In 2009, the US Department of Transportation proposed several new rules to promote safety and prevent bus and truck accidents. These included:
– Electronic onboard devices to record hours of driving to help enforce limits and prevent fatigued drivers
– A “minimum” knowledge requirement for drivers
– Oversight on “fly by night” companies who set up and dissolve quickly to avoid enforcement
Presently driver logs are most often kept by hand on paper. This seems absurd in an era when even modestly priced cars have GPS, satellite radio and blue tooth hands free phone connections (my daughter’s Toyota Prius has all these). If a simple device were installed in all trucks and busses to keep track of a driver’s hours, it would be very hard to fudge the records. These devices would require less computing power than many of the devices we carry in our pockets.
Drivers should be required to meet minimum knowledge standards.
Companies should have to be certified before setting up shop instead of waiting for the feds to get to them.
All of these things are common sense. Let’s write our legislators and members of Congress to get this done.
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