It doesn't take long for Joe Yeggy to spot a trucker on the phone.
“I see truck drivers that are texting going down the road,” he said. “I was behind one yesterday who spent more time on the shoulder than on the highway — and when I caught up with him, (I saw) he was on the phone.”
A long-haul trucker himself, Yeggy worries when he sees drivers — whether they're in a semi or a sedan — with a phone to their ear or their eyes focused on a tiny screen in their hand, instead of the road. And he's not alone.
Over the past few years, concerns about distracted drivers have sparked a federal ban on truckers driving while texting and several state restrictions on hand-held cell phone use.
Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation is looking to take the rules for commercial truck and bus drivers one step further, with a complete ban on hand-held cell phones. If the rules are approved, drivers caught chatting with a phone in their hand — or dialing the phone — could face a $2,750 fine, while fines for their companies would run up to $11,000.
Multiple offenses could mean losing a commercial driver's license.
A decision on the proposal won't be made until later this year. For now, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is gathering feedback from trucking companies, industry groups and members of the public — and so far, there doesn't seem to be much of a consensus. While safety groups point to studies on crashes and push for more stringent rules, some truckers argue that cell phones have become an essential tool of the job.
The Nebraska Trucking Association supports a move to only hands-free calls but thinks drivers should still be able to reach for the phone to dial it, just as they'd reach for a CB radio or other communication device, president Larry Johnson said.
He said checking in while on the go is something clients have come to expect — and has become more important as federal regulators have pushed to limit the amount of time truckers can drive at a stretch.
“In the old days, where you actually had to pull into a truck stop and use a pay phone, it was kind of counterproductive,” Johnson said. “It would take a lot of time out of the limited work hours that we have in our (approved) hours of service to be able to communicate those things.
“Shippers now want to have as much constant visibility to their freight as possible.”
When he's away from his home in Lincoln and on the road, Yeggy's truck is his home and office, complete with a computer and fax machine. He has a hands-free calling system rigged up so he can push a couple of buttons to answer the phone while driving. Doing any more with gadgets would be dangerous, Yeggy said, but the quick phone conversations are crucial.
“In today's economy, I couldn't function” without the cell phone, Yeggy said.
In its official comments on the proposal, the American Trucking Association voiced support for a ban on talking on hand-held phones but argued that taking phones out of truck cabs altogether, or blocking drivers from using a few buttons to make a call, could hurt efficiency and driver morale.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association went a step further, suggesting that officials should spend their time on other safety issues, rather than placing any more limits on cell use in the cabin of trucks.
Omaha trucking giant Werner Enterprises also voiced opposition to the proposal. The company said in its comments that it supports the ban on texting but doesn't think enough research has been completed to show that cell phones create an additional risk.
In addition, Werner's vice president of governmental affairs, Richard Reiser, argued that any new cell phone ban would be difficult to enforce — and likely would prompt drivers to do something else to stay in touch with work contacts, family and friends while heading down the highway.
“If thousands of drivers who have grown accustomed to the instant communication that is now prevalent in our culture suddenly stop making or receiving calls while driving, they will not cease communicating but will find alternative methods,” he wrote.
But others think it's time to change some habits.
According to Nebraska Office of Highway Safety studies, more than 3,700 Nebraska drivers were involved in distracted driving crashes in 2009, the most recent data available. More than 150 of those were linked to cell phone use at the time of the crash.
Nationwide, there were an estimated 200,000 crashes involving texting or e-mailing in 2008, and 1.4 million crashes involving talking on cell phones, according to a National Safety Council report.
David Grant, who runs the truck driver training program at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, said he tells his students that there's rarely a place for cell phones behind the wheel.
He believes that hands-free devices don't solve the underlying problem: the distraction that comes from focusing on something completely separate from the task at hand.
“You are distracted intellectually,” he said. “You're making conversation, and it takes a very well-disciplined driver that can carry on a conversation while they're also checking mirrors, looking left to right.”
Kay Farrell, president and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chapter of the National Safety Council, said she also supports a tougher stance on cell phone use, both by truck drivers and drivers of all other vehicles.
She said her group has recently stepped up its efforts to combat distracted driving, but she thinks it will take a while to get people to put away their phones, just as it took years to get people to wear seat belts on a regular basis.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates, about 11 percent of drivers are on the phone at any given time.
“It's a tough thing, because as technology grows it becomes even more of a problem situation,” Farrell said. “Now we have people almost putting their computers up in front of them. You can put up a DVD player.”
Fred Zwonechek, the administrator of the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety, said phones are just about always a distraction, in one way or another, to drivers.
“We always recommend that the safest way to use a cell phone, hands-free or not, is to make those calls when stopped unless it's an absolute emergency,” he said.
Truckers who want to hold onto their cell phones said they agree that more gadgets on the road aren't a good thing. But they also don't see themselves as the biggest danger on the highway.
Shae Swanson, the owner of Victory Hill Trucking in Aurora, Neb., said he sets up all of his drivers with hands-free sets and has clear expectations about safety.
“My opinion is we're professionals,” he said. “I think sometimes the guys that drive these trucks get a bit of a bad rep. But these guys are professionals, and they handle themselves in that manner.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1543, erin.golden@owh.com
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