Overdrive

September 2013

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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Logbook Studies challenge beliefs on hours, cell phones in Carnegie Mellon's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. "Our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature." Similarly, there's no evidence that laws prohibiting cell phone use by drivers have had an impact on safety, the study found. – Kevin Jones (Continued on Page 82) Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com Recent studies suggest that conventional wisdom could be wrong about two subjects important to trucking: the impact of changes to the hours of service rule, and the risks of using a cell phone while driving. Regarding the former, Asvin Goel, professor of International Logistics at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's 2010 regulatory impact analysis had "several shortcomings" in its evaluation of the proposed changes to the hours rule. The research, "Hours of Service Regulations in the United States and the 2013 Rule Change," argues that FMCSA overestimated the costs of stricter regulations and underestimated the safety benefits. The changes, according to the scholar, could prove more beneficial than advertised by FMCSA. Indeed, with this new math, the case could be made that the reductions in driving time did not go far enough. The catch: Trucking needs to adapt the new rules perfectly. "By optimizing plans and schedules, transport companies can avoid additional costs even if stricter regulations are imposed," the study says. In another study, researchers' observations cast doubt on the assumption that using a cell phone while driving causes crashes, according to ScienceBlog. "Using a cell phone while driving may be distracting, but it does not lead to higher crash risk in the setting we examined," says Saurabh Bhargava, an assistant professor September 2013 | Overdrive | 21 Logbook_0913.indd 21 8/27/13 11:01 PM

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