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By Tony Douglas Chief Executive Officer Smith System In this age of hyperactive technology there always seems to be a new gadget or gizmo entering the market with well-meaning intentions and an eye toward being the next big thing. Safety gadgets and gizmos for commercial vehicle fleets have been no exception. 
I remember using a first-generation “personal data assistant” in 1997 on the promise of making my life easier. After several frustrating months of trying to use a stylus to write on a 4-square-inch screen, I gave up and went back to my old day-planner. Then I started using a new generation PDA. It doesn’t need a stylus. It lets me place calls, check e-mail and surf the net anywhere. Some of the new gadgets are fantastic. My car has satellite radio and a button that assures “Always there. Always ready.” I can’t imagine driving without either. Advances in equipment have been mostly good. Better brakes, air bags (now available for all passengers in an automobile), reinforced door panels, crash and crumple zones, stability advances and improved tires are making our roads safer for car occupants. Unfortunately, truck design is lagging in many of those areas. Truckers have many other devices though. Gadgets that monitor drivers by satellite or other means, warn of impending collisions and vehicles in blind spots, capture hard-braking events and excessive speed, discern if a driver is sleepy, measure a driver’s reaction time, record accident data, monitor tire air-pressure and claim to simulate “actual” driving conditions are all competing for the coveted safety dollar. Here’s what we know for sure:
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li>Highway fatalities were up in 2002 for the first time in 12 years. While large-truck-related fatalities were down slightly in 2002, the total number of large-truck-related fatalities have only improved about 5% over the past 12 years. Considering the volatility in the year-over-year numbers, large-truck fatalities have remained about the same.
li>Millions of bottom-line trucking dollars have been spent on gadgets and gizmos in the past decade. Many of them have never been implemented as intended due to complexity of operation, staffing support requirements or both. Where are the results for the investment?
li>Coaching drivers to perform safely is relational, yet gadgets and gizmos tend to expand rather than close that relational gap. n Drivers with poor habits will maintain those poor habits until made aware of them and effectively trained to do otherwise. What’s the answer? Basic blocking and tackling — the things we have tried to replace with gadgets and gizmos. There are no short cuts in trying to improve safety performance, but these four factors for fleets have survived the test of time: Hire the right drivers. Most important by far, a thorough pre-employment investigation with a nod to “past performance is the best indicator of future performance” should guide all hiring decisions. Following the general guidelines in Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Part 391 is not enough. Prepare your drivers with the best training available. Consider this: Human beings were created to use seeing skills at about three miles per hour, the speed of walking. Bald eagles, on the other hand, were given seeing skills to match their top speed of about 200 miles per hour in a dive for prey. Since the invention of the wheel, speed has increased without commensurate adjustment in seeing skills. Were you taught about seeing skills when you obtained your first driver’s license? Seeing skills and the ability to create and maintain the time and space required to make good decisions while driving should be the primary focus of any driver-training program. Treat drivers the way you would want to be treated. This restatement of the golden rule helps ensure that your drivers will be able to focus their attention on driving and not problems at work. Monitor driver safety performance. Drivers need to know that you are watching their safety performance and that their personal safety and the safety of the motoring public is your primary concern. An inexpensive driver-monitoring decal program or an onboard monitoring device can be useful in rounding out the available information about your driver’s performance — as long as you use the data. Don’t take my word for it. Ask the safety directors who lead continuously improving safety programs. Ask the drivers who have achieved more than a million accident-free miles. Find out their formulas for success and verify their agreement with the aforementioned safety success factors. Ask them if they know of any silver bullets in safety and then go spend your safety dollars wisely.
Founded in 1952, Smith System, Arlington, Texas, provides safety training for drivers of trucks and other commercial vehicles, as well as cars. This article appears in the Dec. 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
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