Letters to the Editor

I read Transport Topics regarding Exxon Mobil’s recent shipment of its first tanker load of U.S. crude oil from Beaumont, Texas, to its refinery in Sicily, Italy. The article also indicated that a 40-year export ban had been lifted.

A recent letter to Transport Topics noted several concerns regarding truck platooning, linking the recent low-speed Google driverless car crash to potential outcomes with truck platooning. The writer raises some valid points but also has several misconceptions I’d like to address.

While “platooning” of heavy vehicles appears to have some viability, Google’s vaunted, autonomous car recorded its first at-fault accident only last month. The reality is, platooning cannot control the actions of other motorists.  

I am a proud retired professional driver with more than 44 years and 5.3 million accident-free miles behind the wheel.

Weight is a roadway’s enemy. Heavier weight requires thicker pavements, longer curves, reduced grades and more substantial bridges. These truths cannot be disputed; the construction standards associated with each item substantially increases the initial cost of the roadway network.

Federal agencies and the trucking industry both recognize the health and welfare of commercial motor vehicle drivers is imperative to protecting public safety. But as you would expect, there is disagreement over the means to achieve this end.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration needs to suspend promulgation of electronic logging devices, or ELDs, and reopen the comment period due to fatal flaws stemming from contradicting language in the rule’s wording.

I disagree with the conclusion that removing nonpreventable crashes will result in significant changes in carriers’ CSA Crash Indicator BASIC percentile scores.

The Diesel Equipment Technology program at Northeastern Junior College in Colorado has come a long way in the four years that I have been teaching here. It went from two graduates to about 14.

President Obama recently signed into law a patchwork bill extending funding for the Highway Trust Fund.