Coming Soon To A Truck Near You
The brakes came on in a big way and we slowed to avoid the dawdling car.
Steve Sturgess
Executive Editor
I'm a technology kind of guy. And when I see technologies deployed that make people happier and safer, I am never happier myself.
So I was delighted recently to view the rollout of some safety – and driver convenience – technology by Freightliner parent DaimlerChrysler at its spectacular test track in Papenburg, Germany.
(We will have a feature detailing all of the new DaimlerChrysler technologies in December's HDT.)
The best news is, much of this technology is poised to become a part of a fleet's life both over in Europe and also here in North America.
Stability control is already available here. Just to recap, that's where the braking system intervenes when a truck gets out of control and may be liable to roll over, jackknife or run off the road.
And interactive cruise control is also a technology that can be allied to Eaton's Vorad collision avoidance system. To recap that added feature, the interaction is between the following vehicle and others in front when the cruise control will slow the truck to match the speed of the vehicle being followed, opening up again when the road is clear.
On the Mercedes-Benz trucks in Papenburg, this feature – plus stability control – was complemented by automatic braking in the event the driver is not paying attention or simply does not have the time to react to a dangerous situation.
Riding in the high cabover, bearing down at 50 mph on a slow-moving A-Class Mercedes, I for one, thought we were set for a rear-end accident and was hanging on with white knuckles. But then an alarm sounded, the engine de-fueled and the brakes came on in a big way and we slowed well clear of the dawdling car.
And the same result occurred – albeit more dramatically – when we approached a stationary vehicle.
This sort of safety automation is very important in Europe, where many deaths and injuries are the result of vehicles – trucks in particular – piling into the back of a pack of stationary cars waiting in one of the many traffic snarls that are common on the autobahns, autoroutes and motorways on the other side of the Pond.
Back here, the truck rollover is the more common truck accident – thank goodness – but in either situation, the truck driver is definitely the one to get hurt.
While these and existing stability control technologies are readily available here and in Europe, they are optioned in dismally small numbers, appearing on only 20% or so of the trucks sold.
According to DaimlerChrysler executives, the reason is that such things have to be paid for, and trucking over in Europe is beset by the same slim profit margins as over here.
Since it is hard to put a price on the accidents your drivers don't have, it is sometimes difficult to cost-justify the investment in safety.
But let me make another suggestion.
Factor in driver recruitment and retention. Don't you think your drivers would rather work for a company that specified equipment that would guarantee to get them home safe and sound at the end of their trip?
That's technology that you – and your drivers' families – should be as excited about as I am.
E–mail Steve Sturgess at ssturgess@truckinginfo.com, or write P.O. Box W, Newport Beach, CA, 92656.
