Top Three Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry

Wednesday, September 20, 2017   Charlie Charalambous

Based on various industry report there are some significant concerns in the trucking industry that we should be looking out for over the next couple of years. Some of these include (but are not limited to):

ELD (Electronic Logging Device) Mandate:

• Take advantage and start planning now
• All CMVs, unless they meet an exemption, will need to be ELD compliant by December 18, 2017
  • While recent efforts have been made to delay this date nothing official has been announced
• We know the change will happen, it is better to be ahead of the curve then struggling to get everything ready once the modification takes effect
• Talk to fleets that have implemented them already, get their feedback and suggestions
• Canada will soon follow a similar legislation
  • Remember, all CMVs travelling into the U.S. will need to be compliant as of the U.S. effective date

Driver Shortage:

• 48,000 by 2024
• We are already starting to feel the impacts at both the carrier and training school levels
• Companies are struggling to find qualified drivers
• Average age of a driver is 47
• According to the CTA (Canadian Trucking Alliance), 1/3 of drivers are over 55

Driver Distraction:

• 23 times more likely to be in a crash because of texting while driving
• 80% of collisions and 65% of near crashes have some form of distracted driving
• Distracted drivers are 3x more likely to be in a collision then attentive drivers
• Checking a text for 5 seconds means that at 90 km/h, you have travelled the length of a football field blindfolded
• Driver distraction causes approximately 4 million motor vehicle crashes in North America each year
• About 26% of all car accidents involve phone use, including hands-free phone use (National Safety Council)