TDMST Weekly Roundup: 2020.09.26

This is the TDMST Weekly Round-Up of news affecting professional truck drivers, written by Vicki Simons for the week ending September 26, 2020.

We welcome your comments, thoughts and feedback on the items of your choice below.

TDMST Weekly Round-Up

1. Regarding Hours of Service (HOS):

Despite legal challenges, it appears as though the most recent change to the Hours of Service regulations is going through starting this coming week.

Please familiarize yourself with the new rules and make sure that your Electronic Logging Device (ELD) is updated to keep you legal and compliant with the new regulations.

The most recent articles about this topic are:

2. Regarding accidents:

There have been a number of “under blunder” type truck accidents recently, all of which were completely preventable.

The result from one of these accidents killed another motorist and our deepest sympathy goes to the family of the motorist who died.

If you drive a vehicle that has the ability to raise its bed, please make sure that the trailer bed:

is down every time you get ready to leave a facility that requires you to raise it; and
“stays” in its lowered position the entire time you’re rolling down the road.

Overpass and oversized accidents:

Train accidents and distracted driving accidents are also completely preventable:

I don’t always agree with the verdict that the group finds, but with this one, I do: preventable

Watch: Was this box-truck crash preventable or not?

3. Regarding technology and autonomous vehicles:

Among the most interesting announcements this week was California’s governor wanting to ban the sales of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles starting in 2035:

Even though the target date is a long way in the future, my questions about this decision include:

How will this affect overall sales of vehicles in the state of California?
How big of an impact will this take on sales tax in the state?
(Possible source of info: Revenue Estimates for 2019-2020. ebudget.ca.gov/2019-20/pdf/BudgetSummary/RevenueEstimates.pdf (no longer online))
Will vehicle purchasers simply buy gas- or diesel-powered vehicles out-of-state and bring them in?
What will happen to gas stations, truck stops, repair shops, and more in the state of California?
Will the state of California “punish” owners of fuel-powered vehicles in any way — and if so, how?

Miscellaneous articles about technology in trucking this week include:

I speculate that there’s eventually going to be a big accident involving platooning trucks, yet there are some who are forging ahead with treating multiple trucks on roads as if they were railcars on railroad tracks! {Sigh!}