Letters to the Editor: Speed Limiters, Freeway Trucks, Trucker Finances, Fuel Costs

These letters appear in the July 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Speed Limiters

I believe it would be appropriate to have a new regulation limiting the speed of vehicles on the highway (“Ontario Orders Speed Limiters on All Trucks Set at 65 mph,” click here for previous online story).

The speed at which some truckers are driving today is stupid, and some people should go to jail for that.

A loaded truck at 80,000 pounds gross weight requires in excess of 500 feet to stop. As the average car requires roughly 250 feet to stop, in a panic situation, a truck can pile as many as four or five cars before he stops. Who can justify such attitude?

Yes, I am a strong defender of limiting speed on the highway. There are so many lives taken away as the result of speed it is scary. Safety never should be negotiable.

My reasons in supporting the new regulation are multiple and it would take too long to list them all, but I will offer some of them:

• The cost of energy.

• The environment.

• Equity between drivers who respect the rules and those who don’t.

• Safety, including: the experience of drivers today and those of 20 years ago; the power of the engine today and yesterday; the lack of investments in braking systems in North America as compared with Europe; the “macho” attitude of some drivers and the realization that a highway is not a racing track; driver stress as related to speeding and its effect on the driver’s quality of life; and the reasons behind speeding, including the need to beat the clock to make decent pay.

All these items must be recognized as reality and we need to find solutions. Limiting speed is one step in the right direction.

I am of the opinion — even more so in the current economic situation — that it is time for the profession of truck driver to be recognized for all the values associated with it, e.g., discipline, respect of and for the public and automobile drivers and respect for the rules.

We need to prove to the shipping world and the public in general that we are — and we act as — professionals and want to be recognized accordingly.

Our image on the road and the perception of the public must be that we are professionals, we act as professionals, we respect the rules and regulations, and we are preoccupied with moving goods in a timely and efficient fashion. We also must be conscious of the environment and the future of following generations.

It is not because we are in Canada that we are socialist or communist, as stated in a letter to the editor of this publication: “Go ahead and limit the speed. That’s what you would expect from a socialist country. The truckers will simply move south — to a free country” (6-30, p. 5).

We are concerned about our tomorrow as is everyone else. We want to do it the right way. Let’s “walk the talk.”

Claude Robert

Owner

Transport Robert

Montréal

Freeway Trucks

I have kept my trucks from running in New York for just these kinds of reasons (“Proposed Rule Would Keep Trucks Off N.Y. Secondary Roads,” click here for previous online story).

Maybe people in New York should start buying trucks. They might need them just to eat and keep from being naked.

Greg Smith

Owner

Greg Smith Trucking

Toledo, Ohio

Trucker Finances

The pie is sliced a bit thin for America’s drivers and truck owners, given soaring fuel prices and other problems. The industry is ripe for realignment and adjustment. Here are some suggestions:

• Lighten the payload to save fuel. Change loading protocols that call for the maximum loading of each trailer. The weight-to-speed ratio will increase, decreasing fuel consumption.

• Brokers book the loads and drivers cannot always dictate what gets loaded and hauled for what price. The solution is for the trucking industry, not brokers, to set load limits, because brokers are part of the overall problem. Why should Congress be asked to do something for truckers that they should be empowered to do for themselves?

• Cut load weight by 25% and bill the same amount as full load.

Brokers have positioned themselves as essential to the trucking industry. In so doing, they have become middle men instead of facilitators. Although they get paid for the driver’s invest-ments, time and effort, their investments are minuscule by comparison.

Brokers are stakeholders and share in the equation — owners, drivers, shippers and, to a greater extent, American consumers.

Bob Watkins

Retired U.S. Xpress Driver

Oklahoma City

Fuel Costs

To the big oil companies that publicly state they are not to blame for the high fuel prices: “We, the people, don’t believe you.”

You publicly must divulge that you made $40 billion last year, Exxon, and the others were not far behind. I will bet that your profits will almost double this year.

Carriers are shutting down parts of their fleets and refusing to take freight from their regular customers if the rates aren’t met.

The mom-and-pop outfits have shut down more than 900 offices already. Truck availability has dropped, while Big Oil is reaping whirlwind profits.

People already are slowing down — not taking the long vacation trips they did last year and finding other ways to cut back, like carpooling and public transportation.

Sooner or later, the options for cutbacks will run out and we’ll stop buying fuel. In just a 150-mile radius of where I live in Wisconsin, at least 15 car dealerships have gone out of business; they couldn’t sell their vehicles.

We need to find ways to pressure Big Oil — and the environmentalists — by how we spend our money.

Dan Mitchell

Owner

CR Danstar Transportation

Somerset, Wis.

City Fuel Tax

Inflation, recession, fuel prices, cost of living increases and unemployment are all hurting the average Joe Citizen, and now the city wants to tighten the screws even more (“Georgia City to Add Fuel Surcharge to Speeding Tickets,” click here for previous online story).

City councils should realize they can only push a person so hard, and a person can take only so much. This is a crock and reeks of dictatorship and tyranny.

Bobby Kelley

Assistant Safety Director

Robert Bearden Inc.

Cairo, Ga.