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Jul 8, 2015

DOT Study * USA: Heavier US trucks won’t hurt intermodal rail

* DC - Study couldn’t conclude whether heavier trucks impact highway safety
-- A U.S. Department of Transportation study couldn’t conclude whether heavier trucks impact highway safety, but it did find they would not significantly impact intermodal conversions... Proponents for raising the weight and size restrictions on trucks have heralded the finding, despite the DOT’s claims that the evidence behind their own report proved insufficient... According to Peter M. Rogoff, undersecretary of transportation, there wasn't enough data available from crash reporting statistics to determine a vehicle's weight at the time of collision. Moreover, the DOT could not determine from the available data whether trucks, prior to a crash, were fully loaded, running overweight, at legal capacity for their axle configurations or had unevenly distributed weight... In a letter to Congress, the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, a group of 200 shippers and allied associations, urged lawmakers to reconsider the study’s findings... The group points out that, according to the DOT’s own numbers in their report, six-axle vehicles weighing 97,000 pounds and 91,000 pounds would divert $562 million and $196 million, respectively, from rail — an industry worth $70 billion... It’s a fraction of the total industry that would be overwhelmingly offset by overall freight growth over the next 25 years. Freight is projected to grow at nearly 2 percent each year, 45 percent by 2040... A longtime opponent of increasing trailer sizes, the American Association of Railroads, has declined to comment on the study’s findings since they were published in June... 
(Photo/Diagram: From the Federal Highway Administration shows the different in a five-axle versus six-axle tractor trailer. The Coalition for Transportation Productivity wants member of Congress to review data from a recent size and weight limits study and then take action to reform weight limits for six-axle trucks) Washington, DC, USA - JOC - Jul 06, 2015

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posted by Unknown @ 6:54 AM  0 comments

Apr 4, 2012

TRAFFIC & TRANSPORT STUDIES * USA

* DC - Study: FMCSA lacks resources to take on chameleon carriers 


Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by David Tanner -28 March 2012: -- The federal government lacks the proper resources to detect chameleon carriers, a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found. In addition to the findings, the authors say the FMCSA could cast a wider net by implementing relatively simple changes to its new entrant program... Under the current program, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not even attempt to identify chameleon carriers in the freight sector, choosing instead to focus limited resources on passenger carriers... Chameleon carriers are those that assume new identities to evade detection after having had revoked or been denied authority... The GAO suggests the FMCSA could adapt its new entrant screenings to detect common addresses, phone numbers and company officers of freight carriers. The screening could also detect motives for reincarnation including unsatisfactory safety ratings, severe crash involvement, fines, OOS orders, imminent hazard order or bankruptcy...


* DC - Traffic Congestion Costs Billions in Wasted Fuel, Time, Report Says 

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -28 March 2012: -- Traffic congestion costs drivers more than $100 billion annually in wasted fuel and lost time, and American drivers waste about 1.9 billion gallons annually sitting in traffic, according to a new Treasury Department report... The report — released in support of President Obama’s plan to upgrade and expand U.S. infrastructure in the coming year — comes amid Congressional debate on an extension of federal transportation funding, USA Today reported Monday... 


* DC - FMCSA study finds ‘profound safety benefit’ to speed limiter use 

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by Deborah Whistler -Mar. 28, 2012: -- Trucks equipped with speed governors have a 50% lower crash rate than trucks not equipped with speed control devices, according to the results of the second phase of a study conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the impact of the use of speed limiting devices in commercial vehicles... The study represents the most comprehensive investigation that has ever been conducted on speed limiters (SL), according to FMCSA. The study included data from 20 truck fleets, approximately 138,000 trucks and analyzed more than 15,000 crashes. The findings showed “strong positive benefits for speed governors.” Results indicated that trucks equipped with speed limiters had a “significantly lower SL-relevant crash rate (approximately 50%) compared to trucks without SLs,” the study found...

* DC - Study on speed limiters 'tortures' data into submission 

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by David Tanner -28 March 2012: -- A little more than a year after failing to reach a conclusion that speed limiters would enhance safety in large trucks, the group that prepared the study for the FMCSA has rewritten its final report to show the desired result. OOIDA says the changes, including points about limitations and uncertainties that were omitted from the final report, show bias and manipulation. OOIDA released in December 2010 and the “final report” released in March 2012 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The two versions use the same data but show different conclusions about safety and speed limiters...

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posted by Unknown @ 5:55 PM  0 comments

Sep 16, 2010

Safety Study * USA - Reveals Significant Benefits From Advanced "Detect, Alert and Respond" Technologies in Commercial Trucks

Project by University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Con-way Freight Shows How New Technologies Can Improve Driver Safety Performance, Accident Avoidance

Ann Arbor, MI, USA -MARKETWIRE via COMTEX/MarketWatch -Sept. 9, 2010: -- The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and Con-way Freight, today announced the results of a year-long field test of an integrated system of crash warning technologies designed to enhance the safety of commercial trucks... Con-way Freight supported the study by providing 10 Class-8 commercial freight tractors that were equipped with the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) technology. Over the course of the 10-month study, which began in February 2009, 18 Con-way Freight drivers operated the trucks out of the company's Detroit service center as part of its normal business operations, logging 601,844 miles; 22,724 trips; and generating 13,678 hours of data. While the test vehicles were driven, data acquisition systems recorded driver actions and responses to the integrated warning system. UMTRI researchers then analyzed the data to study the effect that the integrated warning system had on driver acceptance and changes in driver behavior... Key findings from the study include:

-- The majority of drivers perceived that the integrated crash warning system would increase driver safety, and it made them more aware of the traffic environment around their vehicle and their position in the lane

-- Seven drivers reported the integrated system prevented them from potentially having a crash

-- Fifteen out of 18 drivers said they prefer a truck equipped with the integrated safety system and would recommend that their employers purchase such a system

-- In terms of satisfaction, drivers rated warnings for lane departures the highest, and second highest in terms of perceived usefulness

-- The integrated crash warning system had a statistically significant effect helping drivers maintain lane positions closer to the center

-- Overall, drivers responded more quickly to potential rear-end crash scenarios with the system

The results were made available in a newly issued report: The Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems Heavy-Truck Field Operational Test, Key Findings Report (DOT HS 811 362). Program funding was provided by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation... (Photo from blog.mlive: large Con Way truck)

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posted by Unknown @ 6:28 PM  0 comments

Aug 10, 2010

STUDY * Europe - Fatigue only a limited factor in truck accidents

A new study commissioned by the European Commission and the International Road Transport Union claims that of 624 truck crashes studied, only 6% involved driver fatigue

Brussels,Belgium - Penton Media/Fleet Owner (USA), by Brian Straight -Aug 6, 2010: -- When fatigue was identified as the cause of the accident, the European Truck Accident Causation report said “Most accidents happen between [2 and 2:59 a.m.], probably the time when the driver’s biorhythm is at a low point, and from [3 and 3:59 p.m.] when it is nearly the end of the working day”... The report also said fatigue “plays only a minor role” in accidents in cities. It did note that of the accidents where fatigue played a role, 37% of those were fatal and 68% involved another vehicle... Overall, the report found that human error was responsible for 85.2% of all accidents, although only 25% of those can be attributed to the truck driver. Weather (4.4%), infrastructure (5.1%) or technical failures of the vehicle (5.3%) were the other main factors in crashes... More than 30% of the time, the cause of accidents at an intersection are due to failure to observe intersection rules or non-adapted speed for the situation... Speed remains the top cause in single-truck accidents as well, causing 20.3% of incidents. Fatigue is the reason18.9% of the time... Still the report said that fatigue, only plays a minor role in accidents, and most of those occur on highways...

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posted by Unknown @ 8:24 AM  0 comments

Nov 16, 2009

STUDIES * USA - Determinants of U.S. Truck Safety and Applicability to Mexican Carriers

To better target its safety enforcement activities toward those carriers that pose a greater safety risk, the FMCSA has studied the safety performance of different categories of trucking



Washington,DC,USA -Congress & Law -November 15, 2009: ... These studies indicate that safety performance does vary depending on the type of cargo hauled, which can be useful for evaluating safety statistics of Mexican trucks cited below. As hypothesized earlier, one study found that refrigerated trucks do have a better vehicle safety record compared to several other segments of the trucking industry... This study also found that U.S. drayage carriers have a relatively poor vehicle safety record, but this finding may not be applicable to Mexican drayage carriers because of an important difference in the trailer equipment used. U.S. drayage carriers predominantly haul international shipping containers at seaports or at inland rail terminals which use a separate piece of equipment—a chassis that is an I-beam frame with wheels, to pull the container over the road. The chassis are owned and maintained by the ocean carriers but their proper maintenance has been a widely recognized problem and is likely a contributing factor to the poor vehicle safety performance of U.S. drayage carriers... At the Mexican border, truck trailers (the wheels and “container” are inseparable) are predominantly the equipment being pulled... Studies also indicate that drivers of refrigerated cargo are found with safety violations more often than drivers in several other categories of trucking... This may be because refrigerated cargo is time sensitive and hauled longer distances so drivers may be more prone to falsify hours-of-service log books. One study found that while there was little difference between refrigerated and non-refrigerated trucking in terms of number of accidents and moving violations, drivers of refrigerated trucks had more logbook violations... This study found that drivers that graduated from college or had some college were 27% more likely than high school graduates to violate their logbook. The study authors reasoned that as education level increased, drivers became more sophisticated in manipulating the logbook or felt more confident that they could do so without being caught... While U.S. drayage carriers receive low scores for vehicle safety, their drivers generally receive higher safety scores than other segments of the trucking industry... Hours-of-service violations and falsifying log books are the most common violations found among U.S. truck drivers but since drayage carriers predominantly make short-haul trips, it seems logical that this violation would be less common among these drivers. Since Mexican truckers in the United States are predominantly making short-haul trips one could expect that they too would have relatively good driver safety scores, which the data do indicate... A congressionally mandated study of the causation of accidents in the United States involving large trucks that resulted in at least one fatality or injury found that the driver is a more critical factor than the vehicle... The study reports that in those incidents in which the truck was determined to be primarily responsible for the crash (as opposed to a passenger vehicle), in only about 10% of the cases was the critical factor related to a problem with the truck; in 87% of the incidents the driver was considered the critical factor in the crash... (Video from YouTube, by maggie1138 - 11 Nov 2006: Big truck accident in los angeles freeway)

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posted by Unknown @ 4:33 AM  0 comments