One Pagers

Truck Driver Shortage

According to Craig Callahan, executive vice president at Werner Enterprises, “There’s not a shortage of truck drivers, there’s just a shortage of really good ones.”

The Trucker's Perspective of Autonomous Trucks

The vast majority of OOIDA members are against autonomous truck technology (ATT) for a variety of different reasons, including safety, job security, and cost, both for the technology itself and for infrastructure. Though a few believed that ATT would benefit a few specialized operations, such as mining, most held the technology to be impractical and unreliable for our nation’s highways.

MCSRAC Letter Report Findings

The MCSRAC was created from the National Academies of Sciences by the FAST Act to promote integrity and transparency in FMCSA Research & Technology activities and to assist the Agency in refining its research methodologies.

Examination of Publicly Available Data from FMCSA on CSA Scores and Motor Carriers

Various groups continue their attempts to increase truck size and weight by claiming that such an increase would ultimately reduce the number of trucks on the road and thereby decrease congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and pavement damage all while improving productivity. However, studies conducted by the Transportation Research Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation have concluded otherwise.

The Truth about Overweight Trucks

Various groups continue their attempts to increase truck size and weight by claiming that such an increase would ultimately reduce the number of trucks on the road and thereby decrease congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and pavement damage all while improving productivity. However, studies conducted by the Transportation Research Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation have concluded otherwise.

The Dangers of Lane Restrictions

A number of statehouses today are considering lane restrictions for CMVs with the assumption that it will reduce congestion and travel delays while also improving safety, pollution, and economic activity. Research has demonstrated however that truck lane restrictions are difficult to enforce, accelerate pavement deterioration, create speed differentials, and increase merging conflicts and crashes.

Hair Testing

While proponents of hair testing claim that it is a safety issue, the facts clearly demonstrate that hair testing in lieu of urinalysis is a solution in search of a problem.

The Truth about Highway User Fees

There is a general misperception today that the trucking industry does not pay their fair share of taxes into the Highway Trust Fund. However, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Tolling

Perhaps the biggest issue facing American’s infrastructure today is how to pay for it as the government searches for viable options to finance various transportation projects. One funding option that has continued to reemerge over the years is tolling even despite its poor record as a viable alternative.

The Truth About Fatigue

The concept or definition of fatigue is frequently misunderstood and misstated, thus causing confusion and the misperception that fatigue is a leading cause of large truck crashes.

Regulatory Burden with no link to Safety

Between 2010 and 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has promulgated 71 final rules upon the truck and bus industries, many of which have had no positive effect on safety. While the total number of crashes consistently decreased by 27.5 percent from 2004 to 2009, crashes have increased by 39 percent from 2010 to 2014 despite the influx of federal regulations.

ELDs - Assumptions versus Facts

As part of the ELD Final Rule, FMCSA was required to conduct a regulatory impact analysis to calculate the benefits and costs associated with an ELD mandate. In order to understand FMCSA’s RIA however, the industry must accept the assumptions under which the cost and benefits were founded even though many are not based on sound science.

The Truth about ELDs

The premise behind the ELD Final Rule is that ELD’s will increase compliance with the HOS regulations and thereby will reduce the risk of fatigue-related crashes. FMCSA’s own research however found a different conclusion. According to the study, “No differences were found between the EHSR cohort and the non-EHSR cohort for USDOT-recordable and fatigue related crash rates.

The Truth about Obstructive Sleep Apnea

A proposal to screen drivers for OSA, especially when FMCSA’s own research and data demonstrate that there is no valid or reliable evidence which shows that sleep apnea is the cause for CMV crashes, is not an effective effort to improve highway safety. OOFI therefore strongly recommends that no further effort to screen CMV operators for OSA should proceed without true empirical research showing a definitive link to CMV safety.

A Performance Review of CSA indicates that CSA should be placed Out-of-Service and its Authority Revoked

While most of the criticism and discussion concerning CSA has centered on the accuracy of the data, the algorithms, the methodology, and its real world value, this one pager examines the true factual performance of the CSA program for the five years of its implementation and demonstrates that it has been a total failure.

The Truth about Speed Limiters and Safety

Utilizing publically available information on the SMS, OOFI has found that many of the large carriers who have been pushing for a speed limiter mandate have poor safety records compared to carriers of similar size who do not have speed limiters installed

Differential Speed Limits Make Roads Less Safe

Numerous research demonstrates that speed differentials produce unsafe roadways by increasing interactions between vehicles. The introduction of speed limiters for large trucks will create speed differential on our highways and thereby increasing the risk of an accident

Speed Limiters will negatively impact safety

Speed limiters are electronic controlled modules that interact with a truck engine and are capable of limiting the maximum speed of a truck. OOIDA opposes a mandate for speed limiters as such a mandate would increase the interaction between large trucks and passenger vehicles, thereby decreasing overall highway safety.

Current 34-Hour Restart

There are four categories in the hours-of-service regulations that determine the maximum time that a driver is able to drive and work in a given period. The following one-pager briefly summarizes the benefits and usage of a voluntary 34-hour restart.

Detention Time

Detention time, or in particular the period that a driver is not paid while he or she waits to be loaded or unloaded, is an issue of primary concern for the trucking industry. In a recent survey conducted by the OOIDA Foundation, approximately two thousand respondents expressed their professional opinions and experience with detention, many of whom felt that detention time not only impacted their financial livelihood but that it also negatively impacted safety on the roadways.

Unified Carrier Registration 101

In August 2005, the Unified Carrier Registration Act (UCR Act) was established by federal law as an interstate agreement between the States to govern the collection and distribution of motor carrier registration information and generated fees. The UCR applies to all interstate motor carriers and entities that are required to register with FMCSA, including those that are based in Canada and Mexico.

Minimum Financial Responsibility

FMCSA has recently been examining the financial responsibility requirements even though their own data demonstrates that there is no relationship between safety and insurance coverage. While the Agency is considering increasing the liability insurance requirements, OOFI has noted that just a 5% increase in premiums per power unit would add $779 million in costs to the trucking industry.

CSA 101

Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) is a FMCSA enforcement and compliance tool designed to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Stakeholders however, have expressed numerous concerns about the programs accuracy and reliability.

Hours of Service Comparison Chart

In December 2014, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced an amendment to revise certain provisions of the hours-of-service regulations, which essentially forced FMCSA and the States to revert back to the enforcement of the pre-July 1, 2013, 34 hour restart provisions. The following chart shows the difference between the previous HOS rules and what is currently required.

The Truth about Automatic Emergency Braking

Although advancements in ADAS technology are impressive, a number of challenges remain, including the effectiveness, reliability, and cost of these systems, such as AEB

Cost of Safety Technologies

Technology is often presented as a the panacea for all crashes. However, even if it did work as suggested, how much would it cost the trucking industry?

What is IRT

The National Academy of Sciences proposed FMCSA replace the CSA system with an IRT model. This begs the question, “What is IRT and how would it impact truckers?”

The Truth about BMI

Since of the inception of the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners, the practice of screening truck drivers for sleep apnea by utilizing a single risk factor, namely a driver’s body mass index, or BMI, has become increasingly more common. However, is this the best way to gauge a driver’s health?

Myth – One Truck Does More Damage than 9,600 Automobiles

In order to justify tolling heavy-duty trucks, proponents often cite an obscure statistic from a 1979 General Accounting Office study, but is it accurate?

Truck Parking Shortage

The shortage of truck parking capacity is one of the biggest issues truckers face today.

What Do the Facts Say About Younger Drivers and Safety

Research underscores the negative safety implications of younger CMV drivers.

Flow Chart: The Typical Day for an Owner-Operator

The issues effecting the supply chain today are not due to a lack of drivers, but because of increased detention time and other inefficiencies.

Predatory Towing

The towing and recovery (TR) industry is an essential partner to trucking, as breakdowns and crashes can occur at any time. However, conflicts do arise between these two industries due to differing objectives and priorities, which can lead to miscommunication, disagreement, and far too often, predatory practices.