What do drivers want? Find out in this webinar.
What do truck drivers want? That's the million dollar question; a code that only a few carriers have managed to crack consistently.
In partnership with Lytx, CCJ this spring surveyed its company driver and leased owner operator audiences to find out what makes them tick (and what ticks them off).
Join us for a live webinar Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. CT and hear from two successful fleets – Garner Trucking (a perennial CarriersEdge Best Fleet to Drive For) and Crawford Trucking (a new carrier to crack the Best Fleets list) – as we discuss how they balance the wants and needs of new and existing drivers within their operations. Joining the discussion will be Elroy Whyte, himself a professional driver.
Fleets spend millions of dollars annually on well-intended technologies that are designed to make truck driving safer, but the men and women charged with actually using it have a clear favorite: forward-facing cameras.
More than 60% of respondents to CCJ's What Drivers Want survey, conducted in partnership with Lytx, said a forward-facing camera has the greatest impact on improving truck driver safety. A tie for a distant second place, with 31% each and largely driven by strength among company drivers, was a collision mitigation system and lane departure warning system.
Camera systems that capture the motoring public, drivers say, is handy in that many truckers see four-wheeled motorists as the biggest threat to their safety.
"I have personally seen a woman driving on a divided four-lane, eating a bowl of spaghetti with a tablet on her dash, driving with one knee and cutting in and out of traffic," recalled leased operator Mike Bartick. "DOT should target the [people messing] around on their phones in cars and pickups. I see it 10 times a day every day."
Forward-facing camera was the top tech cited by both driving groups (company drivers and leased owner operators) as improving safety, but among the leased owner operator group the No. 2 spot went to "other," where most of the write-in votes were for standardized and better training.
"Proper pre-employment screening and training is the only way to improve safety in any significant way," said OTR leased owner operator Mark Carter.
Once the cameras face inside the cab, however, drivers' opinions on their efficacy shifts. More than half (54%) of our queried driver audience cited driver-facing cameras as a technology that reduces truck driver safety, second only to a speed limiter (67%). An electronic logging device, with 46%, was third.
"Speed limiter creates congestion and ELD forces you to drive in unrealistic time constraints," said leased owner Victor Farinas.
Company drivers had a dimmer view of driver-facing camera compared to leased operators, but ranked the ELD slightly more favorable.
Many respondents noted a reliance on technology has eroded a skillset required of professional drivers, and one that is honed over generations.
"Technology has ruined the industry for drivers," said regional leased driver Mike Szajna.
"Just let me drive the truck," echoed regional leased owner operator Mike Fischer. "I don’t need all of that crap."
Bartick, a driver for 20-plus years, recalled simpler times in trucking, specifically a trucking tech that has largely been pushed into obsolescence, but one he said made the roads safer.
"Nobody [is] using a CB and are on their phones instead of focusing on the road ahead," he said. "If you have a CB on and someone warns you of a crash ahead 5, 3, or 1 mile ahead, you can slow down appropriately and never be involved in a pileup. Currently it's NASCAR race-style crashes."
The majority of drivers polled see the deployment of new technologies as a tool of Big Brother, with 58% citing its role in making it easier for fleets to monitor and control drivers and just 10% believing technology will make the job easier and safer for drivers.
"I believe once you actually quit believing in the driver himself to drive that truck and take all the responsibilities away from him or her, I feel like you lose the opportunity to get good truck drivers," Texas-based driver Hal Porch said. "If you got cameras that will watch the movement of your eyes, or you have cameras that pick up motion that you’re picking up your phone or something similar to what we’re seeing today, I think we are in serious trouble when it comes to try to find good truck drivers... Nobody’s doing anything to teach people who drive cars and pickups around us how to deal with the big trucks. Until that happens, and we educate the public, I think it’s a lost cause because that’s where road rage comes in."
