Perspective

The U.S. transportation industry, which contains many hundreds of small businesses among the sizable firms, has a government champion: the Small Business Administration.

As the latest round of hours-of-service regulatory change plays out in Washington, I have come to the realization that the trucking industry is broken.

Staggeringly high prices for fuel are with us again. The last time fuel prices were hovering in the neighborhood of $3.80 to $4.40 per gallon, many trucking companies fought back aggressively, using fuel conservation techniques and making sure drivers used the cheapest options available.

What was the most important event that occurred in 1958? The creation of NASA? Perhaps the birth of the King of Pop? For privately owned trucking and logistics companies, there is only one answer: tax legislation permitting S corporations.

Some trucking industry executives predicted the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program was going to be a “game changer” for the industry. They were right.

Loss of event data recorder — or “black box” — information is one of the biggest problems in trucking accident litigation. While the market for EDR monitoring software has exploded in recent years, accident experts and attorneys are finding that much of this technology is incorrectly downloaded, analyzed and stored, creating legal and financial risks that can threaten the very existence of the company that makes use of it.

For shippers, ultimately, their choice of carrier will be translated either into greater company profitability — or a balance sheet splattered with red ink.

FMCSA’s new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program is changing transportation’s driver-retention game. Every driver will have his or her own CSA score, and every company will have its composite CSA score.

The most important near-term component of our campaign to retain the current hours of service rules is industry involvement.

Let’s face it; nobody likes to make the same mistake twice. Maintenance professionals in particular always should be looking for procedures that have prevented downtime and failures in the past.