Truck Topics

Is Big Brother On-board?

The Black Box
This sinister sounding name refers to the Electronic On-Board Recorder (EOBR) or, black box - a topic that pops up every few months or so, and serves to restart the discussion (or argument, if you prefer) of how to enhance trucking safety.

Of course, the black box issue is tied to the larger and seemingly no solution problems of Hours of Service, tired drivers and easily falsified log books.

Last fall, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) began seeking comments about the installation of the data recording devices in more than four million trucks.

Lined up in support of the EOBR's are insurance associations and groups such as Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) and Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) that have adopted the issue of truck safety.

These and other groups say that truck drivers are under financial and administrative pressure to drive longer hours than is allowed by HOS regulations and this results in tired and dangerous drivers.

They contend that drivers themselves admit to falsifying log books to achieve those longer periods behind the wheel and increase their income.  They support the EOBR's as one solution in identifying the HOS violators.

On the other side of the table are many trucking groups and organizations that say the electronic devices, won't accomplish their purpose, and the proposal ignores the economic realities that virtually force drivers to put in long hours.

What's a black box do?
Federal authorities have long required flight data recorders on commercial airliners to provide insight into the causes of crashes.

Airplane data recorders can store up to 25 hours of flight data that include time, acceleration, airspeed, altitude, outside and inside temperatures, engine performance and many other parameters.  In all, a very technically sophisticated instrument.

EOBR's in trucks
In the question of trucking's EOBR's, the term "black box" more properly applies to those brand name on-board computers from manufacturers like Tripmaster, Qualcomm and others, all of whom offer software that can create driver logs more-or-less automatically.

Today's trucks are loaded with sensors that can record a variety of data, including truck speed, engine rpms, temperatures and just about anything that the truck experiences while rolling down the road.

EOBR's can record a driver's hours while the truck is in motion. But drivers in conventional trucking also spend long hours at loading docks, waiting for their trailers to be filled or emptied. And, something an on-board recorder can't tell is if the driver is off-duty or on-duty, not driving. The device will also have no way of knowing whether a driver is truly sleeping or on duty but not moving.

With the EOBR's, it's a simple matter for the driver to access his paperless log with a few key strokes.  Some systems send log information wirelessly back to the company, which can then fax an up-to-the-minute log page to authorities, at a weigh station for example. At present, however, automated logs are rare in commercial trucking, with the exception of several companies with their own paperless logging system.

A point to consider:  Drivers who have had the in-truck computer systems like Qualcomm's Omnitrak system, have been using a lower tech on-board recorder all along.  By using the "macros" or canned messages available in the unit, the driver records and transmits data like arrival times, delivery times, proof of delivery
and other information.

Is it Big Brother?
The spectre of the government looking over a driver's shoulder through the EOBR is always present in a discussion of black boxes.  The possibilities for even tighter control over the professional driver was presented in a Land Line magazine article from 2004. 

In an article titled, "The Great Black Box Debate", author Steven B. Miller said:
"Now, on-board computers can record far more than merely when a truck arrived — they can document how it was driven along the way, whether it exceeded speed limits and much more."
 
"Add Global Positioning System technology to that mix, and on-board computers can record where a driver has been as well as how efficiently he got there."
 
"Add mobile communications, and the boss can be made aware of pretty much anything he might like to know, pretty much any time he wants to know it."

Later in the article, Miller paints a dark scenario in which automated logs can be used as a "disciplinary tool."  He gives several examples of how the information could be interpreted to incriminate a driver and says that a possible extension of this would be,  "we’ll have state troopers downloading truck data wirelessly from the side of the road, then shutting down trucks with something like a TV remote."

Some trucking companies such as JB Hunt  actually favor requiring boxes, but doesn't want the data from the recorders falling into the hand of lawyers filing suits after accidents.

Other companies suggest that black boxes shouldn't be required for all carriers, but only for those that have demonstrated a history of safety violations.

Are black boxes coming to expediting?
Good question.  Most experts say that if these devices are mandated, it will take years before implementation is accomplished.  Of course, expediting trucks are subject to the same HOS regulations as the rest of the industry, so it's hard to imagine that the emergency freight business will get a pass.

That would be quite ironic, given expediting's safety record and the expedited carriers' strict
adherence to all safety regulations.

"I don't think we'll see black boxes anytime soon," says Scott Hancock, Express-1 recruiter. "Expediting doesn't have the reputation of logbook non-compliance that some conventional trucking companies have."

"I feel that the problem lies with the large OTR carriers, who because of the capacity issue, are not screening their drivers like we do in expediting.  The companies in this industry don't have the "cowboy culture" that you find in conventional trucking where safety is sometimes ignored.  We screen our owner-operators very heavily in this business and that is one reason for expediting's stellar safety record."