Bob McCarty Writes

Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a federal ban on texting while driving by people behind the wheels of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses.  Soon after the announcement, truck drivers organizations lashed out at the measure, but not for the reasons you might suspect.

“We support where they are going, but not how they got there,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the 157,000-member Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. “Making their action effective immediately bypasses normal regulatory rulemaking processes.  Those processes allow actions to be vetted for unintended consequences, as well as potential implementation and enforcement problems.”

Dan Little, president of Carrollton, Mo.-based Owner-Operators United, supports the intent of the measure which will subject drivers of trucks and buses who text while driving commercial vehicles to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.  At the same time, however, he thinks it is too limited in scope.

“We feel it should ban all drivers of cars and trucks, not just commercial trucks,” said Little, whose two-year-old group represents approximately 6,000 independent truck drivers and trucking companies in 50 states.

This new regulation comes only 28 days after the Department of Transportation implemented new safety guidelines under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010.  Known as “CSA 2010,” the guidelines focus on seven improvement categories, according to trucking consultant Dan Goodwill:

• Unsafe Driving;
• Fatigued Driving;
• Driver Fitness;
• Controlled Substances/Alcohol;
• Vehicle Maintenance;
• Improper Loading/Cargo; and
• Crash Indicator.