A good mandate

Nov. 5, 2015
Federal rules often add cost without real benefit, but this is the exception

Mention “government mandate” to fleet executives and you can almost see the dollar signs popping up in their eyes.  Sometimes, though, you need to look beyond the immediate cost to see the ultimate benefit to both individual fleets and the industry as a whole.  A case in point is recent activity on forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking systems.

Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it will consider issuing a rule calling for such systems for Class 3-8 trucks.  To be clear, NHTSA is still far short of issuing a mandate requiring this type of active safety technology.  The safety agency says it has been studying collision warning and automated braking technology for several years and will now begin real-world performance testing both on closed tracks and in field operations.  Follow­ing the path it took to mandating truck stability control and antilock braking systems, its stated goal is to determine if it’s time to issue a federal mandate requiring forward collision  technology in both air- and hydraulic-braking systems for trucks.  This is just one step in the long federal regulatory process.

FCAM in acronym-happy federal agency speak, the systems under review combine radar and camera sensors to detect imminent rear-end crashes, first warning the truck driver and then applying the brakes if the driver fails to take action.  Initially introduced for heavy trucks a number of years ago as warning systems only, the latest generations of FCAM add automated emergency braking and are already commercially available from a number of suppliers. 

In fact, virtually every heavy-truck OEM now offers one or another of the systems as optional equipment. At least one FCAM developer—Bendix—expects 40 to 45% of all new Class 6-8 trucks to carry the option by 2020 even without any federal mandate.  While an increase in awareness from additional federal study is welcomed, “many fleets today that have adopted collision mitigation systems already understand” their value in reducing truck accidents and saving lives, says Fred Andersky, director of government and industry affairs for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems.

Calling the current NHTSA initiative “an incredibly positive step,”  Meritor Wabco, another developer of FCAM systems, echoed Andersky’s sentiment, pointing out that  it “mirrors the direction of the commercial vehicle fleet thought leaders.”

If that’s the case, then who needs another costly government requirement?  Trucking as a collective industry, that’s who.

While there are many responsible fleets willing, if not anxious, to invest in safety, there are also those that can’t see beyond the initial bump in equipment cost.  Truck and trailer ABS is a good example.  It was a significant safety advance quickly embraced by many fleets, but it took a NHTSA mandate to spread that advance to everyone operating a commercial truck.

FCAM is quickly becoming a well-publicized feature in passenger cars. For the most part, the general public does not appreciate the vastly different physics involved in stopping a heavy truck, and it simply expects advanced auto safety systems to be extended to trucks.  When they aren’t, and when a truck accident occurs that might have been avoided by one of those automotive systems, there’s little sympathy for the truck operators. 

The thing is, we do have FCAM technology specifically developed for the challenges presented by heavy trucks. Since rear-end collisions involving a truck are often fatal and almost always generate newsworthy images of destruction, the entire industry—responsible fleets included—will be tarred with the same “dollars-over-safety” brush if the truck lacked FCAM.

For me, this is one case where a federal mandate justifies its cost.

About the Author

Jim Mele

Nationally recognized journalist, author and editor, Jim Mele joined Fleet Owner in 1986 with over a dozen years’ experience covering transportation as a newspaper reporter and magazine staff writer. Fleet Owner Magazine has won over 45 national editorial awards since his appointment as editor-in-chief in 1999.

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