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January 20, 2000 2:45 PM, EST

When it comes to relying on high-tech devices such as on-board data recorders in an effort to improve safety, many truckers need convincing.

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Panelists of Transport Topics’ Management Outlook Forum said they favored letting the market dictate what devices are adopted to make trucks safer. They opposed government regulations requiring the use of technologies and demanded a payoff for their investment in high-tech equipment.

The mandated use of data recorders — black boxes — was a particularly thorny issue, as some panelists voiced concerns that information gathered by the devices could be used in litigation against truckers involved in an accident.

“I would hope the industry would fight [a black box mandate] tooth and nail,” said John Smith, president of CRST International in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

However, if black boxes are forced upon the industry, Smith said he would want their use limited. If the devices were used for accident investigations only and not for other purposes, they might be worth looking at, he said.

Smith cautioned that mandating black boxes would add costs without clear benefits.

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Michael James - Transport TopicsOOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer.Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, agreed.

“The government now seems poised to mandate recording devices, black boxes, that won’t make a nickel’s worth of difference in highway safety but will add thousands of dollars in new costs to trucks,” he said. “We don’t think a lot of the regulations can actually survive any kind of cost-benefit analysis, and the frustrating part of that is if it’s not going to survive cost-benefit, we’re not going to see any measurable improvement out there on the highway.”

“We certainly don’t believe [a black box] is any great or unique tool in accident investigation. I’m not talking about issues here where planes fall out of the sky, with no witnesses and no survivors, and there’s just rubble everywhere,” Spencer said, referring to gains made in airline safety since black boxes were mandated for aircraft.

Roger Nober, general counsel of the House Transportation Committee, said the trucking industry may have to convince Congress that there is a compelling reason not to mandate black boxes. He said some congressmen don’t believe that having information about driver performance is a problem.

Walter B. McCormick Jr., president of American Trucking Associations, pointed out what he saw as a flaw in tax policy that discourages companies from investing in new technologies.

The excise tax system requires companies to pay a levy based on the cost of a truck, creating a disincentive to buy technologies that could improve safety or efficiency.

“When trucking companies are able to purchase new technologies without having to also pay the government for purchasing those new technologies, the environment benefits, safety benefits, the economy benefits. So, we want to take a real look at excise tax relief from the context of a tax bill,” McCormick said.

Michael James - Transport Topics
CRST Intl. President John M. Smith

Spencer and Smith said companies would buy technologies to improve safety regardless of a mandate but would ignore unproven devices.

“I think we’ve got to let the marketplace make many of these decisions,” Smith said. “If a preponderance of people say this makes sense, and let’s go with it, fine, go ahead and mandate it for the few people who either can’t afford it or don’t want to afford it.”

Spencer added that he is skeptical of many new technologies. “I don’t necessarily buy into the notion that just because you put something on a vehicle, it’s going to make it safer.”

Spencer said the key to preventing truck accidents “is the driver’s ability to anticipate a situation that he is about to get into. The good ones — and there are many good ones — are fantastic at it. I hate to see technology take a priority over training and education, and maybe screening.”