“We continue to work through the sustained weakness in freight demand.” –Robert Weaver, president, P.A.M. Transportation

It’s been a tough year in the freight markets, as you no doubt know so very well by this point. Problem is, it’s looking like the grim times are going to continue for a while — probably well into next year — and that’s going to sustain a lot of negative pressure on the bottom line of many trucking firms.

According to consulting firm FTR Associates, truck ton-miles are forecast to decline 2.2% by the end of this year and rise only a miniscule 0.7% in 2008. “Nearly all economic indicators suggest continued sluggishness for the trucking industry in the near term,” Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Assn. (ATA), said recently. His group reports that truckload freight volume is down by 2.2% so far this year. “We expect tonnage to remain choppy in the foreseeable future, a trend that started a couple of months ago,” he said.

On top of the this, the very underpinnings of freight flows themselves are changing — and quite rapidly. Typically, fall represented a “peak season” for truck tonnage, as manufacturers and retailers geared up for the holidays, especially Christmas. Over the last two years, however, that’s changed due to the rapid rise in the use of gift cards among consumers. So many people are buying gift cards now that the “peak season” isn’t really a peak anymore.

Comments from Phillip Swagel, assistant treasury secretary for economic policy, about other factors affecting the economy just add to the concerns truckers will face on the road ahead. “Looking forward … the ongoing drag from construction, the problems in credit markets, and higher oil prices have led private forecasters to reduce their projections for GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2007 and into 2008,” he said in a speech to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association this week. “The downturn in the housing sector has not ended as quickly as appeared to be possible at the end of 2006.”

Then there are the cost pressures — especially when it comes to fuel. This week alone, the price for a barrel of crude oil on the world market soared above $93 — and many experts believe prices will hit $100 per barrel before the year is out. You can imagine what that will do to diesel prices. And while forecasters are predicting a warmer-than-normal winter for much of the U.S., energy prices are still projected to rise.

And I don’t need to remind you that home heating oil — which provides much of the winter warmth for homes in the Northeastern U.S. — is made from the same base petroleum stock as diesel fuel. One cold snap, and diesel will take a back seat to home heating oil production. That will push prices up in a hurry.

One thing is for sure from all of this: It’s going to be a rough patch for truckers large and small for a while here. Only thing to do is tighten the belts, hunker down, and keep rolling forward.

The title above — “practice what you preach” — is a saying as old as the history books … actually, older than them, since the Roman comic actor Titus Marcinus Plautus reportedly first uttered those sage words around 200 B.C. or so. But they’re taking on new meaning to my mind as the hoopla over “global warming” keeps on growing.

Let me state at the outset that I do believe climate change is occuring and that humankind is indeed adding to it, though not enough to cause the catstrophic scenarios being postulated all over the media these days. Ice ages and warming cycles occurred thousands of years ago on Earth without humanity’s help, thank you very much, so it’s not a surprise that climate change is happening again now.

What’s upsetting is the lack of commitment by all the fomentors of the hoopla to actually doing something about it — especially when it comes to our former vice president and Nobel Prize winner Albert Gore. Sure, his books, speeches, and award-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” have raised the world’s consciousness about global warming … but he’s not giving up private jet travel, nor his Tennesse mansion, nor eating beef, buying expensive virgin-material suits, driving a car, etc., etc., and countless other “etcs” thrown in for good measure.

In fact, actors at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2006 — when Gore won an Oscar for his film — loudly proclaimed the lavish energy-consuming event had “gone green” … by buying offsets. Not by reducing the number of lights or cameras, reducing air conditioning use, or (heaven forbid!) eliminating the slow moving and high idle limo rides all those Hollywood elites get to attend the big show — oh no! They shoved some money across a table so SOMEONE ELSE could reduce energy consumption on their behalf.

Funny thing about those offsets: Average Joe’s and Jane’s, like truckers, can’t use them. Gotta buy a new emission-compliant truck or eventually face retrofitting your old one. And YOU don’t get a tax break or any form of incentive to do that, either. The big stars still get to build and buy million-dollar estates, complete with energy-sucking hot tubs, gyms, game rooms, you name it … without a tax on their lavish living. Isn’t that what all the complaining about “global warming” is all about? That kind of “livin’ large” culture? Then why aren’t those folks getting a shake down in penalties and extra taxes for their energy profligate and pollution making ways?

I remember back in 2000 when President Bush took all kinds of heat by refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocols, a document countries like France, Germany, and Japan signed, agreeing to set reductions in certain global warming gases such as carbon dioxide. His contention then — and one that rings true today — is that folks like China and India were deliberately left off the list. They had to be given a chance to “catch up” in economic progress before such climate restrictions could be imposed on them. Not that such “catching up” might produce tons of pollution that more than offset any cuts made in the U.S. or Europe … or maybe that would encourge companies to increase outsourcing manufacturing sites to places where compliance with such emission-reducing rules — much less worker safety ones — are limited or nonexistant.

Turns out that NONE of the countries that signed on to Kyoto are actually cutting their emissions anyway … everyone is worried about what such cuts might do to their economies, such as increasing unemployment, raising the cost of living, etc.

The point is that if we REALLY want to combat so-called global warming — which, more importantly, would mean reducing pollution AND energy use, thus reducing our reliance on the volatile Middle East’s petroleum reserves — we ALL have to do it. Can’t cut emissions in the U.S. and let China keep pumping out unfiltered smoke by the ton. Can’t force truckers to buy cleaner trucks while letting the upper 1% keep their private jets, limos, massive homes., etc.

(Truckers aren’t buying those clearner trucks anyways — Class 8 sales are down 50% so far this year, and Peterbilt Motors Co. expects industry-wide Class 8 sales will only reach 185,000 units this year; a far cry from the 325,000 bought by the trucking industry in 2006).

Be nice to see our former vice president step up and change his lifestyle: “walking the talk” as it were, setting an example for the rich and famous to follow. That might convince everyone else to do the same, if they see the leaders of the global warming movement put some of the practices they so eagerly espouse for everyone else in place for their own lives. But I won’t hold my breath.

One of the fastest growing headaches for truckers — among MANY headaches large and small — is the rapid proliferation of anti-idling regulations by state, county, even townships, across the U.S. Whether you agree or disagree with regulatory efforts to restrict idling is almost beside the point — you need to know which locations have what rules or you’ll never be able to stay in compliance from the get go.

That’s where a new website from automotive and heavy-duty truck component supplier Webasto comes in: www.makealeap.org. Now, when you go to this web site, you’re going to see all kinds of stuff promoting anti-idling efforts — maybe going too far for some of you. Again, this is beside the point — what makes this web site so valuable is that it lists what anti-idling laws are already on the books or are being considered, what areas of the country have what type of rules, along with the specifics (5 minutes of idling allowed, 15 minutes, etc.) on a state-by-state basis. It’s easy to use, too — just click on the headline “What is my state doing?” and you’ll be presented with an easy-to-click-on map letting you look at what each state is doing in terms of anti-idling regulations.

Now, the “LEaP” acronym stands for Lowering Emissions and Particulates and the site’s logo incorporates a green frog, because, Webasto says, “in nature the health of frog populations exemplifies the overall state of our environment and therefore is a key theme throughout the web site.” OK, so maybe it’s a little over the top. But the important thing is the information on the site detailing anti-idling rules across the country is rock solid– and that’s worth digging into.

It’s also worth noting the economic cost of idling in terms of wasted fuel — something else this site does quite well. “One example that people should be aware of, especially as schools across the country struggle financially, is statistics show that the 400,000 school buses nationwide burn up a combined total of 7.5 million barrels of oil per year not moving — just idling,” said John Thomas, Webasto’s VP-marketing. “That translates into more than $224 million tax dollars wasted. ”

He added that commercial trucks collectively burn up more than 500 million barrels of oil each year, and in most cases it’s to maintain driver comfort with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. “There are some alternatives that do the same job without idling the engine — alternatives truckers should look at,” he said. It doesn’t cost you anything to look — and it’s worth it just get the 411 on anti-idling regulatory efforts nationwide, that’s for sure.

“Running is one of the best solutions to a clear mind.” –Sasha Azevedo, athlete

I met Jack Dwyer, oh, nearly 15 years ago now at one of the many trucking shows we reporters cover for a living and quickly stuck the nickname “Iron Man” on him. At the time an avid marathoner, Jack would somehow regularly clock in 10- to 15 -mile training runs despite the long days and nights us hacks faced when we attended these conventions.

I met up with him once, outbound on a morning jog (more like plodding, actually) in Arizona, while he was coming off a 10 miler. He hung with me for a couple of miles and I just couldn’t believe the pace he could set — and keep — after logging in that kind of distance. He didn’t pound out those kinds of miles every day, of course, but he didn’t slack off on the road either — he kept to a solid routine, despite his travel schedule, and it really paid off healthwise for him.

I mean, here was a guy in his 60s with the energy and looks of someone in his 40s — lithe, not a spare pound of flesh on him, able to run circles around me, then in my mid-20s. He pulled the same brutal hours everyone else did, but his high level of physical fitness enabled him to hold up better than most — especially in terms of maintaining the mental agility needed for writing stories on the fly.

A great story I got about him was the time he took the train down from his home to run in the Boston marathon. He walked from the train station to the starting line, ran 26.3 miles, then walked down to the now-closed Eliot Lounge for a post-race party, walked back to the train station and then went home. THAT, my friends, is the definition of endurance.

I relate Jack ‘Iron Man’ Dwyer’s tale because it proved to me that physical fitness really does matter — exercise really DOES provide the health benefits all the doctors keep telling us about. Now, this doesn’t mean drivers must start clocking in 15 milers every day. What it does mean is that with some creative planning and a willingness to stick with it, staying healthy on the road is not only possible, it can sustain you for the long term. I myself am trying to stick to Jack’s method — though at most I cover 5 miles on a run or speed walk, I try to exercise every day, especially on the road. And I find exercise helps sustain me when I travel, not only in terms of physical health but mental clarity as well.

I talked with Jack not long ago and he told me he’s given up marathoning — and most other running — now, instead volunteering at marathons and half-marathons and going to the local Gold’s Gym for a one-hour workout almost every day. He’s still sticking to his schedule, though the form of exercise he uses has changed. My hope is that I can stick with it, too, and end up looking like him when I am in my 60s.

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” – Gen. Colin Powell, U.S. Army [Ret.]

Hands down one of the best sports stories ever written came from the pen of Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly in 2003 – and not about unbeaten seasons, no hitters, or down-to-the-wire championship wins. No, Reilly wrote about the best – bar none – tradition in college sports: Picking Up Butch at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Back in 1961, then-13 year-old Butch Varno – who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy – and his grandmother (who cleaned dormitories at the college) were trying to get home from a football game in the middle of a snowstorm, but Butch’s wheelchair kept getting stuck. Enter student athlete Roger Ralph, who pulled over and gave them a ride home – kicking off a 45 year tradition at the school.

You see, all freshman basketball and football players at Middlebury – men and women alike – must go and get Butch for every home game, with the basketball players doing this during the football season, with football players swapping roles for the basketball season. Butch gets picked up and wheeled right next to the team bench, with the freshman responsible for getting him hot dogs and soda, as well as helping him eat and drink said goodies. Over the years, though, this Middlebury tradition really expanded – students helped Butch learn to read, get his high school equivalency degree, and became his friends.

When Butch’s house got flooded out earlier this year, the school and its students rallied to his side. A local church got them temporary housing, while the school provided funds to help renovate an apartment for them – one that would be handicap accessible for Butch. They’ve even set up a fund to help take care of Butch in he future (You can get more information about that at www.middlebury.edu)

Now THAT, my friends, is a worthy tradition – something that’s required a long-term commitment on the part of the school and its people, a commitment that hasn’t flagged in nearly half a century. And that kind of spirit is something many trucking companies and drivers know intimately.

Take truck driver Bill Hutson, for example. Five years ago, Hutson launched a non-profit company dubbed “Table Talk Foundation for Better Living“ that focuses on fixing up the homes of the needy for free.

To get it off the ground, he contributed over $40,000 of his own money – that’s right, FORTY THOUSAND GREENBACKS, my friends – while also building and selling picnic tables to help keep his charity going. Part of his mission, he told me, is training “the homeless and unemployed in the construction trade, to expand both the work and the help our program can do.”

That’s a pretty bold long-term effort to sustain, but he’s doing it. “I have sort of a code that I live by,” Hutson told me by phone. “When I went to fix homes with the contractor who taught me everything, I asked him why he did it and he said this: ‘To the world, you may be just one person, but to one person, you just may be the world.’ I try to live by that every day.”

You can’t beat that kind of spirit – something that’s definitely not in short supply where Bill Hutson and Middlebury College are concerned, it seems.

(If you want to help Hutson out, drop him a line at bill@tabletalkministries.org)

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

Had a long talk with Charlene Testerman the other day, who lost her husband and life long team driving partner Leonard back in May this year in a freak construction accident at their home. She called me to say “thank you” for the condolence card I’d sent — whereas it should’ve really been ME thanking HER for being fortunate enough to get to know them both.

I asked her how she was doing and wasn’t surprised a bit by her answer — while it’s been tough not having Leonard by her side, she’s back out knocking on doors looking to haul some freight. “It’s been five months — time to get going again,” she told me. Good people are STRONG people, I’ve found, and Charlene’s living proof of that maxim.

One of the things that struck me most in our conversation concerned the reaction to Leonard’s passing — from how the funeral home where Charlene had the viewing almost couldn’t handle the hundreds of people who came to pay their respcts to the overwhelming amount of mail she’d received from all over the country. She’s making a scrapbook from all of it — along with photos — about Leonard to give to her grandson, so that one day “he’ll know something about his grandfather.” I can tell you that “scrapbook” will be several volumes long before she’s done with it, knowing how many lives she and Leonard touched over their driving career.

Charlene also had this note of surprise in her voice as we talked, as if she couldn’t quite grasp how the two of them had become so well known — for she and Leonard didn’t consider themselves to be “super drivers” or anything like that. How could I explain to her that their goodwill, easy friendship, humility, and out-and-out kindness is something people remember, especially in trucking? That their simple yet profound belief in doing a good job every single time with smiles on their faces and in their hearts earned them coast-to-coast respect?

Charlene seemed worried that she wouldn’t be as good a driver without Leonard — something that couldn’t be further from the truth. Any fleet would be foolish not to bring her on board and I said as much — her decades of professionalism behind the wheel speaks for itself. But in some respects, Charlene’s worries about going back on the road by herself are spot on — I mean, what a comfort it is to know someone is right there, watching your back, when your parked at a dark truckstop overnight in the middle of winter, or stopped along a long empty stretch of highway for a break.

But she’s going back out there nonetheless — facing those fears head on. That tells you, I think, a lot about the kind of person (and driver) Charlene is. My only wish is that we had a lot more like her — and like Leonard — out on the road today.

“Success is not something to wait for; it’s something to work for.” –Anonymous

It’s been a fact of life for decades now: U.S. automakers getting readily beaten up by their Japanese counterparts in reliability and durability ratings. Toyota, especially, proved itself to be the heavyweight champ, with its solid Camry sedan taking the top slot hands down year in and year out.

Until now, that is.

According to Consumer Reports’ 2007 Annual Car Reliability Survey, after years of sterling reliability, Toyota is showing cracks in its armor. The V6 version of the company’s top-selling Camry, and the four-wheel-drive V8 version of the Tundra pickup, both redesigned for 2007, now rate below average in Consumer Reports’ predicted reliability rating. In addition, the all-wheel-drive version of the Lexus GS sedan also received a below average rating.

By contrast, said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center, Ford Motor Co.’s domestic brands have made considerable improvements – in fact, 41 of 44 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury models (a whopping 93%!!!!) in the magazine’s survey scored average or better in predicted reliability. The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan are among the most reliable cars and, along with the two-wheel-drive Ford F-150 V6 make up three of the only four domestic models on Consumer Reports’ “Most Reliable” list.

CR’s 2007 survey also shows that the odds of getting a reliable new vehicle from Ford are the best the magazine has seen in years, says Champion. “Ford continues to improve,” he noted in the company’s press release announcing these new statistics. “The reliability of their cars has steadily improved over the years, and is showing consistency.”

Now, despite its sudden problems, Toyota (including Lexus and Scion) still ranks third in reliability among all automakers, behind only Honda and Subaru. Still, because of these findings, CR will no longer recommend any new or redesigned Toyota-built models without reliability data on a specific design. Previously, new and redesigned Toyota models were recommended because of the automaker’s excellent track record, even if CR didn’t have sufficient reliability data on the new model. The company won’t be doing that anymore until Toyota returns to its previous record of outstanding overall reliability, CR stressed.

This comes on the heels of Buick’s big win earlier this year on J.D. Power and Associates’ 2007 Vehicle Dependability Study, where it TIED with Lexus to rank highest among nameplates in vehicle dependability – marking the first time in 12 years that another brand ties with Lexus for the highest-rank position, according to J.D. Power. Following in the top five rankings are Cadillac, Mercury and Honda, respectively, the company said.

“With three non-premium nameplates—Buick, Honda and Mercury—ranking within the top five, and particularly with Buick tying with Lexus for the top rank, consumers seeking a vehicle with strong dependability have good choices at various price levels,” said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis for J.D. Power and Associates. “Consumers don’t necessarily need to pay premium prices to obtain high quality and dependability.”

Now, while these are great achievements, domestic automakers still have a ways to go. Despite Ford’s improvement, CR’s research still found that U.S. brands account for almost half the models – some 20 out of 44 – on its list of “Least Reliable” models, with 13 from General Motors, six from Chrysler, and one from Ford. European manufacturers account for 17 models, including six each from Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen/Audi

Yet these reliability ratings achievements deserve some notice – especially as the U.S. companies we used to call the Big 3 not only build many of the light and medium trucks fleets buy, they account for a huge amount of the freight truckers haul, especially in terms of supplying the Big 3’s U.S. factories.

“Automakers may reap numerous benefits from producing dependable vehicles – not only in higher residual values, decreased warranty costs and opportunities for remarketing their vehicles, but also in higher customer satisfaction and increased likelihood of customers recommending or purchasing newer dependable models,” said J.D. Power’s Oddes. “This is why it is especially important for automakers to successfully launch new vehicle models with high initial quality and appeal—models that perform well in these regards tend to exhibit particularly strong dependability later in their life cycle.”

So a richly-deserved tip of the hat to the former “Big 3.” Now they must sustain this pace and make churning out more and more highly reliable models like clockwork.

“If you ever see a frog on top of a telephone pole, you know he did not get there by himself.” –David ‘Doc’ Cooke, ‘The Mayor’ of the Pentagon.

His name was Mister Coggins and he hailed from Tennessee. That’s all I know — that’s all I ever WANTED to know. I never learned his first name over the six weeks we spent together, neither in the crude and outdated driving simulators owned by Washington & Lee High School back then, nor in the underpowered Chevrolet Cavalier four-door sedans me and three other unlucky students (so we thought) found ourselves in as he taught us how to drive.

Coggins had a reputation as the toughest, orneriest instructor in W&L’s summer driver education program. And it was a well-deserved one, I found. After one afternoon piloting those ugly Cavaliers around the school’s parking lot, we hit the streets — including Interstate 66, which cuts through Arlington County like a knife. You had to get that gasping V4 sedan up to 55 mph by the time you reached the top of that long entrance ramp hill, or he’d give you ‘tew points’ to add to your score. If you totaled 21 points, you flunked the day’s drive — and had to come back over the weekend.

Flunking a drive with him was easy: Rolling stop for a right turn on red? Automatic 21 points. Did you put on your seatbelt the minute you sat down in the car? If you forgot, automatic 21 — you don’t even get to turn the key in the ignition. The man was merciless and I HATED him for it — you had to park the non-power steering car all by yourself, know where ALL the controls were (radio buttons included) by touch, follow all posted speed limit and roadway signs to the letter. Can’t find the defroster controls while driving? Two or five point fine, depending on how he was feeling.

And that accent — LORD, how I DETESTED that accent. Can’t came out ‘Cain’t,’ what came out ‘whut’ and you came out ‘yew.’ “Whut in the HECK were yew THINKIN!!!’ Mister Coggins barked at me one day when I failed to notice the speed limit drop from 45 mph to 25 mph. “Cain’t yew unnerstand LIL’ KIDS may be runnin’ around these heah streets??!!”

We envied our peers, whose teachers gently coached them through everything — even helped them park their cars at the end of the day. We, instead, got the original Tennessee Drill Sergeant and fumed in our misery. Towards the end of our stay under his tutaledge, he turned it up several notches: For example, we had to walk around the car for a quick visual inspection (especially the tires), get in and buckle our seat belts, adjust our mirrors, plus check all blind spots and behind the vehicle BEFORE turning the vehicle on IN THAT ORDER or he’d flunk us — condemning us to a Saturday spent with HIM and other unfortunates.

Yeah, Mister Coggins was a piece of work.

I just wish I could thank him.

Sure, he rode us hard and snapped at us and made us follow what we THOUGHT were stupid rules … and then I started driving on my own, and found out the truth. Good driving is all about developing good instincts — ones that aren’t innate, that must be rigorously pounded into one’s skull until they become automatic. I can’t sit in a car without a seat belt on to this day because I begin to feel physically uncomfortable without it — like an itch I can’t scratch.

Mister Coggins also worked incessently to make sure we checked the side mirrors and rear view every couple of minutes as we drove — and dinged us with points if we didn’t. That taught us to focus on what was going on around the ENTIRE vehicle as it moved, not just what was in front of us. And he made us do all the work — to learn the hard way, so we could do it on our own when he wouldn’t be there. My only regret is that Arlington county went to automatic transmissions for its driver’s ed cars the year I joined his class — and my manual shifting ability to this day stinks as a result. I am sure he would’ve straightened that out.

Yeah, it’s been over 22 years since my last class with Mister Coggins, but his lessons remain firmly ingrained. I guess I am kinda like that frog on the telephone pole, in a way, because I wouldn’t be the kind of driver I am today without the help of Mister Coggins. That’s fer dang sure.

The horrific and tragic and I-5 tunnel pile up in California back on October 12 paints a stark black and white picture about the safety of this highway networks in this country.

All due respect to CalTrans — California’s Department of Transportation — this particular tunnel has been a problem for a long time. Truckers interviewed right after the crash — which involved 30 commercial trucks (THIRTY!!!) and countless lighter vehicles — said this tunnel was a major worry for them, as it sloped down and came upon a blind left turn: at once creating the conditions where a fully loaded truck is going to roll forward faster, yet at the same time putting said truck in a dangerous spot, one where it might have to brake quickly due to traffic congestion.

I got to talk to several truckers who phoned in during my weekly appareance on Sirius Satellite Radio’s program ‘The Loading Dock’ and those that had driven in that tunnel — including Prime Inc.’s one and only ‘Mustang’ — added that even a hint of rain made that tunnel’s downward slope ‘like ice,’ making a bad driving situation that much worse. Though 45 mph is the posted speed limit for the tunnel, drivers calling into the program said many times they’d been passed by cars pushing 70 mph heading down into that dark abyss: not what you would call a good thing.

As of this writing, three people lost their lives in this terrible accident — with 10 lucky folks barely getting out of there before a blaze ignited by gasoline, diesel and lord knows what else created a 1,400 inferno within the tunnel. Fire reportedly streaked 400 feet in the air from the mouth of the tunnel — proof that this was truly a catastrophic crash.

So what to do? What can we learn from this tragedy so it never happens again? For starters, truckers complained about poor lighting within the tunnel itself. That’s pretty easy to clear up. Second, how about electronic signs on those blind corners, warning folks to slow down if traffic is stopped ahead? Heck, if we can fund red light cameras across this country, we damn sure can afford warning signs in tunnels to prevent crashes like this.

And again speed is a factor — slowing down both cars and trucks is a must in highway tunnels, especially as there’s little room to manuever within them if something goes wrong. One trucker suggested an old tried but true standby — put some empty police cars in there, complete with dummies dressed as highway patrol officers. That bit of fakery works like magic in terms of slowing traffic down — especially if, every now and then, a REAL officer gets in there and makes some traffic stops. It’s a cheap, simple, yet effective way to slow things down.

One thing is for certain — our highways are getting much more dangerous. The highway bridge collapse in Minnesota earlier this year, followed by this tunnel crash and firein California, should erase any doubts that driving can taken for granted. It can be dangerous, even fatal — something all truckers, as they must drive out there every day, know all too well.

“When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which might have affected a cure. There is nothing new in this story. It is as old as the Sibylline books. It falls into that long dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind.” — Winston Churchill.

So, here we are, staring at a three month window within which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must come up with rules to replace the soon-to-be-extinct 11-hour daily driving limit and 34-hour retart provision of current hours of service (HOS) regulations. Hopefully, the new rules won’t make an appearance at the 11th hour on the 11th day (Dec. 27) when those provisions expire as ruled by the U.S. Courth of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Then again, the way things have been going in trucking lately, anything is possible.

Take current HOS rules. These actually represent FMCSA’s ‘Plan B’ package because its first attempt at reform back in 2000 by creating five DIFFERENT sets of HOS rules died a fast and ugly death, forcing the agency to cobble together something on the fly. The trucking industry initally cried woe and doom when the ‘Plan B’ rules were announced in 2003, saying they’d ruin productivity, efficiency, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yet here we are at the end of a long battle by the industry to KEEP the parts of those very same rules it didn’t like the first time around.

So-called safety groups such as Public Citizen never liked any of the HOS reforms FMCSA formulated right from the start and waged a long — and ultimately successful — campaign in the courts to oust these rules, and will no doubt gear up again to fight whatever FMCSA comes up with as a replacement. Joan Claybrook, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and president of Public Citizen since 1982, has publicly stated that she wants driving time for truck drivers dialed back to eight hours a day maximum. So it’s a good bet she’ll fight tooth and nail against anything over that number.

All of this back and forth, of course, directly impacts an industry responsible for moving 80% of the nation’s freight. That’s a cold fact that doesn’t seem to resonate at all with anyone outside transportation. Look at just some of the issues affecting the trucker’s workday.

For starters, there aren’t enough truck drivers to haul all that freight — we’re short 20,000 a year now, but by 2015 that’ll be up to about 100,000 annually. Massive congestion on our roadways is slowing down freight, killing the miles drivers need to accrue to get paid — and their pay, by the way, ain’t good for the work they do. Then throw in the shippers and receivers, who make trucks wait for hours and hours, then force many drivers to load and unload trailers without adequate compenstation — something Public Citizen never addresses in its safety efforts, by the way.

Here’s what I think: let’s get radical. Let’s go ahead an lobby for an eight hour drive-time limit, with a 10-hour on-duty period. Make it part of the regulations that drivers CANNOT load and unload their trailers, period. Mandate fines for shippers and receivers that make trucks wait more than two hours — say, $1,500 an hour. Maybe $2,000 an hour. Since we’re tracking trucks by satellite and cellular networks today, that clock would be easy to monitor, too. Also restore the split-sleeper berth provision to drivers so they can take a break.

Now, everyone with say ‘This is impossible: are you crazy??!!” No, it’s not impossible — fleets will need to recalculate their routes, of course, as well as driver pay rates. But it can be done — shippers and receivers will see their freight bills skyrocket, of course, but hey! They’ll adjust. So will we, the consumers. Everything will cost more, efficiency will suffer, but the world won’t collapse — and trucking will be allowed to do its work, without all the regulatory back and forth.

I mean, what’s to argue? The safety groups WANT these kinds of work hours established — I say give it to them. And let them do the fixing if it boomerangs. As long as the industry keeps improving its safety profile, makes a decent profit and drivers make a living, that’s what matters .