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In 2021 alone, the Federal Highway Administration recorded over 1,500 truck bridge strikes across the United States, a staggering statistic that reflects not just the monetary damage, but the huge risk to public safety. These incidents often result in severe damage to infrastructure, costly repairs, and sometimes fatal accidents. It’s a scenario that every CDL driver wants to avoid, and every carrier owner dreads to hear over the radio.

Knowing Your Route and Restrictions

One of the most straightforward ways to prevent truck bridge strikes due to low clearance is thorough route planning. A route unsuited for your vehicle size can quickly become a disaster. Every trip should start with an updated map and GPS system that incorporates truck-specific data.

• Invest in a GPS designed specifically for trucks, which takes into account factors like weight and overhead clearance.
• Utilize state and local DOT resources to check for temporary restrictions or new detours affecting your route.
• Plan for the worst by having an alternative route ready, especially if your primary path becomes unavailable on short notice.

Reading Signage Correctly

Ignoring or misunderstanding road signs is a common factor in many truck bridge strikes. Clear communication between dispatcher and driver can ensure that signage does not become an oversight.

• Train drivers to read and anticipate clearance signs well before reaching a critical decision point.
• Encourage vigilance — closely watch for orange detour signs as they may lead away from truck-appropriate routes.
• Regularly update drivers on changes in signage through briefings or digital alerts.

Keeping Your Eyes on the Road

Distracted driving remains a significant concern in the trucking industry. When operating a heavy vehicle, every second of attention counts.

• Discourage the use of mobile devices while driving unless they are mounted and hands-free.
• Ensure drivers are aware of their surroundings at all times, prioritizing pedestrian zones and urban areas with dense, low-clearance bridges.
• Use of situational awareness training to keep drivers engaged and proactive in hazard detection.

The most critical action you can take to prevent bridge strikes is thorough route analysis and ensuring all drivers understand every aspect of their route, including alternative paths, clearances, and updated signage.

Vehicle Maintenance and Measurement

Accurate knowledge of your vehicle's measurements can prevent low-clearance mishaps. Regular maintenance checks ensure that truck measurements are accurate and up-to-date.

• Regularly measure truck height; modifications or alterations could affect clearance.
• Document any changes in vehicle configuration that may affect height and train drivers accordingly.
• Ensure the maintenance team is aware of bridge-related incidents and actively communicates with drivers about vehicle-specific clearance details.

Leverage Technology for Extra Safety

Incorporating technology can support manual vigilance, making it easier for drivers and operators to avoid problematic routes.

• Utilize ESSE Inc's ERETH ELD systems to assist with real-time analytics and notifications about upcoming low clears.
• Configure ELD systems to log and report any incidents to improve future route planning.
• Consider integrating fleet management systems with real-time traffic data to preemptively avoid low-clearance areas.

Tackling truck bridge strikes due to low clearance is a multifaceted challenge requiring consistent effort and actionable insights. Whether through proper education, enhanced technology, or updated compliance practices, the goal remains the same: Ensure every journey is as safe and efficient as possible.

Discover how the ESSE Portal and ERETH ELD can aid in enhancing safety and compliance across your fleet. By utilizing real-time data and advanced analytics, you can avoid costly mistakes and keep your trucks on track, protected from the unforeseen hazards of low-clearance bridges.

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In 2022, we were running a small fleet and spending approximately $400 per truck per month on software. TMS license, ELD subscription, e-sign service, separate accounting integration. Four different logins. Four different monthly invoices. Four different support teams to call when something didn't work.

None of it talked to each other without manual data entry.

The software evaluation that changed everything

We spent three months evaluating every major TMS and fleet management system on the market. AscendTMS, McLeod, Motive, EZLogz, KeepTruckin, TruckingOffice, Axon. We signed up for demos, trials, and in two cases, paid for actual subscriptions to test them properly.

What we found was consistent across almost all of them: the software was built by people who had never dispatched a truck. You could tell immediately. The terminology was slightly wrong. The workflows assumed steps that no real dispatcher would take. The ELD and TMS were always separate systems that "integrated" — meaning they sometimes shared data, if you configured things correctly, and the configuration broke whenever either vendor pushed an update.

"The best way to evaluate trucking software is to use it under real pressure. Not in a demo. Not in a test environment. On a real load, with a real deadline, when a broker is calling every 30 minutes for an update."

The specific things that were broken

Without naming specific vendors: one major TMS required five screen transitions to update a load status. Not five clicks — five full page navigations. On a mobile browser from a truck stop, that meant 45 seconds to tell a broker the truck was loaded. Another system had beautiful analytics dashboards but couldn't tell you, in real time, how many hours of drive time your driver had remaining without navigating to a separate compliance module.

The ELD market was worse. Most ELD systems were designed to satisfy FMCSA's technical requirements — which they did — while making the user experience as painful as possible. Drivers hated them. When drivers hate their tools, they find workarounds. Workarounds create compliance risk.

The moment we decided to build

The decision was made on a Tuesday afternoon when our dispatcher spent 40 minutes re-entering data from a rate confirmation PDF that our ELD had already captured in a different system. The information existed. It was digital. It lived in three different places that didn't talk to each other, and a human was manually transferring it between systems.

That's not a technology problem. That's a lack of ambition problem. Nobody had decided to solve it because the existing systems were profitable enough without solving it.

What we decided to build instead

One platform. ELD and TMS as the same system, not integrations. AI that reads rate confirmation PDFs so dispatchers don't have to. A dispatcher — eventually an AI dispatcher — that covers nights and weekends so loads don't get missed. E-sign built in, not bolted on.

And priced at zero through 2026, because the goal was to prove the product worked before asking carriers to pay for it.

Two years in: did it work?

The Rate Con AI has a 95%+ accuracy rate on standard broker formats. ERETH ELD passed FMCSA's technical certification. Our AI dispatchers book real loads for real carriers after hours. The carrier dashboard still occasionally has a minor bug — we fix them the same day they're reported.

Would we have been better off just using an existing system and focusing on freight? Financially, in the short term, probably yes. But we would have kept paying $400 per truck per month for software that we knew was mediocre. And we would have missed the opportunity to build something that actually works the way the industry needs it to work.

We don't regret it.