Rolf Lockwood
Rolf Lockwood is editor emeritus of Today's Trucking and a regular contributor to Trucknews.com.
‘Capricious’ ELD mandate challenged by OOIDA
CHICAGO, IL -- Claiming that the coming U.S. mandate for electronic logging devices to be used by interstate truck drivers is "arbitrary and capricious", the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has filed an appeal to challenge the rule. OOIDA is challenging the U.S. ELD mandateELDs won't improve safety, the organization claims, adding that the mandate propagated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is in violation of 4th Amendment rights against reasonable searches and seizures. The mandate requires that truck drivers use ELDs to track their driving and non-driving activities even though such devices can only track movement and location of a vehicle. The FMCSA finalized the rule late last year. OOIDA, representing small-business truckers, stated its arguments in a legal brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. "The agency provided no proof of their claims that this mandate would improve highway safety," said Jim Johnston, OOIDA president and CEO. "There is simply no proof that the costs, burdens and privacy infringements associated with this mandate are justified." His point is not made in a vacuum. In fact the FMCSA is now being urged, and strongly, to make a bunch of improvements in its data and research methods "to support a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between operator fatigue and highway safety and between fatigue and long-term health."
Daimler shows off semi-autonomous platooning
DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- Daimler Trucks has taken its leading-edge status one rather large step forward with the introduction of its Highway Pilot Connect platooning system. In a demonstration here today, three semi-autonomous Mercedes-Benz Actros tractors pulled their trailers down the A52 autobahn in a platoon formation -- 15 meters or 49 ft apart -- and eventually into the massive hall where some 300 journalists had been assembled for the occasion. It's a world first, of course. We've seen platooning demonstrations before, going back several decades in fact, but never with semi-autonomous trucks. Three semi-autonomous Mercedes tractor-trailers form a three truck platoonHighway Pilot Connect is based on the existing Highway Pilot system that Daimler showed off in 2014 with its Future Truck 2025 program, the first semi-autonomous heavy truck to hit the road. That was dramatic but it was on a closed German highway. It was followed last May with the introduction by Daimler Trucks North America of the Freightliner Inspiration Truck which travelled down some very public roads in Nevada. And it was licensed to do so, also a world first.
