Fleets, Vendors Back Hands-Free Devices But Blast NTSB’s Call for Total Cellphone Ban
By Greg Johnson, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Jan. 9 print edition of Transport Topics.
While many trucking fleets and the companies that make in-cab data devices to support carriers’ operations back moves to restrict cellphone use by drivers, a number of them strongly oppose the recent National Transportation Safety Board recommendation that calls for a total ban on their use — including hands-free devices — while driving.
Arkansas Best Corp., Fort Smith, Ark., is a strong proponent of policies that prohibit texting and talking without a hands-free device while driving, company spokes-man Russ Aikman said.
“However, we do not believe that enough conclusive research has been conducted to warrant a total ban” that would include hands-free devices, said Aikman, whose company ranks No. 14 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.
“We’re in favor of anything that promotes highway safety, but there has to be a common-sense approach to that,” said John Morrissette, president of relocation services provider Interstate Van Lines, Springfield, Va.
On Dec. 13, NTSB recommended that all drivers be prohibited from texting and making non-emergency phone calls when behind the wheel. Although the U.S. Department of Transportation said in late December that it would not back the NTSB recommendation, it still could become problematic for truckers if it is adopted by states.
That potential problem does not sit well with Morrissette, who said it makes his job tougher when “I have to operate in one state differently than I would in other states.” He also said his drivers are not permitted to use handheld devices when their vehicles are moving.
In fact, many motor carriers already have banned texting and handheld cellphone use while
tractor-trailers are in motion. Most of them, however, do not agree with NTSB’s suggestion.
“I can understand why the NTSB wants to do this, but we can’t go overboard,” said Gerald Krog, owner of Golden Ring Trucking Inc., Fergus Falls, Minn.
Earl McCardle, president of Fanelli Brothers Trucking and Warehousing in Pottsville, Pa., said he believes “there would be some dialogue on that” NTSB recommendation.
“We support banning handheld devices because we think it’s an unsafe practice and distraction for drivers,” he said, adding, “I don’t think using hands-free devices is any more unsafe for a commercial driver than it is for a car driver.”
“It’s definitely a controversial issue, but it’s probably five years too late,” Shepard Dunn, CEO of truckload and contract carrier Bestway Express Inc., Vincennes, Ind., said of the NTSB recommendation. “With all this technology and functions available on a cellphone, there’s more of a reason to use one.”
And expressing a deviation from most of his fellow trucking company executives, Dunn added: “It will be a tough thing for Washington to push through, but it’s probably the right to thing to do.”
In addition, while enforcing such a ban would be relatively easy for carriers that issue company-owned cellphones to their drivers, fleets that allow drivers to use their own devices, or ones that hire owner-operators who have their own cellphones, may not have control over use, said Matt Howard, CEO of software maker ZoomSafer Inc., Herndon, Va.
Drivers for Estes Express Lines Inc. use their personal phones. But the Richmond, Va., motor carrier conducts random audits at terminals to ensure drivers are using hands-free devices, said Curtis Carr, vice president of safety.
The carrier also employs Is My Driving Safe Inc., a Tampa, Fla., company that sends checkers out on highways to see if truck drivers are complying with their clients’ cellphone rules, Carr said. Estes Express ranks No. 17 on the for-hire TT 100.
Motor carriers also can make drivers sign up for a cellphone-use reporting service, which ZoomSafer offers, Howard said.
“Every 30 days, we pull driving and cellphone billing records, compare them and compile a report,” he said.
This process works, however, only if drivers agree to let their employers look at their cellphone records, Howard said. And because drivers already submit to drug tests and criminal background checks and their DMV data can be viewed by employers, this access shouldn’t be a problem if a cellphone-use check is made a condition of employment, he explained, adding that ZoomSafer’s service complies with federal privacy laws.
But a spokesman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents thousands of truckers, said the organization believes such a condition for employment amounts to an invasion of privacy.
OOIDA, Grain Valley, Mo., also disagrees with a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ban on handheld cellphone use by commercial drivers that went into effect on Jan. 3.
“We are certainly disappointed the rule was adopted in spite of a scientific study showing this to be a non-safety issue for truckers,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer said before the rule went into effect. “It appears the issue has been generalized in such a way that all of distracted driving has been laid at the feet of the trucking industry.”
Todd also said that although his group opposes rules that erode drivers’ privacy, OOIDA does support safety measures for the industry.
Under FMCSA rules, truck drivers face fines of up to $2,750 for using handheld phones as well as revocation or suspension of their commercial driver license for repeat offenses. But motor carriers also could be fined up to $11,000 per incident for failure to comply.
The use of CB radios, EOBRs and hands-free devices is exempt because they are considered one-button push devices posing no more danger than selecting a radio station or turning on the heat or air conditioning, FMCSA said.
EOBRs are not considered a personal electronic device, and many EOBRs can block certain functions when vehicles are in motion.
Nine states and Washington, D.C., ban the use of handheld cellphones while driving, and 35 states, including D.C., prohibit texting while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. But no state has an all-out ban on cellphones, the association said.
If adopted, the NTSB recommendation would pose a dilemma for electronic on-board recorders that require drivers to hit a single soft key on smart phone screens to transmit data back and forth between themselves, dispatchers and back offices.
Golden Ring’s Krog said cellphone providers should add a feature that would control use.
“I’d like to see the cellphone companies lock those keypads,” he said. “We have the technology in our electronic onboard recorders to do this.”
And tech companies are listening. Some already have products that do just that.
Anticipating FMCSA’s cellphone ban, inthinc Technology Solutions Inc., a Salt Lake City company that produces fleet-management products and asset-tracking devices, developed a cellphone and texting detection antenna.
The antenna locates cell wave frequencies emitted from a driver’s seat, issues an audible warning to terminate the call or text and sends alerts to a Web portal or directly to a carrier manager, said spokesman Dan Ashby.
“This information allows fleet managers to reduce distracted driving, costly fines and crashes associated with this dangerous behavior,” he said.
A PeopleNet Communications Inc. executive said he believes his company’s EOBR system is reliable because the display screen can be locked down when a vehicle is moving.
PeopleNet offers a stand-alone EOBR device that doesn’t require a smart phone. And although the device allows users to transmit and receive data by hitting soft keys on the unit’s display screen, “We can lock down virtually all the keys, and we can give an audible alert when a driver gets an urgent message so he can pull over and retrieve the message,” said company CEO Brian McLaughlin.
“We have not launched a smart phone-based EOBR product because the inherent risk of driver distraction may outweigh the benefits of safety,” he said, adding that this doesn’t rule out his Minnetonka, Minn., company developing a smart phone-based system in the future.
ZoomSafer’s Howard said his company’s software also can shut down or prohibit certain cellphone functions when vehicles are in motion.
Tom Cuthbertson, vice president for XataNet development at Xata Corp., Eden Prairie, Minn., said the company’s product lines comply with distracted driving regulation, either by product design or through the use of third-party software. Xata, which makes EOBR products that require cellphone use, uses ZoomSafer’s cellphone shutoff software, he said.
Cuthbertson also said truck drivers are not talking on their phones when using Xata’s RouteTracker to transmit data because the phones are in data mode.
He noted that truck drivers who use a Xata Turnpike EOBR product can input all the information before the vehicle is moved.
Referring to the new FMCSA regulation, Cuthbertson said: “This ban does not change the way a driver uses Xata Turnpike, because all logins, inspections and duty status changes can and should be completed prior to departing,” he said.
TMW Systems Inc., Beachwood, Ohio, clearly stipulates that its in-cab communications products should never be used while the driver is operating a moving vehicle, said Monica Truelsch, the company’s director of marketing.
“The potential distractions and dangers while operating a handheld device, like a cellphone or
in-cab computer, while driving a vehicle have been known for years and didn’t require an NTSB [recommendation] to make them obvious,” she said.
“Various localities around the country have already banned cellphone use in their jurisdictions while driving passenger cars and commercial vehicles,” Truelsch said.
Other companies, such as Cheetah Software Systems Inc., Westlake Village, Calif., provide a warning in mobile applications that products should not be used while vehicles are in motion. Drivers must acknowledge this warning to begin using the applications, said Jeff Groenke, Cheetah’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Groenke added that the fleet-management software manufacturer is exploring the possibility of disabling the user interface of its latest generation of Cheetah Mobile applications if motion is detected, either within the applications themselves or by using third-party software.
Deborah Hersman, NTSB’s chairman, said in a statement the day the recommendation was released: “Distracted driving is becoming increasingly prevalent, exacerbating the danger we encounter daily on our roadways. It can be especially lethal when the distracted driver is at the wheel of a vehicle that weighs 40 tons and travels at highway speeds.”
But some tech providers said that they believe the recommendation is heavy-handed.
“This is cracking walnuts with a sledgehammer,” said Jim Voor-hees, president of Instructional Technologies Inc., a Vancouver, Wash., provider of online safety training for truckers. “In the 1930s, the same thing happened when radios were first introduced in cars. People thought there would be accidents.”
“Verizon Wireless has had a long history of supporting statewide bans of hands-free legislation. That is different, however, than what the NTSB is proposing,” said Verizon spokesman Richard Young.
“I think for the most part, drivers also want safe roads and do not want to put themselves or others in danger while driving at 60 miles per hour down the highway,” said Steven Gold, managing director at turnaround consultancy Alvarez & Marsal, Chicago.
“They understand the risk of being distracted likely more than the average suburban mom. I think the pendulum is swinging way too far for the entire industry,” added Gold, who was once chief supply chain officer at PepsiCo.
Sprint Nextel Corp. supports bans on texting and e-mailing while driving and urges employees and customers to adhere to local and state laws and regulations on cellphone and mobile-device use, said spokeswoman Stephanie Greenwood.
