This month’s cover story takes a look at the new stopping distance regulations passed this summer by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The new rules were a long time in the making – starting and stalling for years – but they finally are finished and will take effect beginning Aug. 1, 2011.
The distance tractors are required to stop within is reduced by 30 percent. NHTSA says this will annually save 227 lives, prevent 300 serious injuries and reduce property damage by more than $169 million.
As with most regulations, the intended outcomes are all positive, and as you would expect the rules are widely supported throughout the industry. And as with most regulations, their implementation will require expense and effort at most every level, from manufacturers through end users.
But while we usher in these new rules and welcome a safer industry, there are many transgressions going on every day that are making the roadways unsafe.
Neglected maintenance and repairs are making some trucks downright dangerous. The potential liability is huge, not just financially to the owners of the vehicles, but to the reputation of the entire industry.
It’s an unwelcome consequence of the times with the economy forcing truck owners into choices between doing what’s right versus doing what is absolutely necessary at the lowest possible cost.
At every event and during every interview with repair shops, I keep hearing the same thing – trucks are limping into bays needing multiple repairs and replacement parts, but they go limping back out after just enough work to keep them running. It seems just about everybody has a recent story of a customer insisting on getting a brake job on a single wheel-end, forgoing the other side of the axle to save a few dollars.
The heavy-duty market is not alone in this problem. A recent study by the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) reports that unperformed and underperformed maintenance in the U.S. last year was $50 billion. Four-wheel owners are, of course, feeling the pinch too. In announcing the results of the study, Steve Handschuh, AASA president and COO, remarked, “The safety implications of the large number of under-maintained vehicles on the road are an enormous concern of the automotive aftermarket. While some neglected maintenance will only lead to more costly repairs later, others have a direct relationship to the safety and drivability of the vehicle.”
He further notes that the un- and under-performed work represents 21 percent of the total aftermarket potential going untapped.
Sure, that’s automotive, but the message for the heavy-duty aftermarket is the same: neglected maintenance and repairs is costing you money and, sooner rather than later, will cost customers money as well – more money than if things were done when they needed to be done, and done correctly.
Applying band-aids when surgery is necessary is a cosmetic fix. When customers let their pocketbooks be the only factor in their repair and maintenance choices, it puts them and others at risk.
It’s time to speak up. Trucks pulled out of service can mean late loads and angry shippers, putting your customers’ future earning potential at risk. Fines resulting from failed roadside inspections can be steep. The long-term damage to the truck can be exponentially expensive. And a single accident can be devastating, financially and to the carriers’ long-term viability.
Of course, you don’t want to preach and you certainly don’t want to offend the customer and lose future business of your own. But there is a tactful way to simply state the facts and let the customer know of the potential liability and consequences. It may not change their mind, but it is the responsible thing to do.
The industry can work toward making trucks safer as they come off the production line, but unless the aftermarket is vigilant in advising and compelling customers to keep them safe while in operation, the effort is wasted.
