To my mind, at least, Joe Schmitt would’ve made one hell of a cowboy.

A lean, rangy owner-operator from Wisconsin, Schmitt is about to notch his 20th year on the road, running long haul refrigerated routes across the U.S. His weathered hands bespeak his devotion not only to his profession behind the wheel, but also to his pride and joy, a 2003 Kenworth he’s turned into a working show truck on his own, with the help of friends and family.

Like Union cavalry general John Buford, Schmitt follows a simple maxim when it comes to his craft: taking care of “horse, saddle, then the man,” in that order. Dubbed “Wreckers & Checkers,” Schmitt’s rig features hand-laid wooden floors and a matching tractor and trailer paint scheme, with his reefer unit’s engine painted to match.

The unusual name for Schmitt’s operation stems from the commitment he made upon becoming an independent two decades ago: like a stock car racer, he was either going to wreck or take the checkered flag, both in terms of succeeding at the business of trucking and winning a few show truck trophies in the bargain.

Though Schmitt indeed built a successful career as trucker and won a passel of trophies (though just falling short of winning the top prize at the National Association of Show Trucks [NAST] contest at Mid America for the second year in a row) he’s now ready to hang up his keys.

Though the trials of the road are hard and getting harder (this winter proved particularly bad), and though fuel prices are out of sight ($800 one way between Utah and Wisconsin now; a price that would’ve covered him round trip with some left over not long ago), the reasons he’s leaving the long-haul business and selling his truck boil down to one thing: family.

“I’ve got two little ones still at home yet, so I want to be with them more,” he told me. Once he sells his truck (which is almost paid for – he’s got a year of payments left), he plans to take a local trucking job so he can be home every night. “It is just time to do this,” he said.

I am more than sure this is a common sentiment today among long-haul independent drivers – a sentiment that’s getting a lot of help, no doubt, from $4 per gallon diesel, out of sight insurance rates, higher sticker prices due to new pollution control technology, and ever-stricter idling rules. No doubt Schmitt, like a lot of drivers, found that the hassles now far outweigh any of the benefits life as a truck driver used to offer.

Ah, but what memories of the road Schmitt has – ones he shares with an easy laugh. Back in 1996, for example, he found himself stuck in a horrible blizzard, pushing a bank of snow into the back end of a completely jammed truck stop parking lot. “I jumped out of the cab and immediately sank up to my hips in snow,” Schmitt told me. “I called my customer back in Wisconsin and told him, ‘I have some good news and bad news. The good news is your lettuce is safe and sound. The bad news is we’re all sitting in snow so you won’t see if for a few more days.’” As a result, a two-day run turned into five days, with the National Guard helping dig everyone out of the truck stop.

This past winter of 2007-2008 proved just as tough, he said. Every trip seemed to be fraught with blizzards, Schmitt told me. One proved so bad most of the paint off the front end of his vehicle wore off, forcing him to spend two days of nearly non-stop sandblasting and re-painting to get his truck for the shows.

Though he relishes those memories – especially all the hard work that went into building his one-of-a-kind “Wreckers & Checkers” creation – the call of home is now stronger than ever and has won out over the long-haul life.

Good luck to you, Joe, and many happy trails. We’ll see you on the flip side.

“O most dear ones … I can see you, beginning the journey to the land where there is no night nor sorrow nor death.” –St. Patrick

If I could pick a patron saint for the trucking industry, it would be Saint Patrick (who of course, would have to do double duty as he’s also the patron saint of Ireland). Now, sure, we’re coming up on St. Patrick’s day and all the frivolity that goes with it – parades, people dressed as leprechauns, green beer, etc. – but that’s never what St. Patrick was about.

(Contrary to the legend you’ve heard, St. Patrick did NOT banish snakes from Ireland)

The reason I feel trucking and St. Patrick go together is that he’s a living representation of the power of one – how one person can make not just a difference but huge, mammoth change; the kind that eternally resonate down the pathways of human history. His belief in leading by example, by facing danger head on, is the same stuff exhibited by truckers every day – especially those honored by Goodyear’s “Highway Hero” award, the ones jumping out of their cabs to rescue fellow drivers and motorists, no matter the danger to their own life and limbs. For who knows what the lives saved by the selfless bravery of truckers will go on to accomplish?

The Irish are a good example of what one person can do in this context. Today the Irish are largely known as an open hearted, happy-go-lucky people with a dash of wildness that gets them into trouble from time to time. But turn the clock back to St. Patrick’s time, the 5th Century, and a much darker, more horrible picture emerges.

Back then, the Irish (a race then known as the Celts) were universally feared and loathed: they were the stuff of nightmares. Might made right as hundreds of small-time kings and queens led gangs of thugs into frequent battle against one other, stealing cattle and other goods along the way. Human sacrifice was an everyday occurrence. (You can read about all about it in “How The Irish Saved Civilization,” by the one of the great historians of our time, Thomas Cahill)

Worst of all, the Irish were slave raiders – skilled at snatching children in particular. Up and down the coast of what much later became England, Wales, and Scotland, they preyed on native villages and Roman towns alike. Patrick was one of those unfortunates – a 15-year old Roman, Patricius his given Latin name, plucked in a raid and made a shepherd-slave for six lonely years, ill fed and poorly clothed. You can argue – living as he did, fearing for his life every day – that the voice Patrick heard calling on him in his head to escape might have been his own; a mind driven to desperation by his circumstances.

But escape he did – traveling 200 miles on foot across Ireland to the sea, somehow managing to get aboard a ship to Gaul (later-day France) even though he’d been recognized as an escaped slave. Not only that, he saved the crew from hunger after they’d landed in Gaul to find the region a wasteland (caused by invading Visigoths). They called upon him and his God for food – and then it appeared, provided conveniently by a herd of pigs.

Coincidence? Luck? Divine intervention? Call it what you will. But here’s the important part: after surviving all of that, after rejoining his family in England, he decided to go BACK – to return to the lands of his oppressors with only his faith as protection. He first went to Gaul to become a monk, struggling to speak, read, and understand languages and concepts he barely understood due to his utter lack of formal education. Then he took ship and came back to Ireland. There he changed the course of history.

(Statues of St. Patrick cover Ireland today)

Within his lifetime, human sacrifice stopped in Ireland, as did slavery and slave raiding. The rampant pillaging and plundering went way, way down as the Irish embraced him and his teachings. By the time of his death in 461, monasteries dotted the land and the monks within them would go forth and rescue the books of the then-collapsing Roman Empire, tirelessly copying them page by countless page, then return their horde of priceless knowledge and literacy a hundred years later to medieval Europe – laying the foundation for the Renaissance to come.

Sure, Saint Patrick didn’t do it all himself, but his example convinced many to join with him, and together they changed a people, a country, and eventually a world for the good of all mankind. And he didn’t do it by force, with armies at his back, armed to the teeth. He did it only with a book of prayers, the clothes on his back, and his own inner strength. Not too shabby for a one time Roman and former slave, if I say so myself.

So many truck drivers I’ve met over my career display the very same courage and fortitude of St. Patrick; their willingness to perform a tough job that’s (to put it VERY politely) disdained by much of our society. I’ve no doubt that the monks who taught Patrick looked down their noses at him and probably thought him way off his rocker for going back to the people who enslaved him – to a land they themselves, with all their educated sensibilities and self-righteousness, feared and loathed. But his was a necessary if dangerous task, something any trucker can relate to.

(An Irish trucker’s rig — decked out appropriately!)

Maybe this is all over the top; OK, it IS over the top. But it’s worth remembering the real story of St. Patrick and what he truly achieved in the course of his life – indeed, the change he set in motion that continued long after he passed from the Earth. That’s inspiring and it shows that one person can still indeed make a huge difference on this planet of ours – even a truck driver, as the case may one day be.

Recently, LTL carrier New Penn celebrated the achievement of one million miles driven without a preventable accident by 21 of its drivers and gave props to two others – Keith Degler of Reading, PA, and Michael Swingle of Scranton, PA – for reaching the two-million mile safe driving mark: truly astounding accomplishments all the way around.

I mean, one million miles is about equal to driving around the world at its widest point – the equator – about 40 times, meaning Degler and Swingle did that 80 times. (Just think if they’d racked up that mileage in a commercial jetliner! They’d have free airline tickets for a lifetime and then some!)

“We are all extremely proud of our skilled drivers for their outstanding achievement. They exemplify the engagement and pride essential to make our highways safe while meeting our customers’ needs,” said Steven Gast, president and CEO of Lebanon, PA-based New Penn, which is a subsidiary of transportation conglomerate YRC Worldwide, which is headquartered in Overland Park, KS.

That comment, taken from New Penn’s press release announcing their drivers’ achievements, is expected – if not demanded – from a trucking executive, for safe driving of this extraordinary caliber is absolutely vital to carriers, knowing how crowded the highways are these days.

But what do million-mile safety records really mean? What’s its true value to a carrier, much less the general public?

I talked to Andy Kerlik, vice president of safety at New Penn, about this and he told me that while million-mile safety records are a big deal internally, they usually fall on deaf ears outside the trucking community. “We advertise these records both internally and externally. But it really has the most value internally to us and our driver corps,” he told me. “While we broadcast these achievements outside our company, they are just not recognized by the public. It’s the same old story: good news doesn’t make the paper, especially when it comes to big trucks.”

Kerlik’s been at New Penn for close to 36 years now, with the safety department since 1981, and has watched the company go from a $12 million a year carrier to one garnering $300 million annually in revenue – all without compromising safety one iota. “We have it easier, in many ways, because as an LTL we have very little turnover,” he said. “Our guys are driving set routes and are home almost every night. And it’s a lot easier to build up a focus on safety when you know a driver is going to be with you for decade, instead of seeing new faces every couple of weeks or months.”

And safety is a big deal at new Penn – like at most carriers – because it recognizes safety is integrally tied into revenues and profits. “One hand feeds the other,” Kerlik explained to me. “Good drivers plus good equipment plus good safety adds up to good operating results.”

And it’s not just about driving skills completely anymore, either, Kerlik said: attitude and physical well-being are key components in the mix as well. “Our best drivers are calm people, because they know driving on the highway can be extremely difficult with all the rudeness and road rage out there,” he said. “More and more of them are also getting into physical fitness as they realize that has an impact on their capability behind the wheel. And they love what they do – most of our successful drivers really love driving trucks. That really ties them into the profession in a positive way.”

On a final note, Kerlik stressed that New Penn doesn’t wait to give praise to drivers until they compile stratospheric numbers like a million miles – that’s a career’s worth of driving. The company strives to recognize safety accomplishments on a yearly basis, awarding watches, rings, jackets and other goodies to mark those achievements in a very public way among its drivers.

“You’ve got to have near-term goals most everyone can achieve,” Kerlik said. “And that means looking at both the positive and the negative. I’ve got three safety supervisors that go out in the field every day making sure our drivers are doing their best, going on check rides with them, etc. Safety is in constant focus here.”

I take the corner a little too fast, forcing me to widen the arc of my big rig’s turn to prevent a rollover. The wheel is heavy by this point, sluggish from the full weight of the 53-foot trailer behind me. I get my tractor-trailer straightened out all right, but sideswipe a bobtailing tractor coming in the opposite direction. I do the same thing again to pickup truck further down the road as I try to navigate around a work zone that takes up most of the right lane. Hoo boy, this isn’t a good day.

I hit the brakes too hard at a stoplight then gun the engine aggressively to make a left turn ahead of oncoming traffic, continuing to accelerate quickly down the road. Wait a minute: there’s a bus parked up on the right. Is it a school or city bus? I jam on the brakes again, worried that children might start crossing the road – heck, I nearly ran over a guy earlier that darted into traffic to retrieve a wayward garbage can. The air brakes give out several loud hisses – doesn’t help that I am speeding – as my rig jolts to a halt.

“OK, let’s see what we got,” says Bill Graham, monitoring my progress on his laptop just over my right shoulder. Needless to say, my driving record is pretty poor as his computer lists all my hard braking events, aggressive acceleration, accidents, near misses, plus innumerable hit curbs and lane violations. On top of that, my average fuel economy hovered somewhere around 2.71 miles per gallon – pretty grim stuff all around.

And I forgot to set the parking brake, too. Good thing this is just a simulator.

Watch a video report on MPRI’s Simulator.

You knew that was coming, of course – no way would any trainer keep me behind the wheel after not one but TWO sheet metal crunches a couple of minutes apart. But this wasn’t a video game-style experience, either: not by a long shot. Though I got a tractor-trailer equipped with an automated transmission (just push ‘D’ and go), the wheel didn’t turn easily and my seat tilted and vibrated when I hit things.

(Bill Graham at the ‘wheel’ of MPRI’s TranSim simulator)

The wrap-around screen of the TranSim VS IV simulator – built by MPRI, a division of the L3 Companies – also fooled my eyes into thinking we were actually moving, as it completely encompassed my peripheral vision. Electronically generated side view mirrors reflected all the events going on behind the trailer, to make backing up a very realistic enterprise.

In many ways, this is the wave of the future for truck driver training. Just like airline pilots must accrue thousands of hours worth of simulator time to retain their license to fly, so too will truck drivers one day be required to log simulator time to keep their CDLs. That’s my belief. But there’s more to it. Simulators are just such an easy way to quickly gauge a new driver’s skill level, or help an experience hand switch to new kind of rig – going from a dry van trailer to say a tanker or flatbed. MPRI’s simulator can quickly be reprogrammed for various trucks, too – school buses, trash trucks, medium-duty package vans, double trailers, you name it – depending on the software package.

Everything is realistic – from the other vehicles on the road, to the buildings, traffic signals, even the people (though MPRI’s engineers stopped short of including screams and blood when a pedestrian gets hit). That is, of course, the point – to put truck drivers on the road without the risks to life, limb, and tractor-trailers that worth a big six figures.

Truckload carrier Schneider National started using these simulators back in 2004 and by its own estimates, the company figures it’s lowered new driver dropout and termination rates by 10% and accident severity and frequency by nearly 20%. “Overall, the implementation of simulator-based training has saved us millions of dollars,” says Don Osterberg, Schneider’s vice president of safety.

Graham, who watched my every move, told me simulator training is not just about making truck drivers safer, though that is the main point. “I showed you your mpg hovered around 2.71 – there’s an area we could work on, in terms of how you brake, accelerate, and drive, whether you’re using an automated or manual transmission,” he told me. “We can sit here and practice backing a truck up to a loading dock on a crowded city street for an hour – without tying up traffic, without exposing the trailer to damage. We can even unhook and re-hook the trailer. That’s all about fine-tuning technique.”

(Bill Graham smoothly navigates his virtual rig around a digital corner)

Yes, simulators are expensive, costing several thousand dollars – again, it’s no video game – but just compared that to the cost of accidents. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the cost of fatal crash is $3.6 million, and $195,000 for one involving non-fatal injuries – not to mention the hit you take in terms of vehicle damage and higher insurance premiums. If simulator training can prevent even one accident, you’re probably way ahead in the cost-saving arithmetic.

The there’s the cost of turnover, hovering around $8,000 per driver today (that’s all the advertising, training, and administrative dollars a fleet loses when a driver walks away). If these devices can help you cull applicants before they get behind the wheel in real time, helping you figure out who has the necessary skills and is cut out for the stresses of the road, suddenly simulators can seem to be a pretty cost effective retention tool.

It’s fascinating technology, to be sure, with some big payoffs for truckers. It’ll be interesting to see how many fleets start using them down the road.

I’m sure you’ve seen or at least heard about the “Share the Road” campaign organized by the American Trucking Association (ATA) and funded by industry suppliers such as tire maker Michelin, Mack Trucks, Volvo Trucks North America (sure, Volvo owns Mack – but let’s give out the props equally, I say). It essentially takes a group of seasoned truck driving veterans with spotless safety records and puts them on the road to criss-cross the country, speaking at elementary schools, public events, and driver safety meetings, to emphasize the importance of safe driving – especially around big rigs.

These drivers are nominated by their peers in the industry to serve as “captains” of what the ATA calls “America’s Road Team” for one year – and the ATA’s been doing this for over two decades.

“The public face of the trucking industry is our drivers,” said Scott Kress, Volvo’s senior vice president – sales & marketing. “Given the challenges our industry sees today, it is critically important that the U.S. trucking industry once again come forward with its best people.”

I got to talk with three such captains this week by lucky chance at the Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting here in Orlando, Florida: Clarence Jenkins Jr., a driver for UPS freight; Rich Scholl, a driver with Roadway; and Wayne Crowder, a driver for FedEx Freight. Gregarious, funny, and plainspoken, they each jumped at the chance to represent their chosen profession and their peers before the public – even if they weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of speaking before large crowds, which they are called upon to do.

(Left to right: Clarence Jenkins, Rich Scholl, Wayne Crowder)

“It’s a little daunting, to say the least,” Jenkins told me. He should know – a few weeks back he took part in safety event held on the steps of the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia with the Governor, no less. It might not compare to the pressures faced on the highway every day, but Jenkins said that came awful close.

“But this is important – we need to be before our fellow drivers and the general public to talk about safety,” he told me. “It can be dangerous out on the road, especially if you don’t know the basics, like where a truck’s blind spots are.”

“It also helps dispel the stigma about driving trucks for a living,” added Scholl. “It’s good career – my wife and I have seven kids and this job allows me to put food on the table and take care of them. It’s also important to take pride in what we do.”

Many drivers might dispute their experiences – lord knows, there are lots of truckers living on the edge of financial ruin these days, faced with high fuel prices and little freight – but I still think taking pride in doing a dangerous job well, in being a professional and not just a seat warmer, is a very good thing.

Tell you something else: we need more drivers like these guys.

“We continue to believe that FedEx Ground’s owner-operators are properly classified, and the business remains fundamentally strong.” –Frederick Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corp.

Rarely has much money hinged on two small words – “proper classification.” As I noted in an earlier blog entry, the Internal Revenue Service believes FedEx has misclassified the independent contractors working for the company’s FedEx ground division – some 15,000 people nationwide – and has slapped the company with a $319 million tax penalty for the year 2002 alone. The industry analysis I’ve seen so far puts FedEx’s total financial liability in this tax battle with the IRS between $1 billion and $2.5 billion.

That’s some big, big money, even for FedEx, which earned a cool $479 million on $9.45 billion in revenue during its second fiscal quarter of 2008 ALONE.

FedEx staunchly believes it’s in the right here – that the independent contractor model it inherited when it purchased Roadway Package Service) almost 10 years ago is still valid. But the courts may be starting to see this differently – especially at the state level.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit recently upheld a grant of class certification by the U.S. District Court in Indiana in case involving FedEx Ground driver claims for employee benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other state claims. FedEx is also doing away with its independent contractor model in California, where is faced similar setbacks in the courts.

FedEx noted rather strongly following the 7th circuit’s ruling that the court did not rule on the validity of its contractor model and has not decided class certification in any other multi-district litigation case. But the court’s decision has cleared the way for the contractor model to get debated.

But Smith is adamant that none of this is going to change how the company does business, at least so far. “This procedural ruling does not change any aspect of the FedEx Ground operation and we will continue to provide the world-class service our customers have come to expect,” he said in a statement to the press following the court’s decision.

“FedEx recognizes its ground-contractor model faces challenges on several fronts, [but] we continue to aggressively address these issues, and we have strong defenses to these challenges … it is business as usual at FedEx Ground,” he added.

One thing is for certain in all of this: It will be interesting to see where this goes and what impact it may have in store for long-haul owner-operators in the truckload sector.

“They’re actually trying to pass snow plows, which is not a good idea.” Deborah Cox, spokesperson for the Virginia State Police.

I love winter, especially when it snows – but oh how I HATE to drive in it! And the quote from Mrs. Cox above, given to the Washington Post newspaper, sums up why pretty well, I think.

Snow in my neck of the woods (the Washington D.C. metropolitan area) almost always results in a variety of transportation nightmares. We’ve come a long way in terms of snow control strategies – trucks are now always out on the side of the road ahead of storm, large or small, with plows and sand/salt spreaders at the ready – but we STILL can’t figure out how to drive in the white stuff.

First thing, of course, is NOT to drive if you don’t have to. Unfortunately, I had to when we got some three inches of snow yesterday – there are no buses for my preschooler to use. But so many people were out running to the shopping mall, the grocery store, and lord knows what else that it crowded up the slick and snowy streets to a high degree.

Then there’s the real idjits, who go barreling along at 50 to 60 mph – in SUVs, minivans, even high-tined Lexus sedans – like it’s a sunny spring day. PEOPLE! Cars SLIDE in snow; the traction is reduced exponentially. If you drive SLOWER and don’t make violent lane changes (like you’re in turn three at Talladega, trying to pass Jeff Gordon) you might’ve avoided that ditch, telephone pole, and tree – much less the other cars crowded next to you.

Maryland State Police Sgt. M. McGuire told the Post that his force handled five times as many wrecks as usual due to all the brainless driving going on, “People are just in a hurry [and] they think they can go as fast as they always do,” he told the paper. Charles County Maryland reported 22 car wrecks in four hours due to poor driving combined with the weather.

It’s frustrating because I see the same behavior every single time it snows around here. In 2006, I had to drive to the airport in one hell of a February blizzard, following a convoy of trucks (tractor-trailers and snow plows) in the right hand lane on the Capitol Beltway going about 35 mph. Folks came whipping up behind us at 65 mph or more, fishtailing around us with near misses galore. And WHY for goodness sakes? What is so important that you need to go flying down a slick highway in whiteout conditions, when you KNOW there will be slow traffic ahead?

In short, where are everyone’s brains these days when they get behind the wheel?

You know, there’s a saying stenciled on the back of every tractor-trailer operated by Giant Foods, one of the big grocery chains in our area: “Careful driving is a civic duty.” Wish more drivers out there would follow that mantra, especially in the snow.

Despite all the gizmos we’re packing onto today’s commercial on-highway trucks – roll stability control, air disc brakes, etc. – the fact remains that driver error is still the leading cause of car-truck crashes on our roads. And that means ALL drivers – truckers as well as four wheeler, with errors on the part of four wheelers still accounting for over half the reasons cars and trucks get involved in crashes.

That’s why the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), is going to keep expanding its Operation Safe Driver campaign. It’s aimed at getting to root causes of driver errors, which, as we all know, involve speeding and aggressive driving behaviors. Both of those are “errors” in the broad sense of the word, though drivers have a significant amount of control they can exercise over them.

“The statistics tell the tale: nearly nine out of 10 crashes between cars and trucks are attributed to the driver, with 56% of those attributed to the passenger car driver,” said FMCSA Administrator John Hill in a press statement about the new effort. “Programs like Operation Safe Driver will help all drivers realize how their decisions behind the wheel affect safety.”

With approximately 43,000 people dying on U.S. highways each year – with 5,000 of those fatalities involving large trucks – something’s got to be done. And what I like about this program is that it finally addresses the CAR driver’s role in these deadly crashes, rather than just hammer on the truck driver alone. Again, the FMCSA’s own crash analysis shows that 56% of crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle are attributed to the passenger vehicle driver, with the remaining 44% (obviously) the fault of the truck driver.

“CVSA wants to make clear that driving defensively and in a cooperative manner makes for safer highways for all drivers and passengers on the road,” said CVSA Executive Director Stephen F. Campbell said. “This program part of a larger law enforcement effort and focus to reduce fatalities on the most dangerous, high crash corridors in North America.”

Now, this doesn’t mean trucking gets to turn a blind eye to the problems festering on its side of the ledger. Look at the statistics the most recent statistics Operation Safe Driver collected between October 21 and 28 this year – and effort involving nearly 3,700 law enforcement personnel and more than 1,500 localities in 31 states and five Canadian provinces.

Out of 20,523 Commercial Motor vehicle (CMV) Driver/Credential Inspections, 2,090 (10.2%) resulted in the driver being placed out of service. Some 30 carriers (or 34% of the total reviews) receiving a Conditional Safety Rating – not good, as the national average of carriers rated “Conditional” is 25%. Another 10 carriers (or 11% of the total reviews) receiving an Unsatisfactory Safety Rating – again, not good, as the national average of carriers rated “Unsatisfactory” is 6%

But then look at these two sets of statistics. Out of 16,636 CMV Driver Traffic Enforcement Contacts, 4,229 resulted in moving violations, or 0.25 violations per contact. Then, out of 6,698 Non-CMV Driver Traffic Enforcement Contacts (that’s a long-winded way of saying “car drivers”) resulted in 4,860 moving violations – or 0.73 violations per contact, almost TRIPLE the rate of truckers. That’s pretty telling, I think.

Here’s another series: out of 22,181 CMV Driver License checks and 6,205 Non-CMV Driver License checks, the program cited 53.8% of truckers for speeding, which rose to 68.2% for car drivers. Only 0.4% of the truckers got tickets for reckless driving, whereas that climbed to 3% of car drivers. Only 0.8% of truckers were cited for improper passing, which rose to 1.7% for car drivers.

But there are also plenty of areas where truckers need to improve. Failure to obey traffic lights and signs is one: 14.7% of those 22,181 truckers got cited for that; only 3.6% of car drivers did. Following too closely was a problem for 5.7% of truckers and 5% for car drivers – that’s something both groups need to work on. Some 3.2% of truckers were cited for improper lane changes; only 2% of car drivers were.

One thing’s for certain – the focus is going to be on drivers of ALL vehicles from here on out when it comes to highway safety improvement efforts. And that all-inclusive approach is definitely a good thing.

I know, I know: you’ve heard the mantra “Always wear your seat belt” since you graduated driver’s ed umpteen years ago. Problem is, many truck drivers still DON’T wear them – about 41%, according to figures compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) last year.

Yet it’s the lowly seat belt that’s the final line of defense in not only preventing a driver from getting killed in an accident, but also reducing the severity of any injuries sustained in a wreck. And all it takes is just three second – three MEASELY seconds – to buckle up, thus vastly increasing your chances (and that of your drivers) to not only survive a crash but suffer fewer injuries as well.

Farmers Insurance just completed an in-depth study of seat belt effectiveness using 2006 fatal crash data compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation to back this up – and while it looked mainly at car and light-truck occupant stats, the lessons for truck drivers are still really profound, I believe.

“Once again, we find strong statistical evidence that seat belts remain the most important protection for the driver,” noted Kevin Mabe, staff economist at Farmers, who headed up the insurance carrier’s analysis. “We found that when a driver used a seat belt, the odds of a fatality dropped nearly 70% compared to a driver who did not.”

Mabe said Farmer’s analysis incorporates a logistic econometric model with forty-one variables, accounting for factors such as road and traffic conditions at the time of the fatal accident, location and time, accident events, vehicle specifics, driver demographics, and safety features. “Controlling for these additional external factors allows us to more precisely isolate the degree to which safety belts save lives,” he explained.

Several other factors showed significance in decreasing the odds of a driver’s death, Mabe said. For example, rear-end collisions proved less deadly than head-on or “T-bone” collisions. Larger vehicles, such as trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and vans, appeared to protect the driver better than a typical automobile due to their larger size (Duh!). Dry roads, in contrast with wet roads, decrease the odds of a fatality by over 10%, suggesting that drivers should use caution when navigating slick roads.

Other factors increased danger on the roads. “Nighttime and winter driving tended to produce more deadly accidents, and drivers should continue to exercise additional caution,” Mabe noted. “Certain accident events, such as rollovers, ejections, and vehicle fires, greatly reduce the survivability in an accident. Motorcycle accidents showed remarkably increased mortality rates compared to other vehicles.”

Not all factors proved predictive, he stressed. While driver height and weight appeared to have little influence on the outcome of the accident, age plays an important part. “Older drivers, as well as young new drivers, have an increased risk. But in the end, a driver’s three-second choice to ‘buckle up’ will more than double his or her chances to survive a severe accident.”

Those odds are the kind you can live with.

It’s a ubiquitous sight that greeted me this morning — a squat concrete mixer truck, obviously fully loaded and heading for a job, inching ever so slowly up Old Keene Mill Road (well below the posted 45 mph speed limit) through greater Springfield, VA. I think to myself, hey, it’s rush hour and people are going to be whipping around this guy at ninety miles an hour, flipping him off along the way: we’ll be lucky if an accident doesn’t occur.

Except …

First, the driver of this medium-duty International mixer truck (the drum painted in red, white, and blue stripes, just like the American flag) has his yellow hazards on — and in the misty morning gloom, those flashing yellow lights give all the drivers coming up behind him in the right lane ample time to psss on the left.

Second, at every turn lane or bus lane on the right hand side, he moves over to let traffic pass, again giving time for commuters to get around him safely. He makes smooth lane changes (and it’s no wonder — with the concrete drum turning, he’s no doubt worried that a sharp manuever may cause a rollover) and doesn’t drive in typical “run fast downhill, creep slow uphill” mode, giving everyone the ability to pass, regardless of the roadway incline.

This is professional driver courtesy in action — courtesy no doubt completely overlooked by the hundreds of morning commuters plowing past him well above the speed limit. Yet if he (or she — I couldn’t tell from my angle) didn’t drive their concrete mixer in this fashion, the hue and cry by way of car horns, flashing headlights, and muffled epithets would’ve been hard to miss. But all of that got short circuited by a truck driver taking pains to make his journey less of a hassle for others.

Wish I knew your name or that of your company, my friend — for your efforts, trivial as they may seem to other drivers, did not go unnoticed. Keep up the good work!