Consider This

DOT Secretary urges truckers to buckle up

At the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, DOT Secretary Norman Mineta urged truck drivers to fasten their seatbelts every time they get behind the wheel.

Mineta said that 80 percent of U.S. motorists wear seatbelts, but only half of commercial truckers do. Of the 620 truck drivers killed in 2003, half were unbuckled, said Mineta. And of the 171 ejected from their cabs, more than 80 percent did not have on their seatbelts.

“Far too many truck drivers believe that the size and weight of their rigs will protect them, and that if they are a good driver, they don’t need to wear a belt,” he said. “But driving unbuckled is like playing Russian roulette—you are tempting fate, because you never know when the loaded chamber will come around.”

Another panelist suggested that better truck driver training could have a positive impact on seatbelt usage. FMCSA Admin-istrator Annette Sandberg noted that the government is implementing other initiatives to improve truckers’ safety. To a huge round of applause, she described a pilot program in Washington state in which passenger-car drivers are targeted for safety. The idea is to place a trooper in the truck cab to identify car drivers that cut off truckers. The trooper in the truck then calls ahead to other officers who pull over the offending car driver for a citation.

Fuel prices, economy heading in opposite directions

With diesel fuel prices at record highs, the economic recovery suddenly seems a little softer. Diesel prices are about 35 percent higher now than they were a year ago and 13 percent ahead of where they were in early February. For truckers, the skyrocketing fuel prices have added $572 million to their fuel bills for the month of February alone, and some carriers say they are past their “absorption point.”

While truckers are using traditional safeguards against high fuel prices—shopping the market, reducing idling time, optimizing routes—they’re still not keeping up.

As one carrier manager says, “We shop the market every morning, checking the price in particular areas. We have reduced the idling time of our trucks, and we’re doing anything we can to save on fuel consumption. But the fact is, the prices out there are higher than they have been.”

Some truckers say they are starting to feel the strain in other ways, as customers opt for cheaper rail transport or choose smaller carriers that may be more flexible on pricing. Unfortunately, there is no relief expected anytime soon. The government just released its short-term energy outlook and predicted that diesel fuel prices will average $2.24 per gallon from now through September.

Source: Roemer Report