Will ‘Spreadsheet Brain’ Ruin Trucking?

Gord Magill is angry. The veteran trucker followed in the occupational footsteps of his father and grandfather, but they would barely recognize the trucking of today. Technologies like electronic logging devices and automatic transmissions have “castrated” truckers (his word, not mine); in some states, commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) are handed out like candy to poorly trained drivers; emission mandates have created endless hassle for drivers and bean-counters alike. Yet Magill is most angry about the people who have died in preventable truck crashes, a number of whom were killed by truck drivers imported from countries like India and Serbia who could barely read English road signs.