Letters: Facing Core Changes, After the Recession, Safety Hotlines

These Letters to the Editor appear in the May 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Facing Core Changes

I have just finished reading — for the third time — the April 27 article from TTNews.com that is headlined “Trucking Faces Core Changes, Hebe Says.” (Click here for previous subcriber-content story.) To those who know me, I am not usually a man of few words, but the only thought that comes to mind at the moment is “hogwash!” 

Trucking always will be the backbone of the entwined econ-omies of Canada and the United States. Together we pioneered it, we nurtured it, we sweat over it. We built it into a transportation system that is the envy of the world, and we’re not about to give up on the manufacturing side of it, either.

As for the thousands of owner-operators and small medium-duty vocational truck operations at the grassroots level of this industry and the thousands of independent repair shops, I am sure they were disappointed to hear they will soon be put out to pasture. 

I don’t think so.

Al Tucker

Consultant/Lobbyist

L.C. Enterprises

Stratford, Ontario

After the Recession

In a letter written by a gentleman from Spokane, Mo., and published in your May 4 issue, the writer laments about the free market system and complains that the “effective corporate tax rate” in the United States is “about 39%.” (Click here for previous letter.)

That’s ridiculous!

Corporations do not pay taxes; they have numerous tax shelters, write-offs and offshore accounts to reduce this cost to about 11%, which is passed on to consumers, usually in the form of higher prices.

The rest of the letter goes on to talk about market corrections and government interference in those corrections, but with the 39% tax burden as a lead in, I believe everything else discussed in the letter is null and void.

It’s like a big bait and switch: Talk about taxes as a villain and the free market as a hero. We don’t have a true free market; we have a manipulated market and the letter writer apparently is not happy with the new manipulations taking place.

If the writer of that letter really wants a “free” market, do away with all taxes, and let people decide what “they” — whomever “they” may be — want to pay for and charge the “fair, free-market rate.”

Of course, this means we will have to decide if we want a president, Congress, military, etc. I know that sounds unrealistic, but if we really want a “free” market . . .

[Name Withheld by Request]

Linehaul Driver

Cincinnati

Safety Hotlines

Your companion publication, Light & Medium Truck, just ran a helpful article on driver safety hotlines in its May issue, “How’s My Driving? Safety Hotlines for Local Fleets” (p. 12; click here for story). This supports Ryan McDonald’s Opinion column, “Sometimes ‘Big Brother’ Is the Good Guy,” in your print edition, which mentioned third-party reporting hotlines as an additional, effective layer of safety process designed to protect drivers from injury and violations (4-27, p. 7; click here for previous Opinion piece).

I was the study sponsor who validated the effectiveness of the driver safety hotline concept while working at Fireman’s Fund Insurance in 1996.

We studied 30,000 power units in 200 fleets (in mostly nontrucking industries) over the course of three years and documented an average 22% reduction in collisions. More recently completed studies at other insurance carriers have documented greater crash reductions.

In my experience, the key isn’t the decal, the slogan or the qualifications of the observer (our reports came from untrained observers). It all comes down to the manager acting on the report in a caring, professional manner — helping the driver with retraining, coaching or even a pat on the back for getting through a tough situation without a collision. If managers care about their drivers and translate that into action, crashes go away.

Paul Farrell

Chief Executive Officer

SafetyFirst

River Edge, N.J.