ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Workforce equipment, technology, regulations and demographics continue to change, but truck driving has and will always be more than a job — it’s a lifestyle. Perhaps nothing illustrates this more today than watching drivers use smart phones and tablets.

Our industry must adjust to major changes in government regulations. We know that changes are coming, but it’s still not clear precisely when they will go into effect, nor do we know exactly what the changes will be.

Lighting is already responsible for 19% of the world’s electricity consumption, and its technological advancements are changing the world in fascinating ways, including some that are becoming increasingly more evident in the trucking industry.

Those in our industry can make whatever excuses they want for not using EOBRs. The bottom line is they haven’t wrapped their minds around how to make money legally. I mean, they might as well be bootlegging whiskey. It’s the same damn thing.

We live in an age of electronic information. Computers, the Internet, iPhones, iPads, GPS . . . all these technological wonders work to make our lives easier, reduce paperwork and give us all more time to do other things.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continues to be dead set on forcing every commercial vehicle in the United States to carry an electronic onboard recorder — better known as an EOBR — despite the device’s hefty price tag and general uselessness as a safety tool.

I’m proud to be a member of the North American heavy-truck supplier community. Together, we’ve made significant strides in Class 8 truck brake safety, but not since the introduction of non-asbestos brake linings more than 20 years ago has the heavy-duty industry seen technological changes to brakes as significant as those we are experiencing today.

There is no question that the trucking industry in the past decade has made substantial progress in its embrace and use of technology to achieve best practices for every vital function and process from fleet management, dispatch and accounting to sophisticated tracking, business intelligence and almost any task you can name.

As technologies are implemented and improved in various industries, companies are at an increased risk of being sued for patent infringement. This is particularly true as federal or state regulators move to require companies to use electronic tracking or other technology.