Is the safety policy for this company an over kill?

Being it's a training company all that is understandable.
I would not tolerate it after one year of safe experience.

Don't need anyone watching and listening to me.
70 mph is not bad. In hilly areas I let the truck speed up going down to keep some momentum hitting the next hill going up.

 

It depends - criminally they'll look to establish a pattern of "malfeasance" and use the minor issues to support their argument that the driver is a callous, greedy so-and-so that willfully engaged in misconduct that led to the incident. Or overcharge to entice a quick plea deal.

On the civil side they'll use it first to compel discovery of peripherally related materials which may lead to other avenues of action and allow absurd claims to be presented to the jury.

Either way it's not a lynch pin, rather a small cut that leads to a staph infection.

 

Sorry, but that went out the window the moment Warner got 90 million dollar judgement against them. Oh, the driver got I believe a 3.3 million judgement against them too.
What that case boiled down to was the driver should not have been there. The reason he should not have been there, was because there was a little ice on the road. The driver had every legal right to be there both from a hours of service perspective, and well any other regulatory perspective.
Also remember, this case was where a driver hit some ice, lost control, crossed the median and hit the truck. At no time did the truck ever lose control, even after getting struck.

 

My company has similar restrictions, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I’m governed at 65, and if you hit 70 or higher for either 15 or 30 seconds, I don’t remember which it is, it triggers a critical event. I haven’t triggered one yet in a year of driving. Watch your speed going down hills.

Overall, I don’t mind it. It’s pretty relaxing to cruise at 65 and just let everyone pass you. If I come up to a truck going 63 and I can’t easily pass, I’ll just slow it down to 63 for a while.

You need a much larger following distance in the truck. I think the adaptive cruise and collision avoidance system is good at teaching new drivers to maintain a good distance. Too often I see trucks run right up on another truck or 4 wheeler. Just this week, a truck behind me wasn’t paying attention to slowing traffic and had to hit the shoulder to keep from rear ending me. It starts beeping if I’m approaching a vehicle too quickly. You’ll start changing your driving so you don’t set it off, which will make you a safer driver. Yes, it sometimes sees a bridge and brakes. It’s annoying. If it does it a lot you may need to have the radar aligned.

I understand why experienced drivers don’t want these things, but for new drivers, I think it helps develop good habits.

 

If you want answers to why this is happening you have to look at more than just policies. You have to look at what drives those policies. Not long ago I bought Keri a new vehicle. While I was getting insurance to cover her I was asked a series of questions about the vehicle. How was it equipped? Remember also that over half of all freight moved in the US is handled through logistics companies (brokers). Last I heard they do have access to a carrier's CSA safety data. Anything a carrier can do to limit their exposure to claims regardless of if they are self-underwriting or not benefits them.

We are also on the cusp of a new world when it comes to trucking. I wear a Dexcom constant glucose monitor. It uses an app on my iPhone. Keri can follow my blood sugar readings on her follow app. How easy would it be to have something like this on a truck sending health data back to the company via the QC? While it is not as accurate I have a blood pressure cuff that goes around my wrist. I could see something like this being forced to be worn while driving. Take it off and the truck stops. Back in the 80s, I would have never imagined the DOT would mandate elogs. They did! Same with GPS tracking. As more and more high tech becomes commonplace I can see more and more situations where insurance underwriters offer discounts for the use of this tech.

It is a common mistake that Mark Felt (Watergate Deepthroat) first used the term "Follow the money" which has been proven not true. It was added to the book and movie All the President's men by mistake. However, this does not mean it is not a powerful phrase. In trucking as well as almost everything else when you want to get to the bottom of the situation "FOLLOW THE MONEY"!

 

The last tractor I drove before retirement had this system. I was leaving Knoxville east on I-40 several miles before the I-81 split when a 4-wheeler passed around me and cut into that radar beam. I had my cruise on and at the time honestly was on personal cruise control also because of my health. My truck braked so hard it flung my laptop off my bunk and it slammed against my dash so hard it busted the lid. I was assigned that Prostar sometime in 2012 and was planning to leave it at our Atlanta Terminal and make my move to take the job I originally moved to Virginia for. Had I not been sick I would have made a stink about it and given the company a choice to give me my old tractor back or change jobs. On this subject consider me from Missouri! It is wrong in any system regardless of the reason to have the brakes hooked into an automatic system. ONLY the driver should be the one to deploy those brakes. Later I did speak to our safety director about that hard brake. I sit and listened to his spiel for several minutes and left him stuttering as I was walking out with this question! "what if a car hit the rear of my trailer and went under it while I was braking". Do people think those ICC bumpers are ironclad? I challenge you to walk around in a terminal or a truck stop and examine them. Most have serious problems with rust that are just painted over. I continued IF this had happened to me and this had become a fatality accident you and I would be having a different conversation, and this company might well be paying a settlement and an FMCSA fine. I of course would lose my job in the process and be radioactive for a while. I walked down the hall for about 20 feet maybe and turned around and saw this man looking at me. I know that old saying that goes "if a frog had wings he would not be bumping his butt when he jumped" the thing is I was right that day and he knew it!

 

My company has a rule about letting the truck get to 80 mph going down hill. I think if they catch you twice in the camera, they let you go. Many companies has some sort of "over-speed" rule. You'll have to pay attention to the road and try to anticipate going downhill so loads don't push you down at a fast rate. That's actually a great method of driving down mountains should you ever make it out west. Every reputable company will be strict on safety. They will guard their safety scores with their lives. It's just that different companies have different points of emphasis.

 

It really isn't. There are parts of the country where it gets so congested, that a driver will be running 63 mph extensively. I sometimes set my cruise around 62 or 63. I normally drive 65, but sometimes it's just not feasible. You just look ahead and see so many trucks bunched up in the hammer lane really not getting anywhere. To me, the faster speeds can be more of a hazard because so many people want to run that rate of speed and they end up bunched with little following distance. At least in the open road setting, a 63 mph driver will get passed easily. It should be easy to anticipate a lane change at that point.

 

The actual answer would be "then they were following too closely and are at-fault for running into you."

 

I've actually spoken with an attorney about this. You are technically correct in a Criminal matter. Before THIS DOT CHANGE, I might have been OK. Today if an ICC bumper fails even if the vehicle was following too close it means most likely the ICC bumper had an issue. Most likely I am going to get charged under 393.86 because of the change mentioned above.

Here is the problem as told to me by this Attorney. In almost ALL liability lawsuits a percentage of the blame gets assigned. Remember there is a difference between a following too closely charge in criminal court and a wrongful death charge in civil court. If my ICC bumper was proven to have been faulty a lot of the percentage of the blame is going to fall on me and my company.

Early in the year before my heart problems got bad I was attempting to contact the FMCSA southern district to speak to someone about this change. My health got worse and I did not follow up.