For the past five years, Congress has been considering a bill that would require commercial truckers to install electronic recorders, often called "black boxes" on all of their trucks. Currently, commercial truckers keep track of their hours on the road through paper logs. The paper logs were mandated in order to keep track of the federal maximums for commercial truck drivers.

The logs were a means of compliance with the current limitation on drivers, which is a limit of 70 hours of driving in any eight-day period, following by a mandated 34-hour rest period. The American Trucking Association, which supports the black-box legislation, has expressed concerns that the paper log system is strictly an honor system and allows truckers to drive illegally, something that creates a safety hazard.

The European Union is also considering a similar form of electronic monitoring to replace its current system that has the hours recorded in the truck on a CD. However, truckers there indicate that drivers often change out the CD in order to avoid detection of maximum-hours violations.

The technology for the trucking black box was developed through large commercial fleets. Schneider International installed black boxes on its trucks (it has a fleet of 13,000) in 2010 and saw a significant reduction in crashes. The company's vice president for safety indicated that fatigue was the number one cause of crashes involving their trucks. Since 2010 the company's injury and fatality crashes have decreased and the number of crashes caused by fatigue has also decreased. \({ }^{2}\) One of Schneider's drivers, Bob Wyatt, has been honored for his safety record by the state and province patrol association; 51 years of driving with no preventable accidents. \({ }^{3}\).

The American Trucking Association, the largest trade association for commercial trucking companies, has reached similar conclusions on safety and supports the requirement.
Small-business owners who drive trucks that are not part of a fleet believe that the black boxes are an invasion of privacy and will also allow micromanagement of drivers. \({ }^{4}\) Some drivers feel that the ability to monitor when the truck is moving will result in increased fatigue because the drivers will not take as many breaks as they do because they know someone is watching their productivity. In addition, the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association (OOIDA) notes that all the black boxes can do is tell you whether the truck is moving. It cannot tell you who is driving the truck. However, there are in-cab cameras that can be mounted to show who is driving the truck, a feature that would not be required under the black-box bill.............................................

 Discussion Questions.
1. Describe the positions of the trade organizations and explain why the two groups have taken the positions they have on black boxes.
2. Bob Wyatt noted that driving is different now from when he started 51 years ago because of the other drivers, "It's their attitudes. It used to be, 'Well, I'm going to try and stay safe on this trip across country.' Now it's get there as fast as you can, cut off as many people as you can and be the first one there." You have to watch out. In my lifetime, I could have run over probably thousands of people if it wasn't for slowing down and braking and trying to guess what they're going to do next. "5 Is there a difference between the ethics of driving now and 50 years ago? Can you be in compliance with the law and still be unsafe in your job? In driving?