Anyone with a lick of sense knows it’s unsafe to duct-tape a broken ax handle. Those who don’t have that kind of sense work for the FMCSA.
I could pretty much say “The End” and have made my point today, but I feel like there’s space for a quick correlation and an opportunity to mention one of the best op/ed pieces I’ve read about the ELD mandate yet.
Lord honey, yes, I went there again. I know everyone is sick and tired of it, including those of us who are looking for anything to write about that doesn’t involve ELD, Tesla, Uber or the word automated and remain anywhere within the momentary realm of trucking-oriented content. Believe me, we’re trying here.
Steve Viscelli said some things that needed to be said. Some common-sense things and things that have been overlooked time and again in the industry. If you want people to be safe, you pay them to be safe.
You pay them to be safe and you fix the underlying problem, which is the hours of service. The hours of service (ax handle) is broken and no amount of (duct tape) ELD can fix it to make things safer. It’s unsafe to swing a broken ax without taking the busted handle off and putting a new one behind the killing part of the tool. You’re mandating people to swing a broken ax and no good will come of it. (Just ask ol’ Stumpy over at the hardware store in Eaton, he’ll tell ya’ about using a broke ax.)
Here’s another thing to think about.
According to statistics, somewhere north of 85 percent of the people who will be mandated to use ELD’s to make them safer, already have exemplary safety ratings. So one of two things must become true, or this whole thing is based on turtle crap and unicorn tears.
