Enterprises – are forming an industry coalition, The Alliance for Driver Safety & Security, to urge Congress to pass the legislation and also to advance other measures that can improve highway safety within the trucking industry and benefit the motoring public. Executives for the companies have asked all transportation firms that embrace the legislation to join the coalition and support the effort.
The Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act would require commercial motor vehicles used in interstate commerce to install the electronic devices within three years after passage. The legislation will require companies to install an electronic device that is engaged to the truck engine that will identify the driver operating the truck, record a driver’s duty status and monitor the location and movement of the vehicle. The legislation calls for utilizing existing technology and devices that are currently in the marketplace.
Passing the bill “will improve safety on our nation’s highways by applying technology to document driver compliance,” says Craig Harper, chief operating officer of Lowell, Ark.-based J.B. Hunt. Kevin Knight, chairman and chief executive officer of Phoenix-based Knight, says the legislation “is a sensible initiative to improve working conditions for commercial drivers and to promote highway safety. … Under a uniform standard, the public will be able to rely on the hours in service of all drivers rather than just some drivers.”
Mandating EOBR use “commits the entire supply chain to meeting the challenges that faces this generation in surface transportation,” says Steve Williams, chairman and CEO of Little Rock, Ark.-based Maverick. Williams, former chairman of the American Trucking Associations, says that installing these devices will help assure the public that people who drive commercial vehicles are “well trained, drug and alcohol free, and sufficiently rested.”
Donald Osterberg, senior vice president of safety for Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider National, says that while the current federal hours-of-service rules are “science-based, reasonable and effective,” the problem under the status quo is that there is a “lack of compliance with the rules. … Fatigue is underreported and thus underestimated as a causal factor in truck-involved crashes. Electronic logs take the noncompliance issues off the table.”
Patrick Quinn, co-chairman and president of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based U.S. Xpress, as well as a former ATA chairman – says the use of EOBRs “as outlined in the Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act will enhance accountability, compliance and safety.”
Bill Vickery, a spokesman for the coalition, says that the group will urge other U.S. senators to co-sponsor the Pryor/Alexander legislation and hope that Congress will pass the legislation in 2011.
Also of Interest »
Leadership through example and practical experience is a thing of the past in the trucking industry; it's been a thing of the past for at least half a century in legislature. The continued rhetoric by so call "trucking experts" is merely statistical regurgitation. None of the executives in the publicly owned trucking companies has any practical experience in the industry they're trying to manage, other than managerial experience. They all have the attitude of experience by association; a ridiculous assumption on everyone's part. "I've been around trucking for 25 years, I know what the drivers go through. I've talked with many of them and they have conveyed to me their experiences. I know their concerns."
I've flown around the world in mileage over 3 times, I still don't know what the pilot is experiencing! Arrogant Asses!
Why does government insist on "mandating" to carriers. Why not address the real problem. Sitting at docks for hours on end??!!
I guess it was bound to happen. When drivers stopped banding together it left only one group to move in and it was of course big carriers being led by unknowing , crooked, legislators and groups like MADD CRASH and other bored people that can not do our job.. This will be the beginning of the end of the independent owner operator and small carrier.
Why do these CEO's, Vice Presidents and other high paid officers of these carriers not see the real problem ?
85 to 88 % of the car truck accidents are caused by the car driver.
Why are we being punished? Why are we being charged as the bad guys? We are of course the biggest target and the drivers of cars have this me first attitude. Some truck drivers too.
On board recorders will not decrease accidents. It will not guarantee proper rest of the driver nor will it guarantee he or she is safe. Carrier CEO and other boogy men think because one logs sleeper berth or off duty all is good. Could this stupidity be brought on by something in the water at the golf course or board room?
It will by some margin create a job opening for less experienced drivers to fill as the pros will not be subjected to this much longer. On board recorders will not prevent tail gating, nor will it prevent improper passing or cutting in and out of traffic. Stupid unsafe drivers will still be on the road, just doing electronic logging. Hard working safe drivers will be punished right along with them.
I am willing to bet that there is not 10 CDL holders between all the executives of the 5 carriers touting this EOBR fiasco. If so no driving experience in the last 10 years.
This is what happens when drivers do not sick together and become one large powerful group. We are to blame for our own mess now.
Next will be a foreign driver in your company truck earning 1/3 of your wages and the company will make millions with the same truck, same customers , same routes by not having to pay state or federal taxes, insurance, SSI or bonus's to them.
It's coming. Be ready.
I see this as a big push by the major carriers to cut the little guy out of the transportation industry. It just goes to show that the American Dream is being pushed farther and farther out reach by corporate greed.
Who will pay the cost to install and maintain these?
I agree with Jason. Electronic devices can only do so much,if a driver has been on a hunting trip for three days without proper sleep then jumps in a truck for a large company the auto logger will do nothing to keep him awake or safer.This is a typical "lets corner the the market" with legislation idea.We support safer roads, and with todays trucks they are safer.The large trucking companies and smaller companies will loose a huge amount of drivers to this law.Lets use common sense which isn't common anymore!
Voluntary compliance would be a better alternative to requiring a large monetary investment that would cripple the small carrier
i have been waiting for the large trucking companies to see a law that will allow them to get more of the market share. this new law would just increase the number of trucks on the road. in our countries economic situation this will make the prices on everything from shoes to food go thru the roof. companies the size of mine would have to increase rates and loose customers or go out of business.
Of course these large companies would support something like this, it will increase the barriers for entry and costs for smaller carriers and make it harder to compete against these behemoths.
I work for a small company who relies heavily on freight-in. This is going to hurt us in a big way. Of course, we're already paying more for our inventory because of the fuel increases so those costs have to get passed on to our customers.
Now, we'll have to increase our prices even more to accomodate for these devices. Pretty soon, small companies like the one I work for will price themselves out of business.
Even though every truck may have to get these devices, maybe we'll see a loss in these 5 carriers' profit margins ... they started this mess. I wonder if companies will urge their vendors to steer clear of these 5 freight companies!
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like