Federal Bureaucracy

CMV Cellular Phones CMV's and Cellular Phones Drivers of CMV's: Restricting the Use of Cellular Phones On Friday December 2, 2011 a new rule was enacted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in conjunction with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) titled the "Drivers of CMV's: Restricting the Use of Cellular Phones." This new rule was implemented in order to restrict the use of hand-held mobile phones by drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMV's), and hopes to improve safety on the nation's highways since it went into effect on January 3, 2012.

("Cell Phone Use Banned") The agencies involved predicted that this new rule would reduce the numbers of accidents, crashes and fatalities due to drivers being distracted while on their cellular phones. But it is important to recognize that this new rule would only apply to drivers of commercial motor vehicles, and not to the general public and the millions of automobiles on the roads.

In response to the proposition of the new rule, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) received numerous comments from the general public, albeit mostly those involved in the trucking and transportation industries. The primary complaint was that restricting the use of hand-held phones would impede drivers by forcing them to make more stops, and therefore taking more time for delivery.

However, the FMCSA made no changes in response to this complaint because there are other options available, specifically, the rule allows for Bluetooth and other non-handheld to be used instead. Another set of comments involved the use of push-to-talk CB radios, which the FMCSA has decided to include in the prohibition because the similarity between the use of these devices and cellular phones.

This is a good rule to impose on the drivers of CMV's, but one of the most prevalent complaints that the driving public is also one of the most effective: the ban should be expanded to all drivers, not just the drivers of trucks. Most truck drivers who responded to the agency's new rule did not wholly object to the idea that it is safer to drive without holding a cellular phone.

One driver was quoted as stating "They should expand it to everybody…If you're going to operate a cellphone in a motor vehicle, you should be wearing a Bluetooth… [but] why limit it to truckers?" (Leiser 2011) The most common complaint was that the new rule did not go far enough, that drivers of ordinary cars, vans, and all other vehicles should also be included.

It is not entirely fair that truckers have been chosen to be the ones who get the ban on mobile phone use since the majority of accidents and fatalities seem to be caused by regular drivers in regular vehicles. And while the FMSCA seems to unfairly impose a rule on one group of drivers while not do the same to all the others, this should be seen more as a first step than a finished product. The ban.