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Improving Commercial Truck Safety

The Alliance for Driver Safety & Security (also known as the Trucking Alliance) is a nonpartisan coalition of freight and logistics companies. Our vision is to eliminate all large truck crash fatalities.

Truck drivers deliver almost all of the products we buy. But almost 5,000 truck crash fatalities occur each year in the process. Another 150,000 people are injured. There’s no way to rationalize those tragic numbers.

That’s why the Trucking Alliance believes more stringent federal safety reforms are required of all commercial trucking companies. The freight industry has a duty to keep the public safe while performing its critical role. Higher safety standards and emerging truck technologies can make it possible.

Results:

Since its creation in 2011, the Trucking Alliance has achieved a remarkable list of federal safety reforms for the freight industry; policies that are necessary to help reduce the risk of large truck crashes:

2012 – WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO REPLACE PAPER LOGBOOKS WITH ELECTRONIC LOGGING DEVICES IN INTERSTATE COMMERCIAL TRUCKS. 

(2020 – ELD Mandate Became Enforceable.)

Since the 1930’s, truck drivers were permitted to fill out paper logbooks to record their driving time. Drivers would frequently falsify those logbooks, which contributed to excessive driving time, drug use and fatigue, leading factors in truck crashes.

In 2012, the Trucking Alliance secured congressional sponsors to advance a federal law that replaced paper logbooks with Electronic Logging Devices. An ELD is a recording device, engaged to a truck’s engine. ELDs make it easier for law enforcement to know if a commercial truck driver is complying with federal on-duty hours.

But not all commercial trucks are required to install ELDs. (see below under Current Priorities)

2012 – WON CONGRESS APPROVAL TO ADVANCE THE SAFETY BENEFITS OF TRUCK SPEED LIMITERS

2024 – The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is expected to propose a federal safety regulation that large trucks do not exceed a prescribed maximum speed. 

Truck speed limiters are engaged to the engine and prevent a truck driver from exceeding a maximum controlled speed. Going over the speed could result in the driver receiving a major safety violation.

2012 – WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO CREATE A NATIONAL DATABASE OF ALL TRUCK DRIVERS WHO FAIL A DRUG TEST. 

2020 – Became Operational.

All truck drivers who hold a Commercial Driver License (CDL) must pass pre-employment and random drug tests in order to operate commercial motor vehicles.

The Trucking Alliance secured congressional sponsors to pass a federal law creating a national database of all positive drug test results. The Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (DAC) enables prospective employers to know if a commercial truck driver applicant has previously failed a drug test. (There’s more to be done. See Current Priorities)

2015 – WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO ALLOW HAIR TESTING (IN LIEU OF A URINALYSIS), FOR COMMERCIAL TRUCK DRIVERS.

2024 – Rule is Pending

Hair testing is 10x more effective at identifying lifestyle illegal drug users than a urinalysis. But the USDOT does not recognize hair drug testing as a method for testing people in safety-sensitive occupations, like commercial trucking.

Because hair tests are more effective, Trucking Alliance carriers require their truck drivers to pass the federally required urine test, plus a hair drug test. These carriers have disqualified thousands of truck drivers who failed the hair test for illegal drug use.

In 2015, the Trucking Alliance secured congressional sponsors to pass legislation that directed the Secretary of Transportation to allow hair tests, in lieu of a urine test, for complying with federal drug testing protocols.

But FMCSA has yet to implement this congressional mandate. So, positive hair test results cannot be submitted to the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Thousands of truck drivers are using illegal drugs and going undetected. (There’s more to be done. See Current Priorities)

2021 – WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO REQUIRE AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKES ON ALL NEW COMMERCIAL TRUCKS

2024 – Rule is Pending.

Automatic emergency brakes are an example of Advanced Safety Technologies (ASTs) that help truck drivers avoid large truck crashes. ASTs also include adaptive cruise control, in-cab lane departure warnings, externally mounted cameras, and roll stability controls.

In 2021, the Trucking Alliance secured bipartisan congressional sponsors who passed a law requiring all large Class 7 and 8 freight trucks have automatic emergency brakes installed as standard equipment, a positive step toward improving commercial truck safety.