How One Man’s Accident Will Help Curb Distracted Driving

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kptv.comAfter directly affected by distracted driving, one Mississippi man created something constructive from the experience. He developed a great tool to curb distracted driving.

It’s called Drive Smart

And though the product still is in its experimental stage, Drive Smart has the potential to make roads a lot safer for those with CDL driver jobs.

Ross Muller designed the prototype after dealing with a serious accident, he told Mississippi website WLOX.com

“The gentleman that hit me was a young driver who I believe was distracted by his phone, so it sparked my interest,” said Muller, who then decided to find a way to curb distracted driving among young drivers.

After two years of tinkering with his prototype, Muller thought of an idea that utilizes something in almost every vehicle.

The cigarette lighter

“It’s just a 12-point inverter. They’re very common when you use cell phone chargers or radio detectors,” Muller said. “It’s pretty much that right there, but it emits a Bluetooth signal.”

Once fully operational, Drive Smart makes it so that once a driver turns on the ignition, their smartphone loses much of its functionality.

“Once the drive smart device powers on, it’ll lock the cell phone. The only two things you can do on the cell phone is make an emergency phone call, or call the home phone,” Muller said.

Local law enforcement officials say Muller’s idea reduces distracted driving

“It’s a step in the right direction anytime you get a device to help with the young people to avoid having wrecks and fatalities. It’s a plus for us,” said Lt. Calvin Hutchins of the Pascagoula Police Department.

Currently, Drive Smart remains in the patent process. Muller plans to exhibit the invention to potential distributors at a conference this month.

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This Cool Tech Would Make Roads Safer for Vehicles Passing Semis

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mashable.comThose with CDL driver jobs know that cars traveling close on their heels create potential safety hazards for everyone. And vehicles passing semis on a two-lane road can face challenges. This is due to the car drivers and those with CDL driver jobs can’t see if oncoming traffic is coming or not.

But Samsung recently came up with an innovative solution to this problem, Mashable writes. Naturally, Samsung’s innovative solution lies in a semi truck itself.

The Argentinian arm of the South Korean tech giant is showing off what it calls a Safety Truck, a semi truck with a wireless camera mounted on the front, displaying the road ahead on a screen tacked on to the back of the truck. The move is a part of an effort to reduce head-on collisions caused from passing vehicles.

The front-mounted camera broadcasts its signal to four monitors on the back of the truck to give drivers behind the truck a good view ahead. In addition to making passing safer, Samsung says that this would let drivers see any obstacles in the road ahead, preventing the need for sudden emergency braking.

While the truck used in the testing isn’t on the road anymore, Samsung is working with safety agencies to further enhance the tech, Mashable writes. It adds that the Samsung technology does have some drawbacks.

It seems like it would work well on two-lane roads, but it wouldn’t really have much use on multi-lane highways. The screen could also prove to be a distraction, and image quality issues could be a concern as well.

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Industry-Backed Truck Parking App Will Help Drivers Find Parking

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Truck Parking App Will Help Drivers

Movers and shakers in the trucking industry have banded together to help truck drivers find available parking spots on their routes. Those with CDL driver jobs know how hard it is to find truck parking, and now help is coming through a free mobile app due out in August.

Behind the app are some of the trucking industry’s biggest entities: the American Trucking Associations, the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, the American Transportation Research Institute and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. The quartet announced the new app, called Park My Truck, on May 18.

Transport Topics wrote about the announcement.

Lisa Mullings, president of the NATSO Foundation, pays to develop the app. Overall, she said the app enables drivers to find available truck parking at commercial truck stops and state-provided rest areas in the 48 continental states.

“Professional drivers remain essential to our economy and our way of life in America,” Mullings said. “Therefore, their safety and security remain a major priority.”

In addition, ATRI Vice President Dan Murray noted truck parking ranked as the No. 2 issue on the organization’s list of industry issues.

One representative involved with the creation of the app, Rep. Paul Tomko, represented Jason Rivenburg.

Jason, a truck driver, died in 2009 at an abandoned South Carolina gas station inspired “Jason’s Law.”

That tragedy inspired Tomko to become involved in the issue of safe truck parking. “Access to safe and accessible rest stops can be a life-or-death issue as I unfortunately learned during my first term in office,” Tomko said. “Truckers deserve safety, nothing less.”

In addition, ATA President Bill Graves noted that many more trucks are expected to be on the road as the economy expands in the future. So, the need for this new app only increases as time passes.

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The U.S. Is Becoming an Emissions Tech Leader, and It’s Impacting Trucking

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ccjdigital.com

At a time when the U.S. trucking industry could use some good news, it finally got some regarding becoming an emissions tech leader. The news published in a story by Tom Quimby for Commercial Carrier Journal. 

Quimby reported on what was stated at the ACT Expo in Long Beach, Calif., where emissions-reducing technology plays a starring role.

Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president at CALSTART, said that domestic emissions technology advanced. In fact, it advanced so much that Europe takes note. “Trucks in North America are getting more efficient than trucks in Europe,” Van Amburg said. “It’s interesting to be in a leader position. It’s an export strength.”

According to Quimby, innovative, emissions-reducing technology lies at the heart of ACT Expo. Its growth continued over the last eight years or so.

Henry Cheung, air resources engineer in the on-road heavy duty diesel section at the California Air Resources Board. In addition, another speaker at the trucking efficiency meeting said that in 2008 there were only five manufacturers offering aerodynamic devices for trailers. For 2016, that number has increased to 32 manufacturers with 95 aerodynamic devices—a 540% increase.

North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s Executive Director Mike Roeth spoke with Quimby. Overall, he stated the council provides feedback on 65 emissions-reducing technologies. In addition, he added that trucking fleets using fuel-saving tech also save financially. In fact, some save as much as $9,000 per truck annually.

However, the stringent emissions regulations drive a lot of the innovation. Also, they negatively impact the trucking business, according to Kyle Treadway, dealer principal of Kenworth Sales Company.

California’s trucking regulations have been especially challenging.

“We have good customers that won’t come into California because they just can’t justify the expense for compliance and so they are leaving the market in that regard,” Treadway told the audience. Treadway is concerned that the trucking industry has had to face a disproportionate amount of regulations compared to the mainstream auto market. That and the truck market’s volatility over the past 15 years or so makes the industry even more challenging, he said.

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New Hours of Service App Helps Drivers with ELD Compliance

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trucknews.com

Fleet Complete recently launched its latest hours of service mobile app, and it promises to make ELD compliance manageable for both fleets and truck drivers.

According to Fleet Complete’s website, the HoS app automatically logs a truck driver’s hours.

With one look at the screen, drivers can determine if they have time available to complete the route without having to reset, the site says.

Also, the app promises significant time savings.

With automated logs, your drivers will spend less time filling out manual forms and more hours on the road.

For trucking owners, meanwhile, the app streamlines driver locations and enables you to manage drivers’ schedules efficiently.

Your dispatchers will have visibility over every driver’s available driving time, making it easier to assign jobs and avoid violations.

In a recent interview with Truck News, Fleet Complete CEO Tony Lourakis touted the new product.

“Fleet Complete continues to be at the forefront of the telematics industry in developing innovative and value-driven solutions for fleets, owners and operators,” he told the magazine. “We are thrilled to help simplify our customers’ ELD compliance well in advance of the rule date, while also offering the added value of combining the latest HoS app with Fleet Complete’s wide-range of fleet solutions under one platform.”

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People with CDL Permit Jobs Will Like This New Dash Cam

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trucker.comSeveral new trucking products were highlighted at the 2016 Mid-America Trucking Show, held in Louisville, Ky. One of those products is a new dash cam from Cobra Electronics featuring built-in GPS. According to an American Trucker magazine review, the new dash cam—the CDR 875 G Drive HD—is Cobra Electronics’ most advanced dash cam yet.

This model caters to the growing demand for added in-cab safety, and (assists) in documentation of any driving or roadside event.

The CDR 875 G includes internal GPS that embeds precise time and location information into every recording. When played back on a computer, Cobra’s Drive HD player shows your route and location on a Google map along with speed, compass and GPS information.

Chris Kooistra, Cobra’s senior director of marketing, discussed the reasoning behind the upgrade.

“A lot of people don’t like to tie up their phone while they’re driving,” he said. “Especially in the trucking market, they like the GPS embedded into the unit.”

The CDR 875 G offers Bluetooth integration, too. In addition, it includes some of the same features as Cobra’s previous CDR models.

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Product Spotlight: The ToughTested Safe Driving Mono Earbud

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fleetowner.comOn the hunt for a phone earpiece that will stand up to the demanding environment of trucking? One from ToughTested Safe Driving Mono Earbud is marketed toward people with CDL trucking jobs, so Fleet Owner gave it a closer look. How did it fare? Here’s what the magazine found:

This ToughTested earpiece comes with a notable five-year warranty

This indicates a vote of confidence well beyond typical clauses backing consumer electronics. It’s got Kevlar on the inside of the cord — which is coiled in two places to help prevent hanging wire from getting snagged and tangled — and polyurethane on the outside, and the maker says it has “reinforced stress-relief” to provide 10,000 uses.

It’s also certified protected from dust and splashes of water

In addition, it features a very significant outside noise reduction capability of up to 23 decibels. All that, and the thing retails for $39.99.

You start by choosing your earpiece end from two included “Flexfoam” and two “tree tips” — one large and one smaller of each — with the tree tips being the tiered, soft rubber variety often found on earbuds. Those offer what may be a more comfortable fit but less noise isolation. However, the Flexfoam ends resembles earplugs commonly used in shops. You pinch and roll with your fingers before inserting into your ear.

The product offers plenty of volume and noise isolation using a Flexfoam end to hear phone conversations.

In even the loudest noise —  that’d be some wind, road and water-spray noise coming at my left ear as well as vehicle noise at highway speed — the earpiece stayed in place and I could hear (and be heard), and the earpiece’s volume wasn’t even dialed up all the way.

Read the rest of the Fleet Owner review here to learn what its weakest points were.

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5 great gadgets for truckers and trucking execs this spring

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New technology can make your travels down the road that much more enjoyable.

A recent USA Today article highlighted five great gadgets that people should be using this spring. Trucking company executives and people with CDL driver jobs can make great use of these five tech tools, too. Whether you’re on the clock or off of it.

usatoday.com

Kingston’s MobileLite Wireless Pro

Kingston’s MobileLite Wireless Pro ($99.99) is a small Wi-Fi-enabled device that does three things. It has 64GB of built-in storage, which you can load up with movies, TV shows and music, and wirelessly access it on multiple devices. There’s also a USB port and SD card slot, if you prefer to insert media into the MobileLite Wireless Pro. If you’re running out of space on your smartphone or tablet, wirelessly offload photos to the MobileLite Wireless Pro. And then safely remove it from your device and start photographing again.

Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard

Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard ($99.95) is an ultra-thin, lightweight mobile accessory that unfolds to a full-sized keyboard and can be simultaneously paired with two Bluetooth devices – be it an iPhone, iPad, Android device, or Windows tablet or phone. Lighten your load by leaving your PC or Mac at home. Take this spill-resistant clamshell companion with you , with a rechargeable battery that lasts up to three months.

The Hedgren Connection Junction Backpack

The Hedgren Connection Junction Backpack ($119.99) supports an external battery for charging up mobile devices (not included). With a retractable USB cord for added convenience. Also, it includes a padded laptop sleeve for notebooks up to 15 inches. Available in grey and black, this nylon backpack houses multiple compartments, slips, and five different zippered pockets, including a side exterior “crush-proof” pocket for fragile gadgets like cameras and headphones.

usatoday.com8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0

Powerful and versatile, the 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 ($399.99) is a slick touchscreen tablet with a vibrant and sharp Super AMOLED display, making it ideal for watching videos, playing games, reading ebooks, browsing the web and viewing photos.

Caseco’s Bluetooth Beanie

You can dress warm and still be able to take calls and hear your tunes. As the name suggests, Caseco’s Bluetooth Beanie (49.99) is a knitted cap with built-in headphones (and microphone). It lets you wirelessly stream music, audio books, podcasts or calls from your nearby smartphone up to 30 feet away. Bluetooth Beanie also talks to you to let you know when it’s on, off, needs charging, and when it’s paired with your phone. Charge up your hat in less than two hours, and you can enjoy continuous music for up to six hours.

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