Trucks at Work Blog

I got a good email the other day from a reader asking about what’s going with hazmat security. He wanted to know if his hazmat trucking fleet would be required by federal mandate at some point to install satellite tracking systems on his equipment.

The short answer is ‘no’ at least for now — depsite a report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recommending such a mandate, along with other security steps (Check out the FMCSA’s HAZMAT Safety and Security Technology Field Operational Test report at www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/hazmat/fot/index.htm for more information).

The last legislative attempt to put such a mandate in place came in 2004. The U.S. Senate nixed funds for Transportation Security Agency (TSA) — part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — to investigate and implement GPS-based tracking systems on board commercial trucks carrying hazardous materials . New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer killed the idea via an amendment to the 2005 DHS appropriations bill.

A good analysis of this defeat is an article by Glenn Gibbon in ‘GPS World’ — a magazine devoted to the high tech market. Gibbon rightly points out that “Ironically, for years, a rapidly growing number of trucking companies have been outfitting their fleets with just the kind of capability that American Trucking Association [ATA] dismisses as an expensive, vulnerable, and cumbersome mandate — [adopting such tracking] primarily because of the increased productivity that results.”

He also rightly notes that the Defense Department already performs this kind of ‘national hazmat’ tracking so it’s not hard to do — the Defense Transportation Tracking System (DTTS) is a centralized facility for monitoring Department of Defense (DoD) transport and monitors more than 47,000 arms, ammunition, and explosive shipments by commercial motor carriers each year in the continental United States. DTTS continuously monitors in-transit status of shipments, providing GPS-derived location reports and coordinating emergency response efforts for accidents and other incidents.

So, for now, mandatory tracking for hazmat truckers at least is dead in the water. Whether it gets taken up again under this new democratically controlled Congress is open for debate, but it’s worthy to note a democratic senator — the senior senator from New York, no less — killed the effort the last time around.

One of the lucky things I get to do as part of my job is go ‘live’ on the Sirius Satellite radio channel 147 every week (Monday’s 9 am to 10 am) to discuss trucking issues with truck drivers — folks calling in from the road all across the country. It’s part of the ‘Open Road Cafe’ morning program on on channel 147 — dubbed the ‘Road Dog Trucking network’ — which is hosted by veteran radio newsman Mark Willis in Dallas, TX, while producer Elizabeth Walsh keeps everything on track in New York City. (For more information on the program, check out www.openroadcafe.net)

After doing this for almost four years now, I can tell you one thing for sure — trucks drivers are a lot smarter than almost anyone gives them credit for. Recently I talked to one driver about the move to build more toll roads and lease existing ones to private companies — in some cases foreign-owned ones. I think toll roads are a bad idea — they create massive bottlenecks and force a lot of trucks onto local roads as drivers try to avoid tolls. This driver, however, said private toll companies are a good idea. Why? Because privatization brings market forces to bear on toll roads — which should improve road quality, encourage development of ways to reduce bottlenecks at toll plazas and make toll companies more repsonsive to customer needs. Another driver cited Ohio’s efforts to provide frequent rest areas and free showers to drivers after raising their tolls.

Agree or disagree with these opinions you may, but they were both argued clearly, concisely and forcefully. That’s just an example of the benefits I glean from listening to what drivers have to say.

When I talk to all the light truck manufacturers — GM, Ford, Dodge, and Toyota mainly — I keep hearing the same, singular comment about light truck owners: they want more power (horsepower and torque) and don’t really care too much about fuel economy.

This is simplfiying things a great deal, but there it is — engines, especially light-duty diesels, are cranking out more HP and torque, while fuel economy either stays flat or drops. My question to the reader out there is: does this analysis really hold water? If you have to choose between power and fuel economy, does power really win every time? And what does ‘power’ really mean to you anyway? Does it translate into more trailer towing capacity, more offroad capability, what?

Love to hear your thoughts on that.

Welcome to FleetOwner’s trucking blog — I’ve been writing about trucking for a while now (14 years actually) but this is going to be a new kind of space where ‘we’ as readers and writers together try to exchange ideas and issues on the current topics of the day. You live and breathe trucking a lot more deeply than I do, in many ways, so I look forward to hearing from you.

We’re kicking this off just as the industry’s biggest trade show — the Mid America Truck Show — gets underway in Louisville, Kentucky, so a lot of new stuff should be unveiled for you, the reader, to look over — everything from trucks and engines down to new accessories. Again, look forward to hearing from you.

It’ll be 30 years as of May this year that ‘Smokey & The Bandit’ hit the theaters, pedal to the metal in the hammer lane. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, and even Jerry Reed all got huge career boosts from that mega-successful film. Yet the legacy of that 1977-era cinematic farce still lingers — talk to anyone outside of the industry about trucking and inevitably that movie comes up. Truck drivers in particular still get viewed through its distinctive prism: they are high speed yokels using every opportunity to stick it to law enforcement, from hiding Burt Reyonolds and his distinctive Trans Am (a car that became legendary in its own right from its movie role) from the prying eyes of Georgia state troopers, to a Japanese trucker’s ‘banzai attack’ which takes the door off Jackie Gleason’s patrol car.

Thirty years on, though, we should be seeing a different image — but the public largely doesn’t. The Goodyear Highway hero doesn’t get anywhere near the press coverage as a trucker involved in a 20 car pile up does — even if the trucker isn’t at fault, the camera closes in on his or her rig. Nearly half a million truck drivers are members of Highway Watch today, partners with law enforcement on a scale never imaginged back in 1977. But that doesn’t give truckers many props either.

It’s my view that someway, somehow, the image bestowed on trucking by ‘Smokey & The Bandit’ for a few laughs and some big bucks at the box office is going to take a lot of work to remove. How it’s going to scrubbed off is the big question that needs to be answered.