Former Chief Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) John Hill is forming a new firm to help advance the use of safety systems and policies both in the U.S. commercial trucking industry and overseas.
“I really think we can see a 30% or more decline in truck-car crashes if we focus on getting safety technology on to commercial vehicles,” he told FleetOwner. “I’m talking about encouraging the wider use of systems such as adaptive cruise control, anti-rollover devices, forward collision warning technology, and lane departure warning devices.”
Hill stressed that as president of his new company – called The Hill Group and based out of Greenwood, IN – he won’t be lobbying Congress on behalf of safety technology mandates. Rather, he plans instead to have the company serve as a consulting company to fleets interested in adopting such technology for their operations.
“We want to help make that adoption process easier for fleets, while aiding them in the development of more detailed safety programs,” Hill said. “We’re not looking at fleets already in trouble for safety violations – rather, we hope to work with ones that have a proactive view of safety. I’m also hoping to work in this arena on an international basis, as the increase in road networks and vehicle traffic is leading to higher death tolls in many parts of the world. We’d like to be involved in that.”
