A member of the Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC senior leadership team will join other commercial vehicle industry leaders on a safety technology panel at the 2013 Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference, set to be held Wednesday, Aug. 21 in Dallas.
Scott Burkhart, vice president and general manager of controls and modules, will participate in “How Regulations and Customer Demand Are Driving Safety Technology Forward.” As a member of the safety regulations and equipment panel, Bendix says Burkhart will share insights on how innovative products can help improve safety, performance, and return on investment for fleets. He and his fellow panelists also will examine the factors that are driving the growth of safety technologies in the market.
“A main driver of safety technology growth is fleet experiences. Accidents are a $52 billion a year issue for the industry, with the costs of these incidents — both financially and in the lives they affect —going up rapidly for fleets,” says Burkhart. “More and more fleets are seeing that proven on-board safety technologies — including full stability, collision mitigation, lane departure warning, and data systems – can help reduce the number and severity of accidents. In an environment where fleets must carefully weigh competing costs and priorities when spec’ing trucks, the value of these technologies is clear as fleets strive to reduce costs.”
Burkhart notes that fleet acceptance for these technologies are rising. And, in addition, federal regulators are beginning to see the benefits they bring to highway safety, such as helping to reduce both the number of accidents and the severity of the accidents that do occur, Bendix says. As one example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to issue a final ruling next year requiring stability control on commercial vehicles. And Burkhart points out that NHTSA is engaged in studies that may lead to a regulation requiring collision mitigation systems.
“The Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference is valuable on many levels. It allows our constantly changing industry to get a reading on key current issues, as well as on what lies ahead, from future technology trends to the future needs of fleets,” says Burkhart. “Bendix is pleased to contribute our perspective on advanced safety systems — what they look like today, what they’ll look like tomorrow, and what their use means to fleets and all of us who share our highways.”
