Government Regulation Case Study

CASE STUDY AND QUESTIONS:
Who Pays the Price?Over the last 10 years the federal government has dramatically increased the number of reg-ulations pertaining to transportation safety and security. Two such regulations are presented below. Review them and answer the case questions.Transportation Safety—December 18, 2017, is set as the implementation day for elec-tronic logging devices (ELD) in trucks. ELDs will replace paper logbooks for truck drivers to provide better control over their compliance with Hours of Service regulations that are designed to combat driver fatigue. It is believed that paper logbooks are subject to fraud and allow drivers to exceed 11 hours of driving time per day and more than 60 hours in a seven-day period. On the other hand, drivers will not be able to easily exceed the limits as ELDs are not easily manipulated. The cost of ELD purchase, installation, and operation is the responsibility of the trucking company or the independent truck driver.ELD critics believe that, at a cost of up to $2,500 per unit, the expense of ELD adoption is excessive for small companies and independent truckers. They also project productivity decreases of 15 percent fewer miles traveled per day and nominal rate increases of 5 to 10 percent for loads booked on the spot market. Proponents indicate that ELDs will improve the accuracy of HOS logs, improve Hours of Service compliance, reduce falsification that occurs with paper logbooks, and reduce crashes by over 1,800 annually.Transportation Security—After the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was established and tasked with implementing regulations to protect the safety of passengers using the U.S. airline indus-try. TSA manages Secure Flight, a risk-based prescreening program to identify high-risk passengers; conducts passenger screening for illegal items before they enter the secure area of airports; and screens checked bags for explosives and other dangerous items. TSA has implemented congressionally mandated security fees to help finance the increased cost of securing the nation’s aviation transportation system. This passenger paid fee was increased to $11.20 per round trip ticket in 2014.Critics of TSA screening programs complain that these policies increase travel time, invade privacy, are of limited effectiveness, and increase costs for passengers and airlines. Proponents of these policies argue that the safety of air passengers is more important than delays or increased costs.
CASE QUESTIONS
1.In each of the scenarios presented in the case, opponents and proponents have divergent views of government regulations. One view is on the public benefit, the other is on the cost to individuals and/or private industry. How can you decide which view to accept?2.In each of the scenarios earlier, identify the benefits versus the costs for both viewpoints.3.Should the government intervene in setting regulations to increase transportation safety and security? Or should private industry take on this role? Discuss.

Read Case Study 12-1 at the end of Chapter 12. Answer all of the questions.

Your analysis should consist of a minimum of one (1) full paragraph for each question, and at least one (1) final, full paragraph summarizing your thoughts regarding the case study questions.

While your opinion may be valuable, you must base this opinion on the study materials and other materials you may find. You must use both the book and at least two (2) outside resources. Both the book and outside sources should be appropriately cited within your posting. Use these APA-referencing guidelines (Links to an external site.) to ensure you cite sources properly.

While the minimum paragraph requirements above may be enough to satisfy the rubric requirements, the most important goal is to provide a thoughtful, substantive, research-based answer to each question with a final, reasoned analysis.

You must use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.

ANSWER

Government Regulation Case Study

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Government Regulation Case Study

A cost-benefit analysis is effective in determining the benefits of action minus the cost associated. The outcomes of the analysis are used to indicate whether the government regulation is feasible. Factoring in opportunity cost allows weighing of the current public benefits in both regulations. Government regulations are aimed at benefiting the public such as protecting public health and safety, the environment, civil rights, investors, and consumers (Coffey, McLaughlin, and Peretto, 2016). The goal of safety and security planning in transportation is to reduce security and safety risks for passengers. For instance, the electronic logging devices will replace the paper logbooks to offer better control and compliance of service regulations that have been designed to prevent driver fatigue.

ELD improves the driver’s safety through enforcing compliance and recording duty status (Rafter, 2019). ELD will also improve the accuracy of the logbooks, hour of service compliance, reduce crashes by 1800 annually and lower falsification that happens in paper logbooks. However, the cost of purchase, installation, and operation has been moved to the trucking company and independent truck drivers. At $2,500 per unit, this becomes expensive for small trucking companies and independent truck drivers.

The Transportation Security Administration was developed and tasked with implementing regulations to protect the passenger’s safety. TSA manages secure flight through a risk-based program that identifies high-risk passengers and screening illegal items (Palmer, 2020). This greatly benefits the public through increased public safety and security during travels. A major cost is the security fee which will increase the nation’s transportation system. TSA has also been associated with increased travel time and cost for airlines and passengers. The Government and private sector industry should both intervene in setting regulations that will facilitate safer transportation system. This will ensure that the costs and benefits of the government regulations are spread across various parties. This will also prevent criticism of the government regulations due to participation of the private industry.

References

Coffey, B., McLaughlin, P. A., & Peretto, P. F. (2016). The cumulative cost of regulations. Duke I&E Research Paper, (2016-45).

Palmer, M. (2020). Transportation Security Administration (TSA): Issues, Successes, and Solutions. Research Institute for European and American Studies, Athens.

Rafter, M. V. (2019). US truckers race to deploy electronic logging devices: Early data suggests the technology is making the roads safer-[News]. IEEE Spectrum, 56(10), 6-7.