“When I got into this industry in the 1980s, I wouldn’t tell people I was a truck driver – I’d just say I drove for a living. But as time has gone on, that’s really changed. Driving a truck is something to be proud of. We know what we stand for out here, for without us, everything stops.” –Wayne Crowder, relay driver for FedEx Freight and a captain with America’s Road Team.

Talked to Wayne a few days ago, and man, what a charge I got from my conversation with him! This guy really, REALLY loves driving big rigs for a living. Not only did he dream as a kid about being a truck driver when he grew up, Wayne frankly admits that his driving career actually surpassed his boyhood dreams – a very rare thing these days.

“I never dreamed driving a truck could be this great,” he told me. “I grew up on a farm a bit of a motorhead, really fascinated with trucks and trucking. More than that, though, as part of the Road Team I’ve given lots of speeches to kids and competed in truck driving championships. I’ve really lived the glamorous side of trucking – the last few years have been awesome for me. I just wish every driver could be a lucky as me to experience these things.”

(Wayne Crowder, speaking to the media as part of his Road Team captain duties.)

However, as quoted at the start of this blog entry, it wasn’t always so for Wayne and his brethren. When he started driving almost 25 years ago, truckers had a very different – and very negative – image. As a result, he kept his head down and talked little about his career choice with others outside the industry. Not anymore, however.

“I tell kids today that from them in this room, one day there will be doctors, lawyers, maybe a few astronauts, maybe even a U.S. president – and truck drivers,” he told me. “Because driving a truck – like being a doctor – is a necessary profession. We’re needed. That’s why there are so many trucks on the road in the first place, it’s just that people don’t realize why we’re there.”

Wayne’s also a big believer in sharpening the professionalism among drivers – which is why he’s a big supporter of the National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC), an annual event organized by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) that’s free to the public. He talks about why this is such an important event in his own words below:

(Wayne explains in his own words the importance of the annual truck driving championship.)

As part of his Road Team duties, Wayne spends a few days a month talking to fellow drivers about the importance of image and safety for the industry, while educating the motoring public about safe driving practices and the importance the trucking industry.

And he’s definitely got the chops for it, accumulating 1.3 million accident-free miles over his two-plus decades on the road along with a host of trophies. He’s taken home honors as Rookie of the Year at both the state and national level, won first place in his division at the Kentucky State Truck Driving Championships in 2004 and 2005, plus earned the title of National Grand Champion at the 2004 NTDC as well. He was also named Kentucky Driver of the Year in 2007.

(Want to see how tricky it is to win? Then check out Warren Lewis and his championship run at last year’s NTDC.)

“People just don’t realize what it takes just to get the chance to compete at the NTDC,” Wayne explained to me. “You must have been accident-free for at least a year before you are allowed to compete, then you must work your way up through local and state competitions before reaching the national championship.”

Events like this also put a driver’s skills to the test among his and her peers, too – not something taken lightly, Wayne noted. “I also learn something new every time I compete, elevating my ‘game’ in terms of driving skills and safety management to the next level.”

(Here’s a slideshow from the 2006 National Truck Driving Championships, to give you a flavor of what the entire event is like.)

Not that it’s all fun and games for Wayne, though. He lives in Lanesville, IN and operates a Volvo day cab, pulling doubles, between Louisville, KY, and Hebron, IN. Married with three children, Wayne said that while trucking provides a good living for his family, driving and his Road Team captain responsibilities do takes time away from them on occasion – and his other hobbies of fishing and line dancing.

Still, it’s a career he wouldn’t trade for the world. “I tell people I don’t work in an office as my truck is my office,” Wayne told me. “It’s great – I am out on the road, doing what I love, with no one looking over my shoulder. Frankly, I don’t think I’d like working in an office.”

“I don’t remember it happening because I fell asleep at the wheel, but when I woke up we were in an accident.” –Candy Baldwin, as told to the Washington Post from her bed in Maryland Shock Trauma Center, following an accident on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that left truck driver John Short dead.

Let me give you this scenario. A young truck driver (let’s say 25 or 26, been driving for three years now) falls asleep at the wheel of his 80,000-pound rig and causes an accident, leaving a 57 year-old man dead – a man with a wife and kids.

The trucker has no record; he’s a good kid, well liked by friends, co-workers, and family. His log book is clean, but he’d been at a friend’s wedding, stayed up most of the day and night, before going on duty at 3 a.m. Didn’t get a lot of sleep – in fact, didn’t sleep much at all, though he was off-duty for the required 10 hours.

(The Chesapeake Bay Bridge — site of Sunday’s tragic car-truck crash.)

The accident itself is front-page news – ties up weekend traffic on a major bridge for a whole day, leaving thousands of people stuck for hours, fuming in their cars – as it happens not 50 miles from the nation’s capital.

What do you think happens next?

Several things you can count on: civil lawsuits by the dead man’s family against the truck driver and his company, alongside manslaughter charges against the trucker from the state. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would swoop in to perform an exhaustive safety audit of the company and there would be more press conferences than you can count by politicians, safety groups, etc., calling for more laws, stiffer penalties, and greater enforcement, covering the entire trucking industry in broad, brutal brushstrokes of negligence, incompetence, and other vitriolic prose.

OK then. Now let’s flip it around.

Car driver, just 19 years old: up all night at her mother’s wedding. Falls asleep at the wheel. Resulting accident leaves 57 year-old truck driver dead and traffic snarled for days. You know the accident I’m talking about, too.

Now what happens? More importantly, what’s not going to happen?

[First of all, give the kid credit. She admitted she fell asleep. And my heart goes out to her in a big way – not only is her body badly broken, not only does she face years of physical rehabilitation, she’ll never ever forget that this crash killed somebody.]

First of all, there’s no logbook to check. She’s not required to have one. No rule says she must have 10 hours off duty before getting behind the wheel. (Not that the 10-hour rule would’ve automatically made her well-rested and ready to drive – you can’t legislate good sleep, just the way you can’t legislate human behavior, though try as we might).

You also won’t see FMCSA visiting her anytime soon. And public press conferences, by politicians and national safety groups, condemning her in harsh, provocative language? I sincerely (and hopefully) doubt it.

Here’s the thing, though, and this is important. Fatigue caused this accident between the car and the truck – and fatigue is a far, far greater problem for car drivers than truckers.

(You just can’t legislate good, restful sleep — for truckers or car drivers.)

You may remember the FMCSA’s exhaustive Large Truck Crash Causation Study published last year. Based on three years worth of study and a detailed examination of over 965 truck-car collisions, the feds found that car drivers caused 55% of those crashes. More importantly, however, they also discovered that on average car drivers we’re TWICE as likely to be fatigued as truck drivers.

The study also found that human error was by far the leading cause of these crashes, ranked among the top eight factors for truckers and car drivers. But notice the huge differences in exactly what KINDS of human error are involved between the two groups:

Truck drivers:

1. Following too close

2. Made illegal maneuver

3. Inadequate surveillance

4. Traveling too fast for conditions

5. Inattention

6. Stop required

7. External distraction

8. Brake problems

Car drivers:

1. Illegal maneuver

2. Fatigue

3. Illness

4. Inattention

5. Internal distraction

6. Inadequate surveillance

7. Illegal drugs

8. Too fast for conditions

Is it not surprising that fatigue, illness, and illegal drug use are major issues in the crashes FMCSA studied among CAR DRIVERS … yet not truck drivers? That maybe logbooks, medical qualifications and random drug testing might be needed for CAR DRIVERS today? It does make one wonder …

It brings to mind something Jeffrey Loftus, a transportation safety technology specialist with FMCSA, said during PeopleNet’s 6th annual User Conference last week: “Everyone is to blame in these crashes; the bottom line is, it’s a shared responsibility.”

That’s a truth, however, we’re having a hard time recognizing in our driving culture.

“We have a major public safety problem and we haven’t corrected it.” –Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, as quoted by the Associated Press.

By now, I’m sure, you’ve heard about the big Associated Press story, entitled “Medically unfit drivers still on the road,” published yesterday in a variety of places, such as on CNN’s news website and a host of newspapers like the Kansas City Star, Connecticut Post, and many others. We also covered it in the news section of our website as well.

The story revolves around an as-yet unreleased Government Accountability Office (GAO) study, which found some 563,0000 U.S. commercial driver’s license holders also qualify for full federal disability payments due to health issues – with many suffering from severe problems such as seizure disorders, vision and hearing impairment, and the like.

The GAO’s review of 7.3 million commercial driver violations compiled by the Dept. of Transportation in 2006 showed truck drivers violating federal medical rules in all 50 states, with the most frequent sanctions occurring in Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio.

It’s been a problem for a while, this issue of getting medically unfit drivers off the road, one exacerbated by (of course) politics. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) finalized mandatory standards for entry-level CDL holders back in 2004, standards that included medical qualifications as well as drug and alcohol testing, under the-chief administrator Annette Sandberg.

“What we are looking at is how we can translate medical data into standards that help improve safety on the highway,” she said at the time. “Now, we are not sure how this effort will pan out, but we do know conditions like fatigue not only have an impact on the health of a driver but on their capability to operate a vehicle. What’s clear is that we have to look at the driver as a key component of the overall truck – that we have to look at ways of improving their performance and capability so that, by extension, we improve truck safety.”

(Image courtesy of Arab Cartage & Express, Arab, Alabama. These guys are dealing with the health issue pretty smartly, if you ask me. Arab offers Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance to its drivers, along with many other insurance benefits at group discounts, including a Merrill Lynch 401 (k) retirement plan with many investment options and company matching. One sure way to improve driver health: more home time. Arab’s drivers are home at least once a week, the company says, and sometimes more. They also provide annual paid vacations and 8 paid holidays per year.)

But here we are, again dealing with the issue of medical qualifications, because, well, nothing’s been done since 2004. Why, you ask? Well, for starters, FMCSA has a LOT of rules and regulations its been trying to get done at the behest of Congress and others (hours of service, anyone?) and anytime you develop new or improved federal regulations, they must go out for public comment, revision, etc. – not including the time needed to deal with lawsuits filed by third parties against proposed rule changes.

One average, it takes about two to three YEARS for proposed federal regulations to make it onto the books – and that’s if everything goes smoothly.

OK, back to driver medical qualifications. This is a very serious issue: it puts not only the driver but those operating on the highway around him or her in physical danger should a medical condition cause said driver to lose consciousness. I’m totally in favor of making CDLs more restrictive, for all kinds of health issues, for this reason.

The trucking industry, by the way, is well aware of the driver health issue, though it’s only addressing it in fits and starts (you’ll hear in more detail about some successful efforts, like Celadon Group’s “Highway 2 Health” program tomorrow).

The Atlanta, GA-based American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), a research organization supported by the American Trucking Associations, is trying to raise the awareness about health and wellness among truck drivers as part of its effort to both study and reduce the effects of driver fatigue.

The physical fitness and overall health of the aging truck driver population in the U.S. is a growing concern among industry experts because fitness relates so strongly to job performance, contends Rebecca Brewster, ATRI’s president & CEO. She and I talked about this issue a couple of years ago and one of the things that gets overlooked in the health debate, she stressed, are the benefits drivers gain for increased physical fitness and health.

“Certainly, the more physically fit and healthy drivers are, the more alert and less fatigued they are,” she explained to me. “Being physically fit also makes them less susceptible to injury as an increased fitness level gives them more body strength and flexibility – critical aspects when loading and unloading trailers, for example.”

Yet the overall prognosis for truck drivers isn’t good. Brewster noted that, according to recent research, 55% of truck drivers are overweight and more than 50% smoke, compared to national overall averages of 20.9% and 25%, respectively.

This isn’t a problem just limited to truck drivers, either. According to a report issued a few weeks back by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the proportion of U.S. adults who self-report they are obese increased nearly 2% between 2005 and 2007. According to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), an estimated 25.6% of U.S. adults reported being obese in 2007 compared to 23.9% in 2005, an increase of 1.7 percent. The report also finds that none of the 50 states or the District of Columbia has achieved the Healthy People 2010 goal to reduce obesity prevalence to 15% or less.

In three states – Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee – the prevalence of self-reported obesity among adults age 18 or older was above 30, with only. Colorado reporting the lowest rate of obesity prevalence at 18.7%. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. BMI is calculated using height and weight. For example, a 5-foot, 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30, thus putting this person into the obese category, said the CDC.

“The epidemic of adult obesity continues to rise in the U.S. indicating that we need to step up our efforts at the national, state and local levels,” said Dr. William Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. “We need to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, engage in more physical activity and reduce the consumption of high calorie foods and sugar sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight.”

Yet ATRI’s Brewster reminded me that while drivers – like the rest of us – must take personal responsibility for eating well and excursing, their work environment isn’t exactly conducive to those goals. “The stress out on the road, the lack of time to exercise, all contribute to the issue,” she said. “My personal belief is that the industry must do what it takes to support ways to make drivers more fit and healthy – because the bottom line impact for trucking cannot be ignored.”

So as the debate over driver medical qualifications gets started, let’s remember that there are many positives to be gained from improved physical fitness and health. We need to keep that in mind as the negatives start getting thrown around.

“When you hear the thunder, it’s too late to build the Ark.” –Peter Kissinger, president and CEO, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

A lot is changing out on the highways today – some good and some bad. We all know rising fuel prices are rapidly slashing the amount of miles four-wheelers log every day, with commuters scurrying for mass transit and vacationers becoming “staycationers.” Ways to restore our woefully maintained roadway infrastructure are also being hotly debated, from raising fuel taxes sales taxes and adding more tolls to the outright leasing of our roads to private companies – some not even based in the U.S.

But there are other significant changes we must start addressing, too. One theme I’ve been harping on is a return to a national 55 mph speed limit for cars, light trucks, and commercial trucks – both to reduce the nation’s consumption of fuel and vehicle crashes.

(No longer the right speed, apparently.)

Now, though, I’m learning that 55 mph isn’t the best speed anymore for fuel savings – and may not be the best way to reduce vehicle crashes, either. Conversations with several trucking experts made me finally realize that engineers are designing heavy trucks to get the best fuel economy between 60 and 65 mph now – tuning the engines, transmissions, and aerodynamics of the tractors to that speed range. The same thing is occurring for cars and light trucks, too, so suddenly a return to 55 mph might not generate big fuel savings after all.

Then, according to the Portland, OR-based group Best Highway Safety Practices Institute, 55 mph might not be the best solution for reducing vehicle crashes and pollution or improving fuel savings, either. They feel the solution is to properly engineer roadways for optimum flow of traffic, something that would reduce our total vehicular carbon footprint and improve roadway safety. Their civil engineering solutions include the following:

* Local streets and parking lots are where the majority of our fuel consumption, pollution and accidents occur, so the focus needs to be here.

* Reducing time spent idling, stopping, starting, changing speed, hazards, flow conflicts, cross traffic movements while adopting stronger user and access management plans.

* Using traffic circles can reduce accidents by more than 70%, fatalities by more than 90%, and fuel consumption, pollution, travel times and overall roadway speeds.

* Promoting better driving habits, such as taking the time to rest if you’re tired and yielding the right-of-way, etc. – efforts that improves the flow of traffic.

Then there’s another sure-to-be hot button topic – the aging driver population. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently released what’s sure to become a highly controversial report noting that by 2025, people aged 65 and older will account for 25% of U.S. drivers, yet that state licensing systems and mobility alternatives for older drivers for the most part are inadequate and inconsistent.

The AAA Foundation report added that senior citizens and their families face serious challenges in maintaining mobility, including determining whether they remain capable of safely operating a motor vehicle, whether their driving can be improved, or — if unable to drive safely — how they can continue to be mobile.

“Nobody should have their car keys taken away simply because they reach a certain age,” stressed Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation. “Instead, states should screen all drivers applying for new or renewed licenses to ensure they are medically and functionally fit to drive through procedures like eye exams and in-person renewal – but that is not happening. If remedies aren’t put in place today, we can expect a significant rise in highway safety deaths in the years ahead. That should concern all of us, young and old alike.”

(Oh ho, I can already see the cage match brewing between AAA and AARP – the American Association of Retired People – over THAT bon mot!)

The report also notes a significant lack of comprehensiveness and consistency in medical advisory boards (MABs). Fourteen states lack any type of MAB. As such, AAA is now recommending that all states establish and fund active MABs to conduct individual case reviews and provide input to policy development. Beyond the creation of MABs, state licensing policies and practices should put into place standard reporting laws that provide civil immunity for clinicians, law enforcement, and licensing personnel who report people they believe may be medically unfit to drive.

“It’s unfortunate that healthcare professionals who believe a patient may be medically unfit to drive in a safe manner do not relay this information to their state DMV to spur further screening,” said Kissinger. “Doctors are well positioned to ensure their patients are fit to drive safely, yet they are fearful of being sued or losing patients if they take actions to protect others on the road – that has to change.”

“One of the fundamental roles of the DMV is to ensure drivers are capable of driving safely, and to restrict, suspend or revoke licenses when drivers demonstrate that they are incapable of driving safely,” says Neil D. Schuster, president and CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). “But our charge is also to help people transition to alternative forms of transportation when driving is no longer a safe option. And AAMVA is placing renewed emphasis on these issues.”

“AAA is committed to making sure that mature drivers are able to continue driving as long as safely possible and remain mobile thereafter,” said Kathleen Marvaso, AAA’s national vice president of public affairs – someone who’s going to be doing a lot of careful explaining in the months ahead about this report’s conclusions.

(Click here to watch a video produced by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) — the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area — that addresses the issue of older drivers.)

Still, this issue is going to resonate across the trucking community, too, as the truck driver population is rapidly graying. I’m a firm believer that older drivers are safer drivers myself and that we need to make sure we tap into their valuable experience gained from decades on the road to educate and season younger drivers.

It’s a very touchy subject, no doubt, but one that needs to be addressed for it’s certainly going to permanently change the driving landscape for truckers and four wheelers alike in the coming years.

“Driver productivity is going down. The ‘quality’ of drivers is flat and will not be going up anytime soon.” –John Taratuta, president of truck driving school Know Safety, LLC, Grand Rapids, MI.

The words above were sent to me a year or so ago by Mr. Taratuta in response to a story I’d written about the driver recruiting needs of carriers – and Mr. Taratuta stressed to me a key point he believed I’d overlooked. In his view, carriers simply weren’t paying attention enough to the training needs of new drivers – that they blamed truck driving schools for any lack of skills, real or imagined, without truly being part of the solution anymore.

It’s a point well worth considering. I remember back in 1995 when J.B. Hunt decided to close its top-rated driver training school, taking some of the monetary savings from that decision and applying it to driver pay rates. Hunt aimed to effectively build a better, more highly trained corps of drivers by paying for them – not by doing the hard and thankless work of training them from day one.

Yet it’s hit or miss with truck driving schools in many ways. There are many excellent ones and many poor ones out there (there’s a reason “CDL Mills” is an apt derogatory term) as we still lack national standards for them. (Yes, there are many VOLUNTARY standards, such as those promulgated by the Truckload Carriers Association, but that word VOLUNTARY takes the punch out those standards in some ways.)

Now, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is trying to help improve things. Yesterday, the agency awarded a total of $1 million in grants to nine technical and community colleges to enhance classroom safety curriculums and behind-the-wheel training courses for students enrolled in commercial driver’s license (CDL) training programs.

“Our nation relies on a workforce of well-trained, safety conscious, professional truck and bus drivers to move our economy,” said FMCSA Administrator John Hill. “Through this grant program, we are helping provide the cadre of highly qualified commercial drivers that our nation needs. This is also an investment in individuals and in communities seeking enriched economic opportunities for the future.”

It’s worthy to note that to be eligible to get these annual commercial motor vehicle (CMV) grants, you must be an accredited public and private institutions of higher education, federally recognized Native American Tribal Governments, and city, county and state governments.

These monies are part of the CMV Operator Training Grant Program, established by Congress back in 2005 through the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU. Ostensibly, this program has two goals: to expand the number of CDL holders possessing enhanced operator safety training to help reduce the severity and number of crashes on U.S. roads involving commercial motor vehicles; and to assist economically-distressed regions of the U.S. by providing workforce training opportunities for qualified individuals to become CMV operators.

Will it work? That remains to be seen. Mr. Taratuta, for one, believes what’s really needed is more positive involvement by carriers themselves in the driver training process.

“And small carriers are not in the position to do the same amount of training that the larger carriers or allowed to train by their insurance companies,” he stressed to me. “That leaves the medium to large carriers to break in whomever are the new people. Now I have heard the argument that a driver is like an apprentice that has to pay his or her dues. But someone just learning to swing a hammer or whatever still gets to go home every night, relax, eat cheap and eat what they like.” Not so the new driver, he rightly points out.

It’s a debate that’s going to go on for a while, how to best train new drivers for the rigors of the road. We’ll see where it leads us.

“But are these really accidents? I argue that they are not. These events do not just happen as an accident. They are predictable and preventable. These accidents do not need to occur.” –Bruce Moeller, from “Driving Me Crazy: Stories from the road.”

As soon as I started reading Bruce Moeller’s book, I wanted to throw it away – far away. But you can’t do that on a jam-packed airliner at 39,000 feet (unless you risk explosive decompression) and, frankly, I needed to read it – painful as I knew it would be.

You see, Bruce’s book – entitled “Driving Me Crazy: Stories from the road” – opens with his own personal tragedy, the one that eventually drove him to write this book and one that every parent like myself utterly fears. In 1985, he lost his 18-month old daughter to sickness and hospital malpractice in South Korea – alive and joyous as all toddlers are one minute, gone the very next. He relates how it took him over two decades to recuperate from that searing loss, to change his worldview, to start over with a new mindset – one focused on trying to reduce the needless carnage on our highways.

But I just didn’t want to go there. Not only did the book jump-start all the latent worries about the well-being of my own three girls back home, it also ramped up my fears about where I was going – to Reno, Nevada, where my brother lay in intensive care following a 150-foot vertical fall off a cliff while extreme skiing. What was his prognosis? How extensive the physical and mental damage? Do I have to contemplate signing a “do not resuscitate” order? These were the very last things I wanted to think about.

[Things turned out far better for me. My brother suffered no brain or spinal trauma, and is now poised to be discharged from the hospital – after sustaining 12 broken ribs, two dislocated shoulders and a small facture in one of his neck vertebrae. He also ripped the nerve bundle controlling his right arm out of his spine, so he’ll most likely lose use of that arm permanently … but a small price to pay after skirting death by mere inches.]

Yet these are things we must think about. As Bruce detailed in his book, every day you drive a vehicle, or ride in one, you not only take your life in your hands, you put your life in other people’s hands. With nearly 43,000 highway fatalities each year in the U.S. alone, Bruce contends we are facing an epidemic that must be stopped – something he reiterated to me when I talked to him over the phone not long ago.

(Bruce Moeller believes accidents can be significantly reduced via improving driver skills.)

“Look back at the risks our society just won’t accept,” he told me. “We don’t accept airline accidents, which can kill 200 people at one time We don’t accept terrorist attacks, like September 11th, when over 3,000 lost their lives. Yet we accept the fatalities that result from driving. We need to change that.”

Looking at it another way, those 43,000 fatalities on our highways every year translates to about 3,583 a week, or 117 a day. If a commercial jetliner were crashing every day with all hands killed, we’d be up in arms. Yet its equivalent occurs every day on our roadways and it elicits nothing more than a collective yawn.

Consider this as well: Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for 15 to 19 year olds at 41.4%, far and away surpassing homicide (13.7%), suicide (11%) and cancer (5.2%), according to statistics gleaned from the Journal of Safety Research.

“Here is where I want to challenge the convention thinking,” Bruce says in his book. “Are these incidents really inevitable? If we can anticipate financial consequences based upon empirical data and project these onto an expected simulation of the future, why can’t we do the same thing with the behaviors that cause crashes in the first place? Why can’t we anticipate them, then either reduce or eliminate them?”

Now, point of full disclosure: Bruce is president and CEO of DriveCam Inc., a global driver risk management company that’s in business to make a profit. Their digital video technology is designed to record risky driving behavior and help fleets across the spectrum (government, private, for-hire) reduce accident exposure.

Yet his book isn’t about that. It’s focused on the far larger (and more important) topic of getting people to recognize that losing 43,000 lives a year in the U.S. – along with 127,000 annually in Europe – to vehicle crashes simply should not be acceptable to modern day society, period.

(Preventing this is what Bruce’s book is all about.)

“You don’t understand the amount of suffering a family goes through when you lose someone to a highway fatality, especially a child. I know what that feeling is like; I’ve been there,” he told me. “Just because vehicle fatalities happen one or two at a time should not obscure the larger picture – crashes kill a lot of people. My feeling is that if we can put a man on the moon, if we can explore space on a regular basis, we can solve this crisis. This is a deadly, serious business.”

But until we, as a society, accept the seriousness of this problem and are willing to take steps to address it, the dying won’t stop.

“Too many new drivers are involved in road accidents and are not properly prepared for driving alone. It is time for a new approach to learning to drive.” –Ruth Kelly, secretary of state for transport, United Kingdom

Though roadway deaths and serious injuries dropped by 33% in the United Kingdom (England, Wales, and Scotland … oh, all right, we’ll throw Northern Ireland in there too for now, much as I’d rather not) since the mid 1990s, the casualty rate for young drivers has not changed – and that’s promulgating a new effort spearheaded by Ruth Kelly, the U.K.’s transport secretary, to totally revamp driver training processes.

“The aim … is to create safer drivers for life by strengthening the current learning and testing procedures and creating a culture of extended and advanced learning,” she said in a statement to the press kicking off this new program. And it’s a program we in the U.S. should take a close look at ourselves, suffering as we do from some 43,000 highway deaths every year.

The problem in the U.K. is simple and brutal: One in five people get into an accident within six months of passing their driver’s test, with another 70% reporting near-misses in the same period. Newly qualified drivers and their passengers also account for one in five of all car deaths in Britain as well.

Note some of these statistics: Two million people take a car driving test every year in the U.K. but only 750,000 end up qualifying for a license. That means the pass rate is 44%, meaning the average learner takes more than two tests before passing. Three quarters of those 750,000, by the way, are under the age of 25, according to the U.K.’s department of transport.

“We must make sure that novice drivers are safe drivers when they have passed their test,” Kelly added. “We must also create an expectation of lifelong learning, so that people continue advanced learning after their test. That is why I am publishing proposals that offer new drivers more opportunities to learn both before and after the test, including at school.”

Her plan is to create a foundation course in safe road use for under 17 years olds to be piloted in schools and colleges in Scotland from this Autumn – leading to a qualification program available across Great Britain by 2009.

For the first time, Kelly said, there will be a syllabus to ensure more effective and comprehensive training is offered to learner drivers. This will set out more clearly the necessary steps to driving safely – beginning with the basics of car control, progressing to skills such as driving in difficult weather or at night and culminating in ensuring driver awareness is enhanced, to help novice drivers predict the intentions of other road users.

Here are some of the key points of her proposal:

* A more focused and thorough learning process before the driving test that focuses not just on vehicle control but also the wider skills needed to be a safe driver, from driving in difficult conditions (for example at night or in poor weather) to learning to predict and respond to other road users’ intentions;

* A new training syllabus to ensure learners understand what is required of them to become a responsible driver, enable them to undertake structured and efficient learning and accurately assess when they are ready to pass their driving test;

* An improved driving test which requires the driver to demonstrate independent driving skills and clear understanding of different situations on the road, with the option of modular assessment;

* New opportunities to take extra training post test; working with the insurance industry and employers in the driving for work sector we will develop new courses and qualifications to be taken after the driving test that could lead to lower premiums and a better chance of securing a career in the driving for work sector;

* A star-rating system for driving instructors so that learners can make an informed choice based on pass rates and the level of training instructors have undergone;

* A review of driving instructor training and testing to ensure they provide a quality service and are focused on those areas of driving performance that are closely linked to safe driving.

What are the results that Kelly hopes to achieve with all of this? Pretty straightforward:

* A driving test that gives a more realistic and rounded assessment of whether someone is fit to drive alone;

* More focused and efficient learning, with greater clarity about what is required, so learners should not face any increase in costs;

* Better training and testing of driving instructors and better information for the public on instructors’ qualifications and performance

* A wider range of opportunities for drivers to acquire skills and demonstrate that they have done so, both before and after they qualify, creating a culture of lifelong learning and driver development.

* Lower numbers of accidents;

* More opportunities and greater incentives for post-test learning, with this becoming increasingly common;

* Higher levels of employer confidence in the driving test and driving qualifications;

* Lower insurance costs for drivers who have taken advantage of a wider range of learning options, both pre and post test, to improve their competence.

It’s bold stuff, what the U.K. is attempting to put in place here, as it will require a lot of time, effort, money, and above all patience. But if this program results in fewer highway deaths and better drivers for the long term, it will be well worth it – and may be something we need to look at copying here in the U.S.

“This is hard work. It’s a serious job and you really have to be alert out here on the road.” –George Ertel, 41-year veteran driver for Batesville Casket Company

This week I got the privilege to meet four new inductees into the National Private Truck Council’s Driver Hall of Fame: George Ertel, James “Jimmy” Perkins, Tommy Stoddard, and Kenneth Wright.

(Left to right: Perkins, Stoddard, Ertel, and Wright.)

In the words of Gary Petty, NPTC’s president and CEO, these four represent “the best of the best” from the truck driver community – guys that have racked up millions of safe miles without a single chargeable accident, that do it the right way every day and night, year in and year out.

Ertel, for instance, racked up 4.8 million safe driving miles over a 41-year career with Batesville Casket Company in Batesville, IN – a carrier his father work for, and one his son has joined as well.

The luck of Irish has smiled on Perkins over the 4 million miles he’s accumulated during 36 years of driving, most recently with Trimac Transportation Inc. in Braddock, PA.

(Perkins receiving his “Driver Hall of Fame” plaque.)

Tommy Stoddard, a contract driver with Vanguard Services, totaled 3.75 million miles over his 34-year career, lately spent with Bridgestone/-Firestone North American Tire’s fleet in Memphis TN.

(Stoddard gets his “Driver Hall of Fame” award.)

Finally, there’s Kenneth Wright, a 36-year veteran driver with 4.3 million safe miles under his belt, most recently tallying them up for NCI Building Systems out of Houston, TX.

Dan Baker, a trucking consultant and noted motivational speaker with this industry, noted during his speech at the luncheon inducting these four into NPTC’s Driver Hall of Fame that they represent the rock-steady truckers of the old school, that drive trucks because they love to drive trucks.

“This is a passion-based business – they get that inner something behind the wheel that makes their blood run,” Baker said. “That’s the kind of passion that needs to be passed on in this industry – we need to infect other people with it.”

(Perkins is the first driver from Trimac to be inducted.)

Unfortunately, I only got to talk to Ertel myself about his truck-driving career and about some of the reasons he thinks he’s been so good at it. For these are the types of drivers a reporter like me wants to talk with the – the “iron cowboys” representing the top class of driver, the ones who live and breathe high performance every single day.

“The equipment sure is a lot better these days and so are the roads – but the roads are also far more congested than they used to be,” Ertel told me. “That’s what makes this job so hard today – watching all the other drivers on the road.”

As noted before, Ertel is but one link in a generational chain of drivers – a tradition handed down to him from his father and passed on to his son. Working for Batesville Casket Company also offers a range of benefits not found at the typical trucking carrier. For starters, he runs dedicated routes from factory to warehouse, out at most two to three days on the road. Batesville also remains a family-owned company, one that honors and respects the value of its driver corps.

For example, Ertel told me that when he reached the two million safe mile mark, he got a new truck with a $10,000 credit for the options of his choice. At the three million mile mark, he got a new Freightliner FL Class 8 with a $15,000 credit for his choice of options. At 4 million miles, he could’ve gotten a new truck, but since he loved his current rig, he asked – and received – a bigger upgrade package, which included new paint, chrome, exhaust stacks, and seats for his ride. “My feeling is, if the truck works for you, stick with it,” he said.

The secret to this industry is really no secret at all, Ertel noted: work for a good company, one that treats you with respect. That and really watching yourself when you are out running fully loaded down the highway. “There’s not as much courtesy anymore from the motoring public for us – means you must really keep your eyes open,” he explained. “Aside from that, though, it’s a great lifestyle. It’s what my dad did, what I do, and now my son does. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

“Don’t give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks.” – Capt. James Lawrence, U.S.S. Chesapeake

I’ve seen the same grim, steely determination that no doubt infused Capt. Lawrence and his crew as they faced the HMS Shannon in battle on the high seas in 1813 reflected in the eyes and words of many owner-operators I talk to nowadays. With the U.S. national average for diesel fuel at $4.21 a gallon, fuel surcharges hard to come by, and lackluster freight demand, many are fighting hard just to survive, much less eke out a profit at the end of each week.

(The indomitable Capt. James Lawrence)

Many may also face the fate of the Chesapeake, which ultimately lost its battle with the Shannon, followed by Lawrence’s death from wounds sustained from small arms fire during that historic clash. Yet many others won’t – not only surviving the current rough patch but also perhaps profiting as trucking capacity begins to again get scarce – much the way the United States escaped from several catastrophic losses during the War of 1812 (the burning of Washington D.C. the biggest of them) to eventually win that conflict against England.

I got the chance to talk with Robert Zuckerman, a veteran owner-operator operating from (of all places!!!) Rhode Island about the challenges facing independent truckers like himself these days. “There’s two ways to look at the business these days: either you tough it out or get out of it,” he told me over the phone as he wrapped up a haul. “The question you need to ask yourself is, will I make the same amount of money I do now if I get out of this business? Because most likely, in whatever other career you choose, you are going to start at the bottom. So I am just going to tough it out. But here’s the thing: I love this job and I don’t want to do something else.”

(Robert Zuckerman, posed in front of his rig.)

Zuckerman is also of the “old school” when it comes to driving trucks, as he acquired and honed his skills in the late 1970s over the course of several years, maneuvering an ever-larger vehicle for his family’s scrap metal business. “I learned on one piece of equipment at a time: from forklifts to a series of straight trucks, then a tractor, a tractor and 20-foot trailer, followed by a tractor and 40-foot trailer, and so on,” he related.

These were old 1950s and 60s Mack trucks, along with a 1966 Autocar, Zuckerman added, so shifting was like learning an ancient, intricate form of tai chi, with every movement requiring precision or disaster would strike. These trucks didn’t have power steering either, much less air conditioning or air ride seats, so Zuckerman is more than appreciate of the modern-day comforts found on today’s tractors.

“I appreciate trucking today so much, because I didn’t have the air conditioning or all the electronics kids today take for granted,” he said. “It makes driving a lot easier.”

The important thing Zuckerman believes will get him – and others like him – through the current rough patch is the ability to adapt, the remain open to learning new skills (especially ones related to business management), and to renew his focus on the small details of trucking. For today, every single penny counts – not a one can be wasted, he told me.

“How do you survive? You need to make smart business decisions and pay attention to the small stuff,” Zuckerman said. “I never used to give a second thought to the small stuff, like $10 air filters. Now I do – and the $5 and $1 items as well. Not only am I paying attention to all the numbers, I am also trying to manage my time and effort better too – that’s worth money to me as well. Because your time is NEVER free.”

Zuckerman’s also been working with Tim Brady — FleetOwner’s contributing editor, a former driver, and formidable trucking consultant in his own right — to beef up his business and financial management skills as well. “You have to go with the flow or get left behind in this business now,” Zuckerman explained. “I’ve been an owner-operator for over 15 years, but just now I am getting my business organized on a laptop computer so I can track the numbers better.”

Yet he’s also a big believer in keeping home and work life separate from each other: a hard thing to do when you are an owner-operator, but one he thinks is necessary. “Business is business and personal is personal: you need to remember you wear two hats when you drive for yourself,” he said. “I go so far as to not park my truck out in front of my house: I keep down the street a ways in a secure area. That way when I am home, I am completely focusing my time and effort on my family.”

Zuckerman applies his “steady as he goes” philosophy to his equipment as well, staying on a strict maintenance schedule that he thinks helps him stave off larger, more costly repairs over the life of his truck. For example, Zuckerman said he changes the oil on his 2000-model Volvo VN 660 every 10,000 to 14,000 miles – a much shorter interval than the manufacturer suggests – because he wants to keep the inside of his engine just as clean and in good working order as the outside of his truck.

“It’s got 847,000 miles on it and I only had to rebuild the bottom-end of the motor at 500,000 miles and change one fuel injector. That’s it in terms of major repairs,” he said. “I change all the filters at every oil change and change the transmission fluid every other year because that helps keep my truck in good working order. This truck has never given me any problems as a result.”

Still, he and his wife and their three kids are tightening their belts, cutting costs where they can, not going out to eat as much, watching every penny. His wife recently took her retail clothing business online so she could save the money spend on store rent. They plan to do what it takes so Zuckerman can keep driving, awaiting better days to return.

“The first four years after I bought my new Volvo were great – then the costs started increasing,” he said. “Also, the business isn’t what it used to be. Common courtesy on the road isn’t there anymore. We as drivers don’t treat each other as equals anymore. But I am going to do what it takes to stay in this business. I’ve been driving all my life: I could never sit in an office and push paper. This is what I love to do.”

“The men and women of the Armed Forces have all the motivation and tools necessary to move successfully from the military into many areas within our industry.” –Bill Graves, president and CEO, American Trucking Associations.

Military veterans have always been a prized labor pool for the trucking industry, largely for their work ethic, ingrained discipline, and ability to get the job despite the circumstances.

Now, however, the trucking industry is ratcheting up its efforts to recruit from this honored segment of the U.S. populations is an effort to get ahead of the impending labor crunch coming down the pike over the next few years as the so-called “baby boom” generation begins to retire form the workforce.

(Photo courtesy of the Department of Defense.)

For example, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) just signed a recruiting partnership agreement with the U.S. Army Reserve that will provide experienced truck drivers for the military while also opening up careers to truck drivers leaving the military.

The two organizations said they would focus on recruiting commercial vehicle drivers into the U.S. Army Reserve, and recruiting members of the U.S. Army Reserve and those transitioning from active duty to the Army Reserve into careers in the trucking industry.

“Army reservists are ideal candidates for America’s professional truck drivers,” said Bill Graves, ATA’s president and CEO, in a statement. “By the same token, the Army Reserve can offer qualified transportation professionals exciting opportunities to learn new skills, develop management and leadership abilities, excel in a high-stress climate and work in a team environment.”

“This is a mutually beneficial relationship for the trucking industry and the Army Reserve,” added Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, Chief of the Army Reserve and Commanding General, Army Reserve Command. “Together, we will build and sustain a strong shared workforce.”

The alliance with the ATA is the first of its kind in the nation between the Army Reserve and the motor transport industry, said Stultz, who aims to give employers incentives for employing Army Reserve soldiers. “We’re into the seventh year of the global war on terrorism, and employers are bearing the burden when their soldier-employee takes a leave of absence from the workplace to support the war in Iraq or Afghanistan” he noted. “We’re offering employers who want to partner with us the chance to gain tangible benefits by hiring Army Reserve Soldiers.”

(Photo courtesy of Department of Defense.)

More importantly, the trucking industry gets a line on new driver and technician candidates in what’s soon to become a very tight labor market as the “baby boom” generation retires and is replaced by a far-smaller population termed “Generation X.”

“Look at the overall demographic shift here – you have 78 million baby boomers that start retiring in 2008 being replaced by Generation X, which is comprised of only 45 million workers,” said Richard White, VP-marketing and communications for the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Assn. “Basically, you have a lot of people retiring very soon and not enough people to fill the jobs they are leaving.” That trend is only going to worsen between 2012 and 2025 as the baby boom generation fully retires, he noted.

It’s not all peaches and cream for veterans, however, as many are dealing with a variety of physical and mental health issues due to combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, many groups are taking the lead in helping funnel veterans to job vacancies as this report from television station KMEG 14 in Iowa shows.

The effort to tap into the ranks of military veterans by trucking isn’t new; what is new is how it’s becoming much more widespread and is now being coordinated at higher levels in the industry. Indeed, all kinds of transportation companies – from trucking fleets to third-party logistics providers and railroads – are trying to attached fresh blood from the ranks of military veterans, using various sites on the Internet, such as MilitarySpot.com, to reach them.

PaYS was developed to help the U.S. Army attract, train and deploy talented young people who want to serve their country, but also want to help secure their future success once their Army service is complete. Under terms of the agreement between USAREC and Cardinal, enlistees interested in gaining specific job training and qualifications will receive that training while in the U.S. Army.

(Photo courtesy of Cardinal Logistics.)

As part of the enlistment process, recruits sign a statement of understanding of intent to work for Cardinal upon completion of their term of service and, as they near the end of their enlistments, the soldiers get an opportunity to interview with Cardinal for a specific job at a specific location nationwide.

“We see the PaYS program as the perfect vehicle for attracting, training and hiring outstanding employees for many years to come,” said Jerry Bowman, Cardinal’s president and COO at the time. “We look forward to tapping into the incredible talent, skills and integrity possessed by our country’s enlisted men and women who join us through this program.”