Big Rigs Are Rolling Computers on 18 Wheels

The trucking and commercial vehicle industry has come a long way since Cledus “Snowman” Snow delivered that load of beer for Bandit in the 1977 film “Smokey And The Bandit.”

Nowadays, big rigs have evolved into 80,000-pound rolling computers on 18 wheels.  In 2024, for those trucks that have chosen to install it, every movement and event a big rig makes or detects is recorded by special software installed within or attached to it. This software monitors each and every movement the truck makes, and detects each and every “event” the truck experiences. Essentially turning these movements and events into raw data that is transmitted from the truck to a centralized computer to be monitored and reviewed in real-time. This software is referred to as “Telematic Software,” and the data it monitors, records, and transmits is referred to as “Telematic Data.” 

Telematic Software and Data

Telematic software and data give the trucking companies (“motor carriers”) and/or the truck driver’s employer the ability to monitor each and every movement and event that the truck and the truck driver make along the way.  Some of the Telematic data that monitored and recorded  includes:

• Live GPS of the truck in real-time;
• The speed of the truck;
• Hard Braking Events (when the truck driver “slams” on the brakes);
• Hard Acceleration Events (when the truck driver hits the gas pedal and suddenly speeds up);
• Whether cruise control is engaged;
• Whether the driver is wearing their seat belt;
• When the truck’s ignition was turned on and off;
• Whether the truck is experiencing maintenance issues and what needs to be fixed;
• The number of hours the driver has been driving;
• Whether the driver operates the truck after hours
• Collisions and possible collisions
• Every movement the driver makes with the steering wheel;
• And so much more.

Most importantly, whenever the Telematic software detects a collision, “hard braking event,” “hard acceleration event,” “hard cornering,” or even a drastic steering wheel movement by the driver, it automatically records all of this data in the moments leading up to, during, and after each event occurs.  The telematic data is automatically recorded, transmitted to the motor carrier and/or the truck driver’s employer, and capable of being downloaded and reviewed later on.

Telematic software and data benefits everyone. It helps motor carriers determine whether the trucks within their fleets are making their deliveries timely and driving safely to get there. It helps the truck driver’s employer monitor its truck driver’s driving behaviors, showing whether or not he/she is violating any rules or regulations of the road, and gives them the ability to decide whether the driver needs to undergo additional training and what areas he/she need to specifically focus on in order to avoid being involved in accidents in the future. Telematic software and data is extremely beneficial to persons involved in collisions with big rigs, because it is raw data that gives a clear picture of what was going on with the truck and its driver at the time of and in the moments leading up to a collision.

Dash Cameras

Dash cameras (“Dash-cams”) are video cameras installed within cabs of the big rigs and commercial vehicles and are capable of capturing video footage of everything that happens in front of, and inside, of the vehicles. Essentially, dash-cams give a video perspective of what the driver sees, or should have seen, while driving the truck or commercial vehicle.

When it comes to truck wrecks, dash-cams are exponentially helpful in showing exactly what happened in the moments leading up to and during a wreck in video format (think security camera footage but taken from the dashboard of a big rig).  Thus, what dash-cam footage shows generally leaves very little to the imagination when trying to get down to what really happened leading up to and during a wreck. 

Frequently, telematic systems are integrated and synced with dash-cams. This allows the viewer to follow second-by-second what was happening on the road in front of their vehicle from the driver’s point of view and at the same time follow the documented raw telematics data showing everything going on inside the vehicle at that time that is not depicted directly in the dash-cam footage.

As of today, dash-cams are not installed in every big rig or commercial vehicle on the road, nor does the law currently require them to be. However, with the current trends in trucking laws and litigation, more and more motor carriers are installing dash-cams within their fleets. In the very near future, as more and more motor carriers install dash-cams in their fleets, the motor carriers who refuse to do so will become fewer and fewer.

Hours of Service and Electronic Logging Data

Federal trucking laws and regulations allow truck drivers to drive for only a certain amount of hours before they are required to stop and rest and/or not drive for a certain amount of hours. One of the main reasons for these “Hours of service” laws is to ensure that truck drivers are able to be fully functional and fully aware of their surroundings, and are not fatigued or too tired to safely operate a truck on the highways alongside the public. 

Until recently, truck drivers were basically on the “honor system” and were required to “log” their own hours manually in paper logbooks. Eventually, this proved to be too much responsibility for truckers, left too much information to be fabricated and falsified in order for drivers to continue driving beyond their required hours (truckers make money by the hour and by the load), and also proved to be too onerous and burdensome to keep up with to be regulated.

Now, federal law requires all truck drivers’ hours of service to be logged electronically, theoretically alleviating concerns of “cheating the system” by fabricating the number of hours a truck driver has driven during a certain period of time.  Telematic software has now taken the place of paper logbooks, and is required to be used to log the truck driver’s hours electronically based on the movements of the truck. The data showing the amount of hours a truck driver has driven is called Electronic Logging Data (“ELD”). These innovations allow motor carriers to monitor a truck driver’s ELD in real-time, and be aware of whether or not the driver has exceeded the amount of hours he is legally allowed to drive in certain period of time or is coming close to his amount of allowed hours. Unlike dash cameras, Electronic Logging Devices are required under federal law to be installed and functional in each commercial vehicle.

Why Does All Of This Matter?

Big rig and commercial vehicle wrecks happen every minute all over the U.S. every day. Generally, the injuries suffered as a result of commercial vehicle wreck tend to be far greater than the injuries sustained in the average low-speed collision between two personal vehicles (think about a collision between a Toyota Corolla and a Nissan Sentra after one of them blows through a stop sign versus a collision between a Toyota Corolla and an eighteen-wheeler at full speed on a highway).

Types of Damages in A Truck Accident Case

After being in a wreck with a big rig, chances are you will need an 18-wheeler accident attorney to represent you to recover everything you lost as a result of the wreck, including:

• Property damages (i.e. getting the amount to repair or replace your vehicle);
• Medical bills you have incurred and will need to pay for in the future;
• Income and wages you lost;
• Income and wages you may will lose in the future (i.e., if you are no longer able to continue working or continue working the capacity you were working prior to the wreck);
• Physical pain and suffering you have experienced, as well as the physical pain and suffering you will continue experiencing in the future;
• Past and future mental injuries you sustained as result of the wreck
• Loss of a loved one;
• And so much more

Not only will you need an attorney to represent you to recover all these things, you should absolutely get an attorney who has specialized knowledge of commercial trucks and the vast amounts of data they generate. Don’t be mistaken, trucking companies and their insurance companies fight tooth and nail in refusing to produce all of the data their trucks generate, especially the data that shows how and why and how they caused the wreck you were involved in.

Not every lawyer has the ability or expertise to aggressively obtain all of this data from the trucking company, much less review all of it, know how or what to look for, fully understand the data, and then use that data to prove that the trucking company and truck driver are solely at fault for causing the damages you sustained in the wreck.

Morrow & Sheppard are your go-to lawyers who specialize in trucking cases. Our law firm has the expertise and wherewithal to successfully take on the trucking companies, get all of the evidence and data we want, and recover the most amount of compensation for you.

Past Results in Trucking and Commercial Vehicle Cases:

Morrow & Sheppard has an extensive history of successfully taking on and recovering compensation for our clients who were injured as a result of being involved in accidents with big rigs and commercial vehicles. In the last two years alone, Morrow and Sheppard have successfully recovered millions of dollars for our clients involved in commercial motor vehicle wrecks, including:

• $1,500,000 involving a trucking wreck in Harris County, Texas where the truck driver and the trucking company were adamant the wreck was our clients’ fault, until we obtained the truck’s dash cam footage which clearly showed the truck driver side-swiped our clients’ vehicle.
• $950,000 in a case where a commercial vehicle driver caused a wreck with our client on Interstate 10 in Harris County, Texas.
• $920,000 in a roll-over case where our client was the passenger of the commercial motor vehicle.
• $350,000 in a case where a box truck rear-ended our client on a highway in Harris County, Texas.
• $300,000 in a case where a commercial vehicle turned from the wrong lane and T-boned our client.

An undisclosed amount for the maximum amount allowable to recover under the commercial vehicle’s insurance policy in a case where the driver of the commercial vehicle rear-ended our client. Various other cases, involving big rigs and commercial vehicles, for confidential and undisclosed amounts.