There is a massive focus on safety technology in the trucking industry. I have attended or been invited to at least five user conferences this year for tech companies that provide in-cab technologies meant to improve driver safety.
But what about the millions of other drivers on the roads?
In the second quarter of 2022, there were just over 284 million vehicles operating on U.S. roadways across all vehicle types. While heavy-duty trucks transporting goods across America to the very consumers who are driving alongside them are among them, there are far more passenger vehicles.
And most of them, in my experience at least, do not know how to drive around an 18-wheeler. So how useful is all this in-cab technology that trucking companies are footing the bill for when passenger car drivers – or four-wheelers – don’t have the proper knowledge of how to operate around these much larger vehicles that can kill them.
Multiple studies have shown that, more often than not, the passenger vehicle is at-fault in a truck-involved collision.
While helpful, all the technology in the world cannot prevent a passenger vehicle from cutting off an 18-wheeler, which may result in an accident that more often than not, the trucking company has to shell out money for.
