Cellphones outnumber the people living in the USA. The popularity of cellphones is evident everywhere in our society, and unfortunately, on our public highways. A survey by AT&T showed that 75% of all drivers admitted to texting while driving and 65% admitted reading text messages while driving. Many reasons were given by the drivers for their risky behavior and 6% of drivers claimed they were addicted to cellphone use. Now commercial truck drivers are as likely to adopt modern technology as anyone else, and so are just as likely to be lured into bad behavior as well. The three main differences with commercial truck drivers’ use of cellphones from regular drivers are:
1) Use of a cellphone while driving is a violation of federal law, (FMCSA Part 392).
2) A commercial truck accident is more likely to cause the deaths of other drivers.
3) Cellphone bills can be obtained and analyzed, determining if the driver’s cellphone use amounts to a risk, and allowing for intervention before a crash.
Addictive cellphone behavior has another downside as well – lack of sleep causing driver fatigue. For about a decade it is required that a commercial driver have at least 8 hours of rest, and sometimes a little more. Analyzing an applicant’s last three months of cellphone bills can identify people with risky cellphone behavior before they are hired. Using the applicant’s detailed bill it is possible to determine if the applicant talks on the phone excessively, texts excessively, or does not stop using the cellphone for at least 8 hours a day, possibly resulting in fatigue. Driver Cellphone Use Analysis, (DCUA), can quickly analyze the applicant’s cellphone use, and compare it to metrics that quickly point up potentially risky behavior. This allows the trucking firm to be sure the drivers that they hire are as safe drivers as possible. DCUA has been employed as cellphone expert witnesses in numerous court cases about commercial truck accidents. The eye-opener was the fact that all the drivers exhibited excessive cellphone use or lack of sleep due to cellphone use for months before the crash. We are always asked: “Could the trucking firm have been able to know about this risky behavior before the crash?” And our answer is yes, if they had analyzed the cellphone bill. DCUA offers a pre-employment screening service that weeds out dangerous drivers due to cellphone use. This screening and DCUA’s post-employment monitoring ensure that the trucking firm is aware of any rule violation or dangerous behavior due to cellphone use.

 

Monitoring on-the-job cellphone use by commercial drivers is prudent. Since it is possible for Driver Cellphone Use Analysis, (DCUA), to coordinate cellphone bills with drivers’ logs it is possible to draw a much clearer picture of cellphone use on-the-job and while moving. This allows true problem detection. These drivers are operating trucks, so the stakes are much higher the safety requirements are much more rigorous – they become black and white, with no gray area. A typical report summary sheet for a firm would look like Figure 1.

Three categories of activities are analyzed:
1) Voice Activity while moving
2) Text Activity while moving
3) Maximum possible rest period during a workday
Voice and text requirements are straightforward – using a cellphone while moving is a violation of federal law, (FMCSA Part 392). Maximum possible rest period is easy as well; either it is long enough to satisfy federal minimum rest requirements, or it is not. Pass/Fail is recorded as Green/Red in the summary sheet of the report. In addition, cross correlating drivers’ cellphone bills with drivers’ logs allow us to see if the dispatcher is trying to reach the driver at inappropriate times through voice or text activity between the dispatcher and the driver. The pass/fail criteria is the same as with drivers’ voice and text activity and this allows you to intervene with dispatchers as well as with drivers to improve your safety record. Putting cellphone analytics into practice reduces the possibilities of crashes and demonstrates that the firm took all due diligence in monitoring and correcting cellphone abuse by your employees. This will reduce fatalities, injuries and costs, while also minimizing your exposure to liability.