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Fortunately the mayor of Albertville does not rely on a government salary and supplements his income by driving a truck. |
How can something be more and less at the same time? Today I would like to give all of us something to think about and hopefully pass on. Let’s start out with an example. Imagine a city with a population of 100,000. This city experiences 1000 crimes per year: meaning that each citizen has a 1% chance of being involved in a crime. Because this is a very appealing town for safety, not to mention the wonderful mayor Henry Albert. In the city, the population grows to 200,000 in 10 years. Unfortunately, the crime rate has risen to an annual 1500. This is a 66.7% increase in crime and 66.7% more paperwork for me the mayor!
Now is the time for me and the town council to do some thinking before the citizens march to my doorstep with torches and pitchforks! How can I explain this increase of crime to the good townspeople? Hmm.. wait.. How can this possibly be an increase? A quick ratio formula and my trusty calculator are telling me that, in fact, we have had a DECREASE in crime! Let me explain before rolling out the guillotine. If 10 years ago we had a crime rate of 1%, then using that same formula we can see that we now have a crime rate of 0.75%... Eureka! The only reason our crime rate has increased is because our population doubled in the last decade. Our town is actually safer now than it ever has been!
I can hear all of my readers telling me how obvious this scenario is. You are exactly right! but let’s see just how obvious it is when I change the scenario to some that have been poking at our industry for quite some time now.
Everyone talks about how unsafe and damaging LCV vehicles are ... right ? They are harder on bridges and roads and increase risk of accidents. All of the figures regarding this claim point to its own favor but we are smarter than that. Instead, we will look at the big picture. These vehicles have one driver pulling two trailers. This fact alone means that per pound, chances of human error are reduced by 50%. While the accident rate of an LCV vehicle could be higher than that of standard semi truck, it most likely would not double. This means that if every truck was an LCV, accident rates per pound transported would decrease. Yet the accident rate per truck would be increasing at the same time. As for our bridges, if one truck is pulling double the weight, then stress per truck would be reduced by the weight of one truck (roughly 18,000 to 20,000lbs.) for every time a truck crosses. This is but simple math that somehow manages to elude even the most educated of our industry or does it really elude them?
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Make sure you have all of the facts and not just part of a story before taking a stand . |
One more scenario would be the issue of fuel economy. Many claim that LCVs use more fuel. This is correct! But not when figured in comparison to fuel consumed per ton moved. The point of this post was not to condemn either side of the LCV argument. It is simply here to encourage my readers to do their homework and figure for yourself the answers to many issues that our industry faces.