Now that the ELD mandate is in place, a greater blanket of transparency has covered the trucking industry. With greater transparency comes greater scrutiny and although we are living in an anti-regulatory environment a lot of laws and regulations are still on the books. Some within the trucking industry were hoping the ELD mandate would be one of the regulations given the boot when the new administration came in and began eliminating regulations.

Yet, many of the operators who see the ELD mandate as a great, big unnecessary expense are missing out on critical tools they can use to optimize their business, increase revenues, decrease costs, and improve fleet-wide safety measures.

Building a culture of safety around recruiting creates a sense of purpose. When you concentrate your efforts on safety, it turns into an essential core value. While speed and efficiency is important, they should never be put above safety. This should be the ethos that all truck drivers and fleet managers live by.

Starting With a Clean Record

Ensuring your recruiting efforts are built upon a foundation of safety requires you to start with a clean slate, or in this case, record. Although the trucking employment market is tight, if possible, avoid hiring new truck drivers with spotty safety records. Yet there is a flip side to that coin.

In many cases, a truck driver with a clean safety record is merely a new truck driver. Statistics show that truck drivers under the age of 25 years old get into more accidents than those in higher age brackets. Certainly, not every hire can be perfect, but if you start from a solid foundation, one built upon a culture of safety, then you will come out ahead in the talent pool game more often than not.

To ensure the people you employ are well-versed in the language of safety, you want to start training them as soon as they come aboard. The best way to keep younger, newer truck drivers engaged is to provide them with clear expectations and a comprehensive training curriculum.

Start with the basics (and the BASICs!):

• What is truck driver detention?
  • What are the base safe operating tips and tricks?
• What is a layover?
• How does the ELD mandate impact my job?
• What is an MVR?
• What do I need to know about vehicle specs, pre- and post-trip inspections?

It is important that a motor carrier sets up base expectations for its truck drivers and commits to holding themselves accountable just as much as they expect their truck drivers to remain accountable.

The Advantage of Recruiting Technology

We mean that statement both literally and figuratively.  New software-as-a-service (SaaS) and database and cloud solutions provide motor carriers with a way to access advanced recruiting tools, video orientation and coaching systems, camera, sensor, and hardware tech, and so much more!

By putting the focus on safety training from Day One, and backing your talk up with real, actionable solutions, you will ensure a safety culture that will be the envy of the industry. Now what better way can you think of to attract, train, and retain than by offering cutting-edge training, safety workshops, mentorships, and more?

Web-based interfaces provide users with portals to check status, safety information, competition information if the fleet is running such programs, and more. A new recruit with access to such a wealth of tools is far more likely to stay on board than someone who is tossed into the cab with no care given to their training.

Keep safety a core value, an integral part of your company’s mission, all while providing a more attractive target for potential truck drivers, simply by making safety a vital part of your initial hiring process.

The Alliance for Driver Safety & Security, otherwise known as the Trucking Alliance, has come out stating they plan to lobby congress to pass a new drug testing law that mandates anyone who is applying for a safety-sensitive truck driver job to take a drug test and verify they are not addicted to opiates or other illegal drug use.

The Trucking Alliance used a United Nations event to reveal this new initiative. They cited Brazil as an example of a country who was thinking forward on the issue. Brazil requires that new commercial truck drivers in Brazil pass a hair test before renewing their commercial vehicle driving license.

Since Brazil enacted this law, over 1 million truck drivers have failed their hair test or refused to renew their license to avoid getting caught in taking the test. The Alliance represents a coalition of freight and logistics companies that support safety technologies and regulations. They have been behind the push to create new speed limiter regulations, the ELD mandate, better truck driver training and advanced safety assistance technologies.

But Why Hair Tests?

The problem lies in the type of drugs that most truck drivers struggle with. Nearly half of all the truck drivers who fail drug tests do so because of opiates, no surprise considering the opiate addiction problem facing our country. Urine testing usually does not test positive for opiates because they are flushed out of the system rather quickly.

Hair testing, on the other end, usually can pinpoint opiates because the testing goes back far enough to discover the substance. The Alliance points to current drug testing methods as not enough to address the current substance abuse crisis enveloping the nation and the trucking industry. While many fleets don’t report major problems of failed drug tests, the Alliance purports the reason behind this is that fleets are not instituting hair tests for their employees.

Opioids can be undetectable in urine after a few hours, which allows opioid addicts to simply avoid drugs before submitting to a urine analysis. A hair test, however, detects opiate use up to 90 days out from use. Opiate pain killer includes everything from brands as diverse as hydromorphone to oxycodone, or trade names such as OxyContin, Percocet, and others. A urine analysis will miss these unless taken within an hour of use.

One of the proposals on the table includes Congress requiring tests for new truck drivers but requiring them for license renewals. Once a truck driver is on the road, it is critical that the motor carrier employing them is keeping track of whether they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. After all, lives are at stake.

Will It Matter In Our Current Political Environment?

Now the question is, will Congress or the Trump administration get on board with such a legislative push. We are currently in an anti-regulatory environment. Will more regulations, even if they make sense where trucking safety is concerned, make that much of a difference in the long run? While the Trucking alliance says yes, trucking industry advocates and trucking companies would like to keep those decisions in-house.

If hair testing is the right thing to do and will save lives, should motor carriers immediately jump on board? Also, is there a greater expense related to this type of extensive drug testing. Will small carriers be able to bear the cost? There are a lot of unanswered questions relating to drug testing and whether it should be mandatory, and it appears we won’t find the answers any time soon

Did you know that parking searches cost truck drivers and/or fleets up to $4,600 annually? In fact, parking availability is one of the top concerns whether you are asking motor carriers or truck drivers themselves. In fact, it has been documented that truck drivers feel a certain measure of anxiety over the parking situation they have to deal with on near-daily basis.

According to the Truck Parking Diary, detailed documentation from internal surveys shows that commercial truck drivers who agreed to participate in the surveys recorded parking experiences and issues across 4,700 truck parking stops.

As those who manage the Truck Parking Diary discovered as they broke down the data from the survey, several trends became apparent. The most readily available times to find parking were generally the weekends and mid-day hours. Conversely, the most difficult times were after 7:00pm during the week.

Available parking areas also stayed full all the way through to 5:00am the next day. Still, there were exceptions to the rule. The survey reported that there were higher instances of non-commercial vehicles – such as RVs – that often take up spaces reserved for commercial motor vehicles, which obviously adds to the problems truck drivers face trying to find parking.

The survey also found that if there were more flexible shipper/receiver times, truck drivers could shift their operating times away from the busiest parking times. Whatever can be done to help truck drivers find parking during peak and off-peak hours benefits both the trucking industry and the drivers.

How Much Do Truck Drivers Work?

Another aspect of the job the survey revealed was that truck drivers typically dedicated 56 minutes of allotted drive time to either parking or finding parking, rather than risk not being able to find a place to park further along the road.

This means that the truck driver effectively lowered the wages they were earning to the tune of $4,600, which accounts for over nine thousand lost minutes on an annual basis.  When 10-hour hours of service breaks were allowed, the survey determined that truck driver spent most of this allotted time trying to find parking than they did to addressing their basic amenities needs.

What did truck drivers look for when they were factoring whether or not they had found an appropriate parking space? Obviously, proximity to the route they are running is most important, but they also looked closely at whether the rest area offers restrooms and/or showers, or if the advertised parking spaces are available, and whether they had a reasonable ease of access and use.

There is Room for Improvement

Another important note that came from the survey was that there is certainly room for conditions to be improved, both by adding more parking along major freight lines and by increasing available facilities and providing the basic needs truck drivers look for when they are taking long breaks in a specific space.

Whether you are talking about public or private partnerships, more investment in parking spaces is needed. There also needs to be more flexibility in which rest areas are available to the public or commercial operators.

Throughout all this, motor carriers have been encouraged to pay reservation fees for truck drivers, which should help ease the stress of finding available parking. This would not only cut down on motor carrier costs or lost driving time but would go a long way to increasing truck driver retention rates.

Finally, truck drivers would not have to ask to shift their scheduled – or be asked to do so – based on peak driving times. Whether it be a lack of capacity, time limitations, or otherwise, truck drivers deserve to have facilities they can use, whether for increased comfort or safety.

Sure, you are probably thinking, “Why would a truck driver want to put a headset on? Isn’t that technically unsafe?” Yes, it is, but it also depends on the nature and use of the headset.

When combined with telematics and other advanced safety systems, a simple headset could have a number of uses. Sensors built into the headset act as a wearable, monitoring specific aspects of bodily functions and movements to catch potential fatigue, distraction, or risky driving behavior.

Test Runs

Many large trucking companies are already testing new technologies such as advanced headsets. One 1,100-truck motor carrier with primarily flatbed operations has decided to test an advanced telematic, sensor-equipped headset solution to assess the safety benefits.

Where headsets have benefits is in their flexibility. A wearable wrist-device only provides monitoring and feedback. A high-quality Bluetooth headset, on the other hand, provides a way for the operator to engage in hands-free communication. Truck drivers can get voice commands from navigation apps or even listen to music or have a conversation with dispatch if need be.

With a speaker over only one ear, the truck driver can still clearly hear everything that is going on in and around his or her vehicle. Even better, truck drivers will see this as an essential communication and entertainment tool, when in fact it would also be a vital safety device.

The sensors inside the headset are able to detect subtle movements of the head. They can sense if the operator is looking at a gauge on the dashboard, or objects in or around the vehicle. Once calibrated, the built-in sensors can also utilize an algorithm to detect head bobs, lack of movement, or other signs of drowsiness, fatigue, or sleep risk.

There’s An App for That

With the smartphone age upon us, there seems to be an app for anything and everything, including the safety headset, which can communicate with a Co-Pilot app. With the app pulled up on their smartphone, the truck drivers will receive real-time driving feedback and even provides scores to rate them on whether they are doing things like checking their mirrors in a timely fashion.

Since the entire solution is also built with the ability to communicate with a truck’s CAM, it can also provide real-time data and feedback regarding speed, braking, turns, and more. Users even have the ability to program their own voice as the recording alert should the system need to provide an alert or warning.

Fleet managers benefit by having access to a web portal that gives them truck driver risk and skill levels. Managers can use that data for friendly competitions or better calibrate truck driver behaviors through private meetings and coaching sessions based on the data.

If a fleet manager wants to see if their truck drivers are checking their mirrors before proceeding through an intersection, they can easily log into their portal and pull up either historical or real-time data on any operator within the fleet who is on the system.

Many wonder how well these systems will take in the face of truck driver skepticism. It’s no great secret that truck drivers are not fans of inward-facing cameras, so will they see these other technologies as an acceptable alternative?

Provided motor carriers are properly positioning these technologies as a way for a truck driver to advance, do a better job, perhaps get a bonus or be recognized in some other way, there is no reason why truck drivers on their payroll should see this as a bad thing.

Technology is already changing the way we drive commercial motor vehicles, maybe it is time to embrace how it will change our levels of safe driving.

We talk a lot about truck driver safety, but what about the safety of others within your organization. Certainly, heavy duty vehicle maintenance shop environments across North America can also be unsafe environments. Yet, studies have found that one of the best ways to keep your shop technicians safe is to ensure their work environment is well lit and easily navigable.

There are specific tools and accessories available to fleets to help make the shop one of the safest place to work in the company. Fleets should not be concerned only with the well-being of their truck drivers, but also with the well-being of anyone working within their company. Shop technicians have one of the most arduous jobs in the fleet. Working around all that heavy equipment, vehicles notwithstanding, represents a high level of danger.

It is important to spec equipment and options for your fleet technicians that do everything from reduce accidents to minimize eye strain, and enable better health, all without sacrificing efficiency or productivity along the way. Mission number one at any shop or service facility should not be regarding whether the vehicles are fixed properly (which is important), but rather if the people doing the fixing are operating safely.

So, what is a fleet to do to ensure their technicians are operating in a safe and supportive environment?

Lighting Systems

A well-lit workspace is important to just about anyone. Whether you are at a desk in a cubicle or working in a service facility, having enough light to do the job and minimize eye strain is critical, not just for morale and motivation but for safety and health. Ensuring the environment is conducive to fewer injuries and more productivity is the holy grail of all safety managers.

Here are some lighting options that will go a long way to making sure your technicians feel appreciated:

1.      Lift Lighting: Do your shop technicians have to work around lifts and columns. Mobile column lift lighting are DC-powered units that use LED or fluorescent technology to provide ample lighting to technicians working on or around a lift.

2.      Platform Lighting: Four-post platform lift lighting provides lighting using impact-resistant LEDs. They are used to illuminate the area beneath undercarriages and have settings that allow them to switch on-and-off automatically.

3.      Palm Lighting: Sometimes nothing works better than a simple light in the hand. Whether it is a palm light, a flashlight or some other accessory, being able to use your hand to direct where you want the light to go is key for any technician trying to effectively get the job done.

Many of these solutions can be powered either by lithium-ion battery or plugged directly into a wall outlet. The latest offerings use less energy while providing even greater illumination.

The safety benefits go beyond even lighting. Manufacturers of lighting and illumination systems have branched out, creating advanced heavy-duty, full-color, touch-screen control consoles that control high-pressure inground telescopic piston lifting systems.

These systems are designed to create a more comprehensive level of human-machine interaction. Not only does the technician have greater control of the lift, but the illuminated touch-screen makes learning and manipulating the controls a far easier proposition.

The fact is, motor carriers need to be taking special care to ensure their fleet technicians feel safe on the job and have the tools they need to carry it out. Investing in safety systems, new technologies, and cutting-edge lift controls, among many other things, proves to your people that their safety and success is at the forefront of your decision-making process. That way you can count on them to remain a part of your trucking family for a long time to come

Some point to the fact that trucking accidents and fatalities have been on the rise in the past few years. Yet, it isn’t only the trucking industry that has seen a rise in workplace incidents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, companies have been increasingly turning to virtual reality as an answer to increasing trucking safety measures and positively impacting their BASIC scores.

If there is one company that seems to be always at the forefront of change, it is UPS. They began using virtual reality (VR) as a supplement to their new truck driver safety exercises and it has yielded positive dividends where decreased accidents are concerned. With the economy improving and package deliveries rising, the company plans to use the program to train thousands of workers in 2018.

VR Safety Training Explained

The program UPS uses includes safety modules designed to help truck drivers notice road hazards, whether they be pedestrians, light poles, curbs, or other vehicles. The truck drivers that go through the training exercise wear a 360-degree virtual reality headset that gives them a front-to-back 360-degree field of view.

Not only does using these systems increase the caliber of training a fleet can offer, they are fun! In a time where the truck driver employee shortage seems to be more acute than ever, providing a gamificaton level of training that is both fun and educational is a definite draw for truck drivers looking for something special about a prospective employer.

Improving the overall safety measures of the trucking industry requires a collective effort. The motor carriers utilizing these systems is not limited to only dry van, reefer, or flat bed operators.

How will fleets operating industrial gas or other hazardous materials incorporate virtual reality into their training? Will the training extend to truck driver actions around the cab? What will be the range of movement that those in the program can expect?

Virtual reality provides those using the system with a way to train their muscle memory before they even step foot in the cab. Once they have gone through it enough times, the risk of accident is reduced. Think about this type of training in the way that a guitar player who practices regularly, whether for an audience or not, hones his or her skills over time.

Technology is the Answer

If there is one topic that seems to come up on a regular basis, it is how technology continues to change the trucking industry. VR simply adds to this paradigm. As computing power increases, VR allows users to overlay graphics, create real-world situations, emulate actual routes, learn how hazardous materials react under certain situations, and more.

When a truck driver can both see through an object and know that his or her decision related to said object is not a life-or-death one, it provides clear insight into how that operator will react in the heat of the moment.

VR systems provide a contextual understanding of objects and systems without the stress or worry of damaging critical components or causing an unnecessary problem. But are VR systems confined only to large fleets? Can smaller operators reap any benefit from these systems?

The answer is yes. With so many trucking companies out there looking for ways to both cut costs and grow their business, they are turning to technology as an answer. VR can play a pivotal role in increasing trucking safety and adding something unique to both fleet training and retention efforts.

As companies try to put a meaningful dent in the truck driver shortage, will technologies like VR be the answer. Some say yes. Either way, it appears that the use of VR systems within trucking applications will only rise over time.