The " Profit " Incentive !

It must be the ultimate nightmare for any person driving a car at the legal speed on a divided interstate highway.    The image of a massive B-Double travelling faster than it's 100 kph limiter should allow, crashing through the dividing space onto the wrong side of the road - and annihilating the car and it's occupants with instant death.   The following inquest disclosed that the speed limiter had been tampered with - and the driver was overly fatigued by ignoring mandatory rest stops - and had a concentration of Methadone in his blood.

The trucking company that owned that rig has been fined a record $ 1,316,469 because it made no effort to stop it's vehicles from continuing to speed.   This raises the question of exactly what measures must we take to bring under control the mayhem that is taking place within the trucking industry.   Despite a massive police presence on the roads and strict legislation to force heavy vehicles to stay within the speed limit range, every day trucks are being caught driving at high speed, with mechanical faults and in many cases dangerously overloaded.  Drivers complain that they either achieve almost impossible delivery schedules - or lose their jobs.

The trucking companies complain that their customers demand delivery times that can only be achieved by breaking the law.  This seems part of the "Just in time " strategy that many industries adopt to lower the cost of running their business.   Instead of having sufficient stock on hand to meet demand, they require replacement to coincide with the flow of orders going out the door.  By eliminating the cost of holding excess stock and it's consequent warehousing costs, their profit margin is enhanced.

It has been suggested that such firms be penalised for demanding delivery schedules that are legally impossible, but proving that in court is almost impossible.  Tackled from every angle, the obligation to meet standards comes right back to the trucking industry, and in a highly competitive business - it is the urge to make money and get work that forces the compliance of both owners and drivers to break the law.

It seems that the only way to achieve a squeaky clean trucking industry  is to drive old, poorly maintained vehicles off the road by an inspection regimen that is regular - and relentless.   This will certainly increase costs, and coupled with draconian licence loss for driving infringements it will make the " cowboy " element elevate driving standards.

Perhaps the measure that will bring road transport completely into line is a penalty regime that hits the trucking industry where it hurts most - by taking it's vehicles off the road for infringements.   These big rigs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and should the penalty for speed limiter tampering, serious mechanical faults and serious overloading lead to the entire rig and it's cargo being confiscated for three months - for a first offence - trucking companies would need to do some serious thinking about operating standards.

There is no doubt that running dangerous and overloaded vehicles has lowered freight rates by way of competition, and raising standards of both vehicles and the manner in which they are driven will increase costs across the board - but whether road safety is worth imposing that cost increases comes down to sheer politics.

It will take a draconian policing of the freight corridors to impose the standards required and that will have political costs.   Ideally, it should apply on a nationwide basis, but given the nature of politics - that is unlikely.
It is something to think about - the next time you are sharing the highway with big rigs that are in unknown mechanical condition - and seem to be travelling at excess speed !