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Trucks Are Killing Us

nytimes.com

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Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#241

Post by mcv »

jfhubbard wrote: post #170
cs702 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to HN. What are your thoughts on rail as an alternative to trucks?

I am a strong supporter of intermodal; trucks & trains have got to work together. I think that trains are part of the solution to truck driver shortage plus they have lots of other benefits (environmental etc..). I think that there is a great opportunity to make intermodal more efficient and to create more truck/train interface points and to make them more efficient. A lot of work to do. Opportunity for big applicati…

Truck driver shortage? Someone else mentioned they sometimes get only 20 cents per mile. How can wages be so low when there's a shortage?

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#242

Post by tetraodonpuffer »

hyperpape wrote: post #142
tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if you enforce that it's still not gonna help with the fact that as much as people would like it circadian rhythms don't adjust instantly. Ever changing shifts are the bane of a good existence, working nights all the time is fine, working nights a week every 2-3 or worse, 2-3 days a week, is going to cause a lot of problems for everybody. From my perspective I would totally gamify cars/trucks for everybody, ever…

Sounds foolproof. The first time someone can't start their car when they need it because of a glitch in your software/inaccuracies in the testing method, you are in serious trouble.

isn't there already plenty of software involved in starting your car that could have bugs and prevent it from starting? I don't think an embedded reaction time test is that hard to get right compared to the software that has to deal with the engine internals and so on.

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#243

Post by ihaveajob »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #98
BurningFrog wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a sensible rule that is impossible to enforce.

In Germany, trucks are required to have trip recorders. The police can (and will) check them to see if the minimum resting times were observed. Don't american trucks have something similar?

They do, in all western countries I know of. But that log can't check hours of sleep by the driver. On the other hand, this might be a whole new business segment for Fitbit and the like.

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#244

Post by fnbr »

everyone wrote: post #240
fnbr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I don't think the statistics are remotely similar (at least in the UK). In London, for instance, every single cyclist death in 2015 has been due to the cyclist getting crushed by a truck. [1] I don't know about the US, but I suspect the statistics would be similar, at least in cities. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/recreational-cycling/1...

Interesting, are they outright deaths tho? As far as I'm aware the most common result of car/bicycle collision is not death but some kind of head trauma for the cyclist, often resulting in brain damage.

That's a good question, and an aspect that I didn't consider. I'd be interested in hearing the answer if you find it.

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#245

Post by jfhubbard »

mcv wrote: post #241
jfhubbard wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a strong supporter of intermodal; trucks & trains have got to work together. I think that trains are part of the solution to truck driver shortage plus they have lots of other benefits (environmental etc..). I think that there is a great opportunity to make intermodal more efficient and to create more truck/train interface points and to make them more efficient. A lot of work to do. Opportunity for big applicati…

Truck driver shortage? Someone else mentioned they sometimes get only 20 cents per mile. How can wages be so low when there's a shortage?

Pay rates are certainly part of the driver shortage problem; but it's not the only reason for shortage. My company is trying to help trucking companies identify their best drivers so that they can know where to focus their employee retention efforts (pay, recognition etc...)

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#246

Post by netfire »

thesteamboat wrote: post #224
netfire wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that rail seems ideal and much more economical and environmentally friendly, but is the system designed to handle consumer shipping with its demands for quick delivery with tight deadlines? (Which I'd argue constitutes a large portion of truck-based freight) How much longer does it take to load/unload a freight train versus a truck? How much slower is the train and how longer does it take to ship? (and how do…

> How much longer does it take to load/unload a freight train versus a truck? To the extent that both use shipping containers, the process should be identical.

Not true, unless the train is only hauling a single container (highly inefficient and impractical). Once a truck is loaded, it can leave. A train may have thousands of containers to load before departing, and may have to wait for other rail traffic before leaving. A truck could be probably be loaded in under an hour. A train would probably still require that the items be loaded on a truck first (unless you have a warehouse on the rail line) and then transferred to a train. That's got to be multi-hour process for both loading and unloading.

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#247

Post by hyperpape »

tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #242
hyperpape wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds foolproof. The first time someone can't start their car when they need it because of a glitch in your software/inaccuracies in the testing method, you are in serious trouble.

isn't there already plenty of software involved in starting your car that could have bugs and prevent it from starting? I don't think an embedded reaction time test is that hard to get right compared to the software that has to deal with the engine internals and so on.

As a rule, things involving human action are unreliable and suffer from false positives.

Re: Trucks Are Killing Us

#248

Post by roflchoppa »

wpietri wrote: post #104
roflchoppa wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Migrant workers from asia / south america. whom might not speak enough english to do other work. I say this by hanging around my fathers freight forwarding company for the past 15 years.

Maybe you can answer a question I've been wondering about: what valuable things do truck drivers do besides driving trucks? There's a lot of hype around self-driving trucks these days. But there's this common tendency to assume that if you can replace the visible part of a job with technology, then those jobs are doomed. The classic example for me is a restaurant replacing waitstaff with computers screens so that peo…

Sorry for the late response,

my dad said "sometimes they just wonder around the area looking at nature" "They think shit why did i become a truck driver"

For the younger guys / girls that work there my dad says he's trying to get them to go to school.

as for the last question he said " they are going to at some point be replaced, although situationally i can think of times where a person is nicer to have, rather than a computer" " i can see drivers getting replaced, or becoming operators for the machinery, theres needs to be someone there to be liable for the cargo and freight"

personally i think that we can solve a ton of traffic related issues with self-driving vehicles

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