Safety Concerns Over the last two years we have witnessed a reduction in both accidents and truck fatalities within the country despite a major increase in truck travel. CMCA and the entire trucking industry in our state are proud of the progress we have made in truck safety and we continually seek to improve our record. Although the proposed rules are aimed at reducing truck accidents due to fatigue, the proposed rules may actually increase accidents. The DOT has indicated in the proposed rules that the new hours of service would involve hiring at least 49,000 more truck drivers and in turn acquiring a similar number of trucks to haul the existing level of freight. These numbers are fairly conservative and the actual number may be as high as over 100,000 trucks and drivers to meet the existing needs of our nation's economy.
More trucks translate into higher accident exposure.
Compounding this problem will be the addition of thousands of inexperienced truck drivers who are more prone to accidents. Overall the proposed rules could be a prescription for disaster from a safety perspective. Air Quality Concerns Colorado has several areas of the state which are defined as non-attainment areas for air quality purposes. Over the last several years the state and our industry have made concerted efforts to reduce vehicle emissions with the net result being an improvement in air quality. The proposed rule change could have the affect of significantly increasing truck traffic in these communities which will adversely impact air quality and the state's efforts to reach its air quality attainment goals.