Action Items from Truck Safety Conference Put Out for Vote
IVsource.net
15 September 2001

In June, a group called the 21^st Century Driver and Truck Alliance sponsored a workshop entitled  “Improving Safety for Drivers and Fleets – Historical and Innovative Approaches,” in which a diverse group of trucking industry players examined the “total picture” of the safety equation for commercial fleets.

Dr. Richard Grace, President of the Alliance and a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, encouraged participants to go beyond “talk” to propose specific action items or initiatives that the group could champion.  This process continued via email after the conference.  The result of this process is the 31 items shown below.

The conference group included safety managers from large and small fleets, safety technology engineers from OEMs and suppliers, academics, and consultants.  Not surprisingly, the definition of “trucking safety” appeared to vary among the minds of the different players, depending on each participant's background and role.  For instance, “improved driver safety” meant better training protocols for some, whereas others considered real-time feedback to the driver via technologies that can monitor performance.  These differences are reflected in the diversity of action items included in the list.

Of the 31 items, about 15 relate to fleet operations (on the road and in the back office), 6 to training and/or education, and about 8 to equipment or vehicle design issues.

The conference organizers were asked all participants to vote on their “top 5” areas by August 20.  The results will be used to form working groups to make some progress in these areas.

Conference proceedings are available from Sonya Stewart at sonyas@rec.ri.cmu.edu.  For more information on the Alliance and on future workshops, contact Dr. Richard Grace at rg18@andrew.cmu.edu. 

Truck Safety Workshop
Action Items

1. Develop programs for management to encourage driver participation in developing safety programs. (Program opportunity.)

2. Establish Real-Time Feedback Systems for Drivers.  Define good behaviors, reward mechanisms. (Research opportunity.) (Richard Bishop)

3. Establish voluntary national standards for driver training, relying on incentives for implementation by industry. (Outreach opportunity)

4. Redesign the Profession of Truck Driving. (Research opportunity for standards development)
   Redesign the profession of truck driving by changing society's attitudes toward the expectations of drivers and transportation (John Baxter)

5. Transfer knowledge of diverse recruitment from other industries to alleviate driver shortage issue. (Program opportunity)

6. Provide outreach to shippers and ultimate customers to help develop solutions to safety issues. Make presentations/booklets to reach these communities. (Cooperative Outreach Opportunity)

7. Find ways of reaching small fleets regarding development of safety solutions (fleets of 5 or fewer trucks) regarding technology adaptation, training, cultural change, etc. Suggested forums: State Trucking Associations, evening meetings. (Outreach opportunity)

8. Critically review mandated training programs for novice drivers (car), novice truck drivers, and experienced drivers.  Fund program by federal and state tax credits. (Political Action Opportunity - Jim Kuczek)

9. Develop industry guidelines for carrier-shipper relations. (Outreach opportunity)

10. Promote safety programs and incentive programs in industry that have demonstrated success. Target towards both small fleets and non-commercial driving communities. (Program/outreach opportunities)

11. Find ways of improving defensive capabilities of commercial drivers. (Research opportunity)

12. Work together for elimination of 12% excise tax on safety-related equipment. (Political action opportunity)

13. Explore changes in compensation methods such that drivers are paid for all time worked. (Research opportunity)

14. Eliminate fair labor standard act for overtime.
    Eliminate fair labor standard act exemption regarding overtime for truck drivers (John Baxter, Jeff Burns)

15. Make shippers pay…minimum shipping charge?  

16. Make shippers provide loaders/unloaders.

17. Make late penalties illegal when done to comply with applicable laws.

18. Provide tax credits for true safety equipment.

19. Raise minimum insurance level.

20. Develop greater internet based education models for truck drivers.

21. Provide internet-based education for both commercial and non-commercial drivers.
    Develop educational program for delivery over the internet for working drivers and schools systems.  Drivers would receive the information at home or work locations.  The school systems can make time available for lessons on 'No-zone' and other safety initiatives.  In the past, children have been great message bearers back to the parents, both verbally and via handouts.  This would increase population exposure to the issue of operating passenger vehicles around large vehicles (John Sullivan)

22. Investigate means of mitigating vehicle aggressiveness of commercial vehicle/personal vehicle interactions.

23. Promote absolute strict enforcement of DUI/DWI rules.

24. Review existing models to deal with shippers.

25. Investigate total driver compensation package, including retirement…as a safety-related factor.

26. Determine solid statistics of what crashes occur and why. (Research opportunity)

27. Study Fleet Performance.  (Research opportunity)
    Examine not only crash types, but fleet-based parameters -- what types of haulers are having what types of crashes, and what size of fleets? The hypothesis is that the small fleets are having the highest crash incident rates (Richard Bishop)

28. Challenge the Trucking Industry to Give Technology Community Its Requirements.  Typically, trucking fleets are reactive to safety technology.  They respond to vendors who have a new gadget to improve safety, and about 90% of the gadgets aren't useful for one reason or another.  This is a reactive stance to technology developers.  A pro-active approach is proposed, in which the trucking fleets meet together to determine what they want and then hand that over to the technology community to see what they can deliver. (Richard Bishop)

29. "Hands-on" Training for Small and Medium Fleets.
    Develop a "hands-on" training program on Human Resources Management for Transport Fleets aimed at small and medium fleets, including certification and testing procedures and establish a support network of certified professionals and certified master trainers capable of assisting transport fleets in their management of HR programs and at reasonable rates. (Louis-Paul Tardif)

30. Investigate Auto/Truck Interactions and Related Fatal Accidents.
    Investigate the interactions between autos and trucks that leads to fatal accidents to develop a better understanding of the events leading to fatal truck/auto accidents. This understanding would then be used to develop countermeasure programs. With 60% to 80% of involved fatal accidents resulting from the action of an automobile, such an understanding coupled with followup countermeasure programs are required to achieve the USFMCSA target reductions in fatalities.  (Ray Barton) 

31. Incorporate Driver Fatigue Monitoring.
    Truck/bus fleet managers need to consider driver fatigue as a major issue.  The technology for predicting when fatigue is likely to be a performance problem is available and should be incorporated into fleet operations.  (Mark Crabtree)

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