In the name of supply chain efficiency, companies continue to ask truck drivers to respond to and enter more electronic data while driving. Now Congress is eyeing whether the in-the-cab-computers pose too much road risk to other motorists.
Advances in technologies allowed these companies to gain huge efficiencies in supply chain planning and inventory management, freight routing, on-board wireless communications, cargo and vehicle tracking, and reducing theft and loss.
All of these advances have certainly improved the core and critical decision-making by the drivers operating the vehicles. But some of those technologies and devices that call for driver interaction and attention have created a vexing unintended consequence-and are now coming under intense scrutiny from lawmakers.
