4B Contact Committee

At the last meeting, class 4B continued to discuss research. The class also revised a letter written by the Contact Committee addressed to an expert in the trucking business. Here is that letter.


My name is Erin and I am a student in Mr. Gallagher's Engineering Design and Development course at Saratoga Springs High School. This class focuses on solving a problem prevalent in today's society.  This year, our project focuses on preventing fatigue related accidents involving commercial vehicles by ensuring drivers are getting the appropriate amount of sleep and following regulations regarding driving hours and breaks. Currently, we are examining the unreliability of logbooks and have a few questions that we are hoping you can clarify for us.

Are you familiar with how often individuals subvert the driving hour requirements and how they go about doing so? From our research it appears the logbooks are easily manipulated, and we are curious about the prevalence of this infraction. Additionally, who is placed in charge of overseeing logbooks, and are there measures in place to ensure truth of the logged entries?What are the potential consequences of being caught compromising the validity of the entries within these books? We have also been researching the implementation of electronic logbooks, particularly with the recently passed legislation requiring their use. Do you have any experience using these devices?How welcomed would technology that ensures the drivers are receiving adequate sleep be in the trucking industry, by companies and/or the drivers?Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any potential resources and/or pathways you recommend we explore they would be greatly appreciated.