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'How's my driving?' * USA - Driver safety sensitive subject in trucking industry
A long drive provides time for thinking. Among other things, I thought about trucks
Augusta,ME,USA -Central Maine Morning Sentinel, by David B. Offer (retired editor of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel) -1 May 2007: -- I saw a lot of trucks on the road as I passed through 21 states. Almost all were driving safely, carefully, and courteously. That makes sense; truckers know the dangers of the highway. They are experienced drivers. Accidents eat into their livelihood... That came to mind as I saw signs on the back of many trucks:
* "How's my driving?" asks one sign. A phone number follows it.
* "Safety is our goal," says another. There's a phone number.
Another claims: * "Award winning drivers" and provides a phone number "for comments on my driving."... I called 10 of the numbers... Two refused to talk to me. Two talked a little but the person on the phone would not give her name. I left phone messages for four trucking executives; none returned my calls. Paul Milazzo, president of Drivers' Alert, was the exception... Milazzo said his operators handle about 1,000 calls a day. Most involve complaints that truckers are speeding, tailgating, improperly changing lanes or cutting off cars... Some of the complaints are not justified, Milazzo said. "Truckers are professionals. A lot of it is motorists who do not know how to drive around trucks. They (trucks) need some space," he said... Drivers' Alert also runs training programs for drivers to help trucking companies prevent complaints and accidents and has special programs for drivers who are identified as having caused problems on the road. A company might require a driver who has been the subject of a complaint to take an on-line course from Drivers' Alert... Trucking companies who embrace programs like this cut their accident rates by 10 percent, he said... The complaints tend to focus on a minority of drivers -- about 25 percent -- Milazzo said. Drivers with two or more complaints on their records are involved in more than half of all truck accidents...
Labels: driving safety
posted by Unknown @ 10:08 AM
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