Reading Between the Lines

PR maestro Mike O’Neill is still trucking– it’s Day Two– and good thing he’s doing so on his own time as he’s headed from the Northeast to the Southwest by way of Central Michigan…

Day Two: Playing the Father Card

Today is going to be an easy one. My son and I only need to drive about four-and-a-half hours to reach our next stop– Battle Creek, Mich., home of the world’s most famous tiger-– Tony.

Tomorrow begins two days of PR and R&R with the fine folks at Eaton. Then, my man David Kolman comes to town and he actually wants to do all of the driving to Las Vegas. He won’t be getting any arguments from me.

–Mike O’Neill

Mike O’Neill, one of the stalwarts of the public relations corps that so ably serves trucking as a conduit of information for suppliers, is relocating from Philly to Vegas and, yes, he’s doing it by truck.

When Mike told us of his journey by Penske rental truck, I was immediately jealous as driving across country (at my own pace, I should add!) has long been a dream of mine.

But I figured if I can’t join ‘em on the endless ribbon of highway, the next best thing would be to hear all about the trip and hence the idea of posting a blog within blog, so to speak, was hatched.

I don’t know what all Mike will have to say about trucking cross-country as a non-trucker, but rest assured he has a solid understanding of what makes trucking tick, a keen eye for the absurdities of life and, above all, enough Irish wit about him to make for at least some lively reading.

I shall attempt to present his reports with minimal editing; however if I feel the burning need to stick my two cents in, you will find said remarks in between square brackets.

And so now, with no further ado, I give you Mike O’Neill:

DAY ONE

I set out on this journey– Philly to Vegas – to try and save a few bucks… the Penske people came through, giving me a new International DuraStar truck with a 22-foot body. The discount was substantial. Thanks, Penske.

If nothing else, we are definitely saving money.

–Mike O’Neill

The other, er, brake shoe has at last dropped. More than two years after trucking first anticipated it being finalized, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has FINALLY issued it’s new final rule on truck-braking standards.

It’s all rather de facto and totally anti-climactic given that heavy-truck brake suppliers long ago figured out how they would most likley meet even the most stringent new stopping-distance regulation.

And to its credit, NHTSA has indeed opted for the most rigorous performance factor that it had proposed– requiring that “large truck” stopping distances by improved by 30%.

According to NHTSA, the new standard will require that a tractor-trailer traveling at 60 miles per hour come to a complete stop in 250 ft. That’s 30% better than the current standard of a complete stop within 355 ft.



Starting in 2012, Class 8 rigs will have to stop in 30% fewer feet.

Once in effect, the new braking rule will save 227 lives annually, NHTSA estimated. The agency said the requirement will also prevent 300 serious injuries and estimated it will cut property damage costs by over $169 million annually.

“Safety is our highest priority,” said Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. “Motorists deserve to know they are sharing the road with large trucks that are up to the safest possible standards, so they can get home alive to their families.”

The new rule won’t kick in until truck model year 2012 and will be phased in over four years. Given its potential to save lives, as declared by NHTSA itself, and the oft-stated readiness of truck brake suppliers to meet the rule when it was yet a proposal, it’s a shame this potent safety advance is not on even a slightly faster track to legal implementation.

Of course, that doesn’t mean truck OEMs working with their brake suppliers won’t roll out vehicles with better stopping performance ahead of 2012.

Keep your seat belts buckled because the economy is not yet about to pull onto smooth pavement.

Boiled down, that’s Fed Chief Ben Bernanke’s view of where the U.S. economy stands per the testimony he gave the House Committee on Financial Service today.

On the one hand, Bernanke had good news to share– stating the “pace of decline” has dropped noticeably.

On the other, he cautioned that the economy was not out of the woods yet given that “financial conditions remain stressed, and many households and businesses are finding credit difficult to obtain.”



Fed Chief Ben Bernanke qualifies progress economy has made… so far.

While Bernanke said “aggressive policy actions taken around the world last fall may well have averted the collapse of the global financial system… the financial shocks that hit the global economy in September and October were the worst since the 1930s, and they helped push the global economy into the deepest recession since World War II.

“The U.S. economy contracted sharply in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year,” he continued. “More recently, the pace of decline appears to have slowed significantly, and final demand and production have shown tentative signs of stabilization. The labor market, however, has continued to weaken. Consumer price inflation, which fell to low levels late last year, remained subdued in the first six months of 2009.”

It’s not every day I find out about a potentially exciting piece of safety legislation by coming across an ad while flipping through a consumer magazine at the doctor’s office.

The folks charged with promoting passage of the federal STANDUP (Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection) Act of 2009 didn’t think (yet anyway) to push it directly at this trucking magazine editor, but thankfully their print campaign reached me (neatly demonstrating as well the power of magazine advertising, but I digress) because this bill needs all the promotion it can get so it will be passed with all due haste.

According to the safety-interest group Saferoads4teens, which by all indications is taking the lead advocacy role for this bipartisan legilsation, the bill “would establish minimum standards for state graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, which are proven to significantly reduce death and injury among young beginning drivers and those who share the road with them.” The act is sponsored by U.S. Representatives Tim Bishop (D-NY), Michael Castle (R-DE), Chris Van Hollen, Jr. (D-MD), and James Moran (D-VA).

The ad that caught my eye was sponsored by Allstate Insurance, one of 23 medical, insurance, automotive and safety business and associations supporting the 110-group Saferoads4teens coalition in the drive to pass the STANDUP Act. Among those also stepping up to the plate are the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, Liberty Mutual Group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the National Safety Council, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, State Farm Insurance and USAA.

A letter sent recently to all Members of the House co-signed by the 24 organizations urges Congress to swiftly pass the STANDUP Act as “the House will soon consider the multi-year, multi-billion-dollar federal surface transportation program.” The senders said the letter emphasizes “the unacceptable death and injury toll of novice teen drivers as well as all of us who share the road with them” and stressed the need to “address this problem through prevention — the most effective public health strategy to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce the medical and social costs of teen crashes.”

The key issue is two-fold. To begin with, it makes perfect sense that everyone on the road would benefit by having teenaged drivers move through a graduated system to attain more and more driving privileges– such as driviung at night and driving with others– as they gain real-world experience behind the wheel. But the second element, as Saferoads4teens points out, is also crucial: “GDL laws for novice teen drivers vary widely from state to state, which has resulted in an uneven patchwork of strong and weak state GDL laws with dangerous gaps that leave millions of teens in jeopardy and contribute to unnecessary deaths and injuries each year.”



It’s hard to argue against the safety benefits of graduated driver’s licenses for teenagers.

According to Saferoads4teens, the STANDUP Act’s provisions are supported by extensive data and research showing the effectiveness of GDL laws in saving teen lives. “GDL laws are a proven method of preventing teen driving deaths and injuries and have been shown to achieve as much as a 40% drop in teen deaths and injuries,” stated the group.

The act would provide three years of incentive grants to states that adopt the minimum GDL provisions required in the bill, said Saferoads4teens. If after three years any state does not meet the federal standards, a portion of the state’s federal-aid highway funds would be withheld until the necessary laws are enacted.

The group pointed out that a similar carrot-and-stick strategy was deployed when President Reagan signed the National Minimum 21 Drinking Age Act and when President Clinton approved the .08 percent legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) law. “Each time Congress has used this type of penalty, every state has enacted the law within the time frame allowed and no state lost any federal funds,” noted Saferoads4teens. “As a result, both laws have saved thousands of lives.”

A copy of the coalition letter to Congress and more information about the STANDUP Act and teen driver safety can be found at www.saferoads4teens.org.

I hope fleet owners and other stakeholders in trucking will support this potentially life-saving measure. To be sure, I applaud the insurance firms and other organizations that have already signaled their strong support.