Schneider moving solo to 63mph

A couple of thoughts for the "guess it wasn't about safety after all" group. Please note I may not be expressing my own views, rather I am attempting to illuminate another side of the argument.

Until the mid 1990's Schneider was an 'outlaw' carrier. The motto was "do what you need to do to get it there" and safety/regulatory was blind as a mole. In 1988 the nation wide speed limit of 55 mph was repealed. Crashes at Schneider began to rise. While there is significant correlation to the increase in speed, other factors are in play including the switch to non-union drivers, increased road congestion, and other factors I am not aware of. At some point in the early 90s the decision was made that all the accidents were costing more than the extra loads were earning. Schneider turned the trucks down to 65 MPH on the foot and 63 on the cruise and began trying to institute a 'culture of safety'. Fuel was still cheap so there was no true fuel economy savings. Shortly after governing the trucks Schneider saw the total number of on-the-road accidents drop precipitously. Again, correlation does not mean causation but no other single event has had as much an impact on DOT reportable crashes.

In 2008 Schneider further reduced the speed of its trucks to 60 MPH. While there was a drop in accidents, particularly rear end accidents, this move was in large part due to high fuel costs and non-existent freight due to the "reverse upward trend" of the economy. To the best of my knowledge at that time most metropolitan areas had a 55 mph speed limit, most interstates in the Midwest, NE, and SE were at 65 mph, and several states (MI, IN, OH) had split speed limits with trucks being limited to 55-60 MPH. Thus the slow down did not, on average, take Schneider trucks to the point of being hazards in most areas.

Around 2010 speed limits started going up. Indiana dumped it's split speed limit, WI went to 70, Chicago went from 55 to 65 on I-294, etc. Now instead of being 5 mph below the speed limit Schneider trucks are now averaging 10 or more mph below.

Starting in 2012 OnGuard was introduced fleet wide. Rear end crashes and hard brake events dropped. Second largest drop in company history. In order to follow too closely a driver must make an effort and can not simply be on the cruise two seconds too long and careen into a vehicle going 3 mph slower. Personally I don't think many drivers recognize how often OnGuard prevents them from getting into dangerous situations.

The combination of higher speed limits and crash mitigation devices means raising the speed of the trucks may actually result in an increase in safety. At worst it will probably be negligible.


The other thing to think about is liability. Late 2015 Freightliner came out with a "wipers on/cruise off" feature. From a liability standpoint Schneider almost had no choice about installing them. If there is a $15 dollar switch that could have prevented a loss of control accident which resulted in fatality Schneider would have to prove that the device would not have helped in order to win the civil suit. After the installation of this wonderful device Overspeed rose dramatically, surprising no one but the engineers. Even the best drivers can only hold a 1-2 mph variance when running the foot pedal. If a company has a policy and does not enforce it they open themselves up to liability. On the other hand if they change policy to match the de facto situtation then the company is protected. The truck will cut out the fuel at 63 MPH regardless so Overspeed will only happen going down hill, thus total Overspeed for the fleet should drop, thus Schneider can "show how safe they are" to the jury. Thus it is safer to turn the trucks up. Not safer for the driver or the motoring public, but safer for the company.

Just some food for thought. I also may have some dates wrong, please feel free to point them (or other errors) out.

 

I'm guessing the wipers on/cruise off is just an option. Had it in a T680 with another company, but this Cascadia I'm leasing does not.

 

Funny Thing is it's state law wipers on headlights on yet they don't make that a reality.

 

last truck I was in that "feature" was disabled. oops. guess I forgot to mention that to the shop.

 

When I had my cascadia it was that way. And you had to manually turn the headlights back off.

 

Whats Cruise Control?

 

Intermodal trucks will still be governed at 60, which makes no sense. Just because drivers may spend the day sitting in traffic or driving in city conditions doesn't mean everyone does. I never disliked the 60mph speed limit because I wanted to get in more miles, to me, driving at 60mph is dangerous, especially when you work/live in an area where most people don't care about the speed limit.

 

The driver I D&H with yesterday was miffed cause his truck was set at 75.
He asked if mine would do 75, and I said yes, which is the truth, but I didn't tell him it's not governed at all lol.
And to the Quercus & back, hammer down- 6.7 for 935 miles.

 

Lmao that way they don't have to figure out a "performance metric" to replace overspeed...silly Schneider at it again.

 

I've got a company 17 cascadia. Cruise still works with wipers on. I was talking to another company Driver and he said he was told that they have "perfected" the anti skid control in the new trucks so they are allowing cruise to still work. How true the reason is I'm certainly not sure about.