The Problem
The long haul trucking industry has has a habitual problem with violating its regulations regarding driver time.
Sharing GPS Monitoring Information
Currently, a number of long haul trucking companies set daily milage goals which can not be met, and which force truckers to cheat on their logbooks and driver further than they are legally allowed. GPS can help put a stop to this practice by providing transparency as to the truck’s drive hours, as well as drive speed throughout the year.
Privacy
Any privacy concerns brought up by the industry would simply not be believable. Each long haul truck is now tracked by its company, which is not a democratic institution and which is not in charge of regulation and which has no public interest function. The trucks are riding on US government infrastructure, with the rest of the public, that has an interest in traffic safety. The current logbook approach to truck monitoring is a pre-GPS arrangement between the government and industry that needs to be upgraded. Therefore, the public deserves to know this information. When we say public, we don’t just mean the regulating body. The information when provided to the government, should be made available to the public through a website.
