cost of doing business | AnnaLeah & Mary

How do “we” want to handle it? Ask the trucking industry to pay for underride protection as a Cost of Doing Business or continue to force the society and victims to pay for the cost of large truck crashes?

My Underride Protection Win/Win List:

Fuel Savings (aerondynamics when combined with side skirts)
Return On Investment (see #1)
Trucks get Back on the Road more quickly when a crash does not involve a fatality.
Driver Benefit: less negative impact on their career and avoidance of PTSD from someone dying under their truck.
Job Creation (design, manufacture, installation, and maintenance of underride protective devices).
Trailer Manufacturers burden lifted if mandated; they no longer have to persuade customers to buy trailers with safer equipment/design.
BTW, lives are saved and serious injuries are prevented

Incentives:

Sponsors of the STOP Underrides! Bill are open to discussing a weight exemption for added weight of safety equipment (so that payload is not impacted).
Section 179 of the IRS Tax Code allows for a tax deduction for safety equipment purchased by trucking companies.
Decreased insurance risk. Wouldn’t it be great if the insurance industry would play their part and provide incentives for use of this equipment (perhaps discounts for early adopters of this life-saving technology)?

It’s a simple question: Is safety equipment a legitimate “cost of doing business” for the trucking industry?

Here’s one opinion from Country Supply, Inc. (they service semi-trailers):

It looks like another rule/law is coming down the pipeline for the American transportation sector, specifically the trucking industry. In December of 2017 some members of Congress put forth legislation that will mandate new safety regulations for semis. This bill, introduced as S.2219 Stop the Underrides Act of 2017, would mandate front and side underride guards. It would also require the rear underride guards be brought up to higher and stronger standards. Safety of passenger vehicle occupants is the premise for this legislation.

If this law is passed, should we just consider it another cost of doing business for the trucking industry? If the past is any indication to what new regulations and laws will bear, then the answer is a definitive yes. For those who haven’t voluntarily installed these underride guards it might be wise to think about the ramifications of what the enactment of this law will bring and how this will potentially impact your future business costs. Hopefully, the mandating of any new requirements such as this will allow for ample time for compliance and implementation. Naturally, there are varied opinions about this bill. Not everyone is a proponent. Are You for or Against S.2219 Stop the Underrides Act of 2017?

Now wouldn’t that be wonderful if the entire industry embraced that attitude and we were all proponents of this life-saving technology? In fact, I’m chomping at the bit to organize a Third Underride Roundtable. My vision is to bring all the stakeholders back together again in order to collaborate and figure out how we can most effectively move ahead together to implement a mandate for comprehensive underride protection.

Society pay for Large Truck Crash Costs or Industry Pay for Safety Equipment as Cost of Doing Business?