Deregulation Is a Suspect in the Decline of Truck Safety

Running on--running on empty.

Running on--running blind.

Running on--running into the sun.

But I’m running behind. --Jackson Browne

Truck accidents in California increased by 16.6% between 1981 and 1984, going from 28,892 to 33,676. But there is no agreement on the reasons or the solution.

Conventional wisdom contends that a major factor may be industry deregulation, with drivers being squeezed by intense competition into skimping on truck maintenance, speeding to log more miles and staying on the road despite exhaustion.

“When a person is scratching to make a living, he’s maybe going to drive too long and too fast,” said Keith Gilbert, highway engineering manager for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “This contributes to the problem.”

Gilbert’s view finds support from the California Highway Patrol, some officials of the state Public Utilities Commission and the California Trucking Assn., which represents established firms most hurt by competition from cut-rate independents after the industry was deregulated.

California began deregulating intrastate trucking in phases in 1979. The federal government lifted its rules on interstate trucking fees in 1980.

To Don Vial, chairman of the five-member California PUC that is empowered to regulate intrastate trucking, there is an inescapable link between economics and safety.

“The more we rely on the marketplace (to set trucking prices), the more pressure is placed on firms to operate with perhaps less attention to safety--both in maintaining equipment and in using less-skilled drivers,” Vial said.

Since deregulation, many truckers have been hurt financially.

In large part, those whose incomes have stagnated are the lucky ones. Many have seen their paychecks shrink.

Since 1978, 341 California trucking companies have gone out of business.

The percentage of California trucking companies posting losses rose from 29% in 1980 to 45% in 1982. In 1983, the latest year for which statistics are available, the rate declined to 35.5% of the 771 firms still in business.

The average income for independent operators has declined by about one-third to $20,000 a year, while wages for unionized drivers of fleet operations have been frozen or are falling.

“The whole industry is hurting,” said Charles Ramorino, president of the California Trucking Assn., a Sacramento-based trade group. “Inflation has pushed up prices for everything else, but trucking rates are the same--and sometimes lower--than they were in 1980. Shippers love it, but it’s terrible for truckers.”

Ramorino, who heads Bob Rich-Schroeder Trucking Inc., a 20-truck intrastate hauler based in San Francisco, blames the financial difficulties--and the increase in accidents--on deregulation.

“There are too many new entrants in the industry who don’t understand what their costs are, so they offer to do the work cheaper than they should,” he said.

He said that in setting their prices, the newcomers take into account the cost of the truck, fuel and insurance but leave little for maintenance.

Vic Weisser, head of the PUC’s transportation section, shares that concern.

He noted that between 1979 and 1983, the age of California’s truck fleet increased from 7.4 years to 9 years. During the same period, the percentage of operating revenues set aside for maintenance decreased from 6.27% to 5.9%.

“It is certainly a signal that something is wrong when you are spending less money to take care of an older fleet,” Weisser said.

Fatigue also is a concern voiced by many officials, although no statistics exist to support the belief that accidents are the result of truckers who have pushed themselves beyond their limits.

Truckers--restricted by federal law to 10 hours a day behind the wheel and by state law to 12 hours--must keep log books on their trips. But those are widely regarded as useless.

“Many of them should be compared to the great novels of the world,” said Capt. Dick Noonan, head of the CHP’s commercial section. Generally, the logs are dismissed by officials as “comic books.”

Mike Parkhurst, head of the 30,000-member Independent Truckers Assn., is skeptical about the suggestion that deregulation is to blame for rising traffic accidents.

He points out that currently available statistics on who’s to blame are woefully inadequate and that some studies indicate most truck-related accidents occur when truckers have been on the road less than two hours, “not when they are using toothpicks to keep their eyes open.”

Not Many Tailgaters?

He said a national study found that big trucks tailgated only a small percentage of the time, but that 39% of the public believed truckers were responsible for most tailgating.

“What we are dealing with here is very much a matter of public perception,” Parkhurst said.

A CHP officer, who asked not to be identified, lent some credence to Parkhurst’s argument: “If you have a big semi on your tail just once, you’re going to remember that a lot more vividly and a lot longer than all the Honda Civics that may follow you too close.”

Throughout it all, trucking-industry groups are working feverishly to find solutions and polish their tarnished image.

Serious About Image

Nationally, the American Trucking Assn. changed the name of its annual driving competition from the “Roadeo”--a flippant title that conjures up images of freewheeling cowboys--to the duller but more professional-sounding National Truck Driving Championship.

The national group also is conducting an advertising campaign focusing on safety.

In Sacramento, the state trucking group is struggling to find cures for the increasing number of truck-related accidents, such as getting the state to toughen regulations on how much training a person needs before becoming a truck driver, spokeswoman Karen Rasmussen said.