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Focus: Transportation Management

Feature Article from Our Transportation Management Subject Area - See All
 

From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

- Sept. 14, 2015-

 

Supply Chain News: Is the Trucking Industry Really Too Deadly?

 

Former Transport Topics Editor Howard Abramson Says Industry Pushing Profits over Safety, while ATA Says Much of Editorial is False or Misleading


SCDigest Editorial Staff

 

Controversy in the trucking sector, as a former industry insider takes the sector to task relative to safety issues.

In a recent op-ed column published in the New York Times, Howard Abramson, former publisher and editorial director of the American Trucking Associations' Transport Topics magazine and having a long career covering transportation, accuses the trucking industry of being a deadly one badly in need of regulatory reform.

SCDigest Says:

startThe American Trucking Associations fought back, writing in an open letter that the Abramson piece was pretty much wrong from top to bottom.
 
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He says, for example, that 3964 people were killed in truck-related accidents in the US in 2013, the last year for which data is available, up 17% from 2009.

Abramson also says the trucking industry uses its powerful influence to roll back or prevent many safety related regulations, such as working to get Congress to suspend the 34-hour restart rule pending additional study. He is also very critical of the move to allow heavier and/or longer trucks, either or both of which may still find their way into a new highway bill.

Despite the rise in deaths, "Congress continues to do the trucking industry's bidding by frustrating the very regulators the government has empowered to oversee motor carriers," Ambramson writes.

"In recent months, Congress has pursued a number of steps to roll back safety improvements ordered by federal regulators. It has pushed to allow truck drivers to work 82 hours a week, up from the current 70 hours over eight days, by suspending a rule that drivers take a 34-hour rest break over two nights in order to restart their work week; discouraged the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from investing in wireless technology designed to improve the monitoring of drivers and their vehicles; and signaled its willingness to allow longer and heavier trucks despite widespread public opposition," Abramson said. "Congress also wants to lower the minimum age for drivers of large trucks that are allowed to travel from state to state to 18 from 21."

The piece not surprisingly has drawn much praise from safety-related groups and other editorial quarters.
For example, an editorial in the Montgomery [Alabama] Advertiser after the Abramson piece was published railed against the "glaring irresponsibility of members of Congress now working to relax safety regulations on the trucking industry, at the behest of the powerful trucking lobby."

An article on www.allgov.com web site with the title of "Why Can't the Trucking Industry Give up Just Some of its Profits to Save Lives?" pretty much summarizes its position.

(Transportation Management Article Continued Below)

 
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On the other side, the American Trucking Associations fought back, writing in an open letter that the Abramson piece was pretty much wrong from top to bottom.

It noted, for example , that the editorial implied that truckers were at fault for all the deaths from truck-related accidents, while in reality "Per the most recent federal data available, upwards of two-thirds of all serious crashes involving large trucks are caused by the actions of someone other than the professional driver."

It added that "Second, Mr. Abramson says Congress has "eliminated the requirement that drivers take a two-day break each week." This isn't just an implied falsehood - it is simply and totally wrong."

What Congress has done is almost exactly the opposite, the ATA said, "allowing drivers to take more than one two-day break each week should they need or want to - and easing an onerous restriction that these breaks include two periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m."

The ATA said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration admitted to Congress it never studied the potential consequences of these changes, "consequences we now know - thanks to an American Transportation Research Institute analysis - include increased daytime truck traffic and likely increases in crashes as a result of more congested highways during daylight hours."

It also added that over the past decade, number of truck-involved fatal crashes has fallen by a third.

One important debate issue we'll note here is the contention by many in the industry that allowing heavier and/or longer trucks would actually improve safety by getting more trucks off the road.

In fact, last week Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) introduced the The Safe, Flexible, and Efficient (SAFE) Trucking Act , which would allow individual states to increase the federal vehicle weight limit to 91,000 pounds for tractor-trailers equipped with a sixth axle, which will be added as an amendment to a new Highway funding bill.

That change would "allow fewer trucks to move more cargo in a safer manner" Ribble said in a press conference last week.

Many consumer safety groups oppose the change, however.

Which side do you think is right here? Is trucking putting profits over safety? Or is Abramson off base, as the ATA contends? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button (for email) or section (for web form) below.

 


   
 

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