Opinion: When Good Ideas Go Wrong

This Opinion piece appears in the Sept. 30 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

By Gerald “Jerry” Fritts Jr.

President and Owner

American Overland Freight LLC

The Sept. 9 issue of Transport Topics included a News Digest entry regarding backup warning devices.

Specifically, it said Delaware had a new law requiring that the alarms be installed on all commercial vehicles larger than 26,001 pounds. As a third-generation long-distance truck driver with more than 47 years of safe driving, I am not applauding this action.

My reasons for this involve the sleep habits of America’s truck drivers. More than 3 million of them — or at least those who work longhaul or regional — sleep in their trucks instead of motels or hotels. For a driver waiting for loading and unloading, truck stop parking lots or industrial sites essentially are bedrooms. More than 31% of truck drivers killed in single-vehicle wrecks are sleep-deprived.

In addition to lack of sleep, truck drivers also suffer from disrupted circadian rhythms when, for example, scheduling plays havoc with the body’s built-in clock.

Sleep quality is another challenge. While the driver attempts to get his needed rest, he is surrounded by the normal truck stop environmental noises such as trailer refrigeration units constantly — and loudly — turning on and off; loud auxiliary power generators idling up and down; loads of livestock bleating, squealing and mooing; train whistles sounding nearby; and air parking brakes being set. These things, and the sounds of trucks simply coming and going, make quality sleep difficult.

Then there are the smells of auxiliary power unit exhaust blowing under and into your truck and the same from trucks with underside-mounted exhaust systems — not to mention that, unlike your house, trucks don’t have automatic inside thermostats for heating and air conditioning. Drivers often are awakened when it gets too hot or cold inside the cab, and they have to reset the temperature.

And what does all this have to do with those mandatory backup alarms? Simply this: All the previously mentioned problems are nothing compared with the chaos that will ensue when our sleep environments are invaded by the sound of 3 million Class 8 trucks equipped with backing alarms.

I recently experienced this at a truck stop in Gerome, Idaho. I had just completed a typical 14-hour day that was legal but extra difficult because it began after disrupted circadian rest. I was really looking forward to a good sleep because I still had more than 2,400 miles to cover in the next 3½ days.

Twice during this night, trucks with warning devices backed in near me. When the first loud alarm sounded, I jumped so high I’m convinced I completely lifted off the bunk. That was about four hours into my rest. Returning to sleep was difficult, but eventually I did drift off again. But sometime later, another nearby truck did the same thing. This time, however, all I could do was doze until my alarm went off at 3 a.m.

The more than 700 miles I ran that day were miserable. I was unhappy and irritable, though not necessarily sleepy. And based on how I felt the second day, I don’t believe the following night’s sleep made up for the night when those backup warning devices disrupted my very necessary sleep.

Now, consider how many other drivers in that same truck stop — which had about 100 parking spaces — experienced the same problem because of backup alarms.

Can you imagine if you are in a team driver operation in which two drivers run the same truck and the team driver sleeping in the bunk has to hear his own truck’s backup alarm blaring fewer than 10 feet away whenever his teammate needs to back up?

Even one driver with backup-alarm-induced fatigue is too many, because it jeopardizes the safety of the other motorists and truck drivers that one driver interacts with when back on the road.

Obviously, what we have here is the law of unintended consequences. The Delaware law must be repealed immediately, because if just one or two of these devices are used every day or night (many truck drivers sleep in the day and run at night) in our truck stops and loading/unloading sites, we will have 2 million to 3 million sleep-deprived truck drivers on our highways every day.

I realize that, so far, Delaware is the only state with such a law. However, I have discovered that trucking-related original equipment manufacturers are poised to make them standard equipment because the OEMs have no control over where new trucks will be registered.

This whole thing may have begun with insurance companies lobbying government officials to reduce their insurance liability claims for people injured or killed in accidents involving a truck backing up.

But those few claims will be insignificant compared with the vehicle damage, cargo claims, workers comp, personal injury, property damage and death claims when about 3 million sleep-deprived truckershit the road.

I phoned a trucker call-in program on satellite radio to discuss this looming safety and health threat after I found out these devices will become law — my thought being to rally other professional drivers to protest this potential hazard.

The show’s host, Chris, immediately understood. Turns out that he lives near a Pathmark store in New Jersey where backup alarms are a major problem for him and his neighbors.

And now we are facing millions more commercial vehicles contributing to community noise pollution.

It is said that understanding comes from walking a mile in another’s shoes. If that’s so, I’m sure I could persuade quite a few truck drivers and Pathmark store neighbors to visit the homes of legislators and spend a few days and nights activating backup alarms near their bedroom windows late at night.

The author is an owner-operator based in Cordova, Tenn.