Page 47 - Newcom

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ways. The fact is, there will be pretty limited applications for that tech- nology, and it’s at least a decade away. My aging friend needn’t worry about being replaced by a black box. Even at its most basic (adap- tive cruise control with assisted steering), the enormous cost of the technology will be a barrier to wide- spread uptake.
It’s really the pace of change that my friend is anxious about, and who isn’t? Technology, automation, telematics, and connectivity, have changed truck- ing – or at least the trucks – more in the past five years than in the previ- ous 50, and that trend will continue. But what hasn’t changed much is how trucking is done. Many drivers are fed up with running cross-country and having to lay over on the way home doing a reset.
A return to relaying loads in a hook-and-drop scenario would be good for those drivers who don’t like extended tours of duty. The freight would actually move across the country faster if the relays were properly scheduled, because carri- ers could cut at least two off-duty periods from the travel time.
Gone would be the real pres- sure on drivers to make customer appointments with 15-minute win- dows, and so too would be the addi- tional pressure put on drivers to keep the freight moving, no matter what.
Joanne Ritchie is executive director of OBAC. How nostalgic is your perspective? E-mail her at jritchie@obac.ca or call toll-free at 888-794-9990.
With a return to that good part of the old days, electronic logging devices (ELDs) would ensure that drivers have predictable schedules to fol- low, and no more pressure from dis- patch to keep pushing when weather or traffic conspires against them.
With all that’s changing, even my grumpy friend agrees that trucks are more comfortable and capable today. He agrees that ELDs really aren’t the problem, but the inflex- ibility of hours-of-service is. He doesn’t disagree that some level of driver monitoring is not a bad idea, and he even concedes that the job is physically easier today than 20 or 30 years ago.
But, as bad as we think they are, these days will become, in Gladys’ words, “the good old days of our chil- dren.” Twenty-five years from now, the job will be as different then as it is now from the 70s and 80s. But one thing won’t change, today’s driv- ers will be the old-timers, and they’ll still be grumbling. It’s all a matter of perspective. TN
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June 2017 • Truck News 47