Opposition to the black box can only hurt trucking

The term "black box" has completely negative connotations for most people since it's closely linked by the news to every major airline disaster. So it's no surprise that many in the trucking industry have responded with howls of protest to indications that the Federal government wants to bring the black box to commercial trucks. Now, however, it's time for fleets to rethink that initial reaction and substitute public cooperation for opposition. If they don't, the industry could be facing its own disaster.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been calling for black boxes for the last ten years, and the industry has managed to sidestep the issue up to this point. But it's no longer a question of "if" - now it's a question of "when" and "how." The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) isn't saying much officially, but it's clear that the new agency's first regulatory action will involve some sort of black box requirement tied to new hours-of-service rules.

It's time to accept the inevitable, or risk losing out in two important ways.

First, you could end up with the monitoring solution adopted in Japan. There, commercial vehicles are required to carry a stand-alone monitor solely reserved for regulatory use. Fleets that want the same information for management systems must pay for a second and essentially redundant onboard system.

There's some hope here that FMCSA will be satisfied with data captured by electronic engine controls, allowing the industry to comply without additional cost. That's probably wishful thinking, especially since any rule is likely to involve hours-of-service compliance as well, requiring some method for capturing and displaying driver information.

But if industry leaders take a proactive stand, the agency might be convinced to allow the use of a single onboard device that also serves business functions, offering fleets at least some productive return on their black box investment.

More importantly, continued opposition to recording devices will shred whatever positive image trucking has managed to acquire over the past few years. You can't ask for service rules that will seem to be quite generous to the general public and then oppose a system for enforcing them. What the public will see is an industry trying to evade safety regulations for its own business gain. Are you ready to see trucking tarred with that brush again?

By stepping up right now and endorsing the concept of monitoring, trucking can send the opposite signal. From the perspective of self-interest, mandatory monitoring will give the majority of fleets that have always placed a premium on safety a level playing field. And a positive attitude now is also more likely to result in rules that allow the most cost-effective approach to adding onboard data collection devices.

Like it or not, it's time for trucking to accept the black box.