According to the sad statistics by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, over 3,600 people became victims of large-truck deadly crashes in 2013. The majority of people who died in those fatal accidents were not truck drivers. Those people were drivers and passengers of other cars, pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists.
The measures to change the situation should have been taken long ago. Finally, the FMCSA set up the new rule following which during the next two years all the commercial truck and bus drivers must start using electronic logs (ELDs) to keep track of their on-duty hours. The regulation will take place in 60 days after it has been issued. ELDs will replace the paper logs where the information could be easily changed.
The paper logs have been used since the 30s to keep the record of truck drivers behind the wheel hours and rest time. Any truck driver is required to take a long rest and by the law there are limited hours he can be driving before the long rest time. E-logs are far more reliable and modern than paper logs so they will hopefully reduce the number of deadly truck crashes that often happen because of fatigue. It will also be easier for safety inspectors to see if a driver has violated the federal law putting lives at risk.
The rule has met some opposition as some industry officials find it unnecessary and costly. In their opinion, it can also make the problem of drivers’ shortage in the industry worse. Although, according to the researches, the new rule will help the industry save on paperwork and reduce the number of deaths and injuries from the large trucks accidents. It will make the drivers rest when it’s legally required, keeping the road safer. The provision of the new rule also prohibits using electronic logs info to harass the drivers.
Dirty little secret….ELD data can also be easily changed. All these devices do is force drivers to drive during rush hour in big cities and drive when they are tired. This actually goes into effect, I predict a HUGE increase in the frequency and severity of accidents.
To be honest I never had the privilege to use that. I believe they put more pressure and stress on the driver.
Wow.. I honestly remember a time when there were lots of accidents on the road involving large trucks. Mainly I remember it in the 90’s as I was on the road a lot driving back and forth from college. Sounds to me like having an electric log would be easier across the board. Yet if what Mr. Tucker says above is true and they can be easily changed then I guess therereally wouldn’t be much change. Yet I’m not sure why the truck driver has to drive during rush hour.. maybe I’m missing it.Yet I thought the ELD is used to confirm that the driver is resting a certain period of time in relation to theamount of time he is driving. I’m all for technology, so I believe it can only help..I mean let’s be honest.. driving while tired is dangerous period.. it just even more so when driving a huge truck.. Hopefully all will consider safety FIRST. Thanks for sharing this information.. very informative.. keep smiling
I hate that auto accidents happen, period. I wish that automobile accidents would never happen. However, there is always some knucklehead out there on the road who ruins everything for everybody. I think that it is good that there are rules regarding commercial truck and bus drivers. In addition, it is great that electronic logs will be in use. However, electronic logs can be tampered with as well. And, it doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to do this, either!
As a result, I think that paper and electronic logs should be used, along with close video surveillance monitoring of the logs being done. As far as sleepy drivers go, I think that every truck driver should be paired with another person, which would make it two drivers per truck.
That way when one driver gets tired, the other driver can take over the wheel, giving the sleepy driver a chance to sleep for 8-12 hours.