Look around you.

Virtually everything you see was in one form of another moved by a truck.

It is why you should be alarmed that the folks in Washington, D.C., are about to make moving goods of all types by truck even more expensive.

And it is being done in the name of safety despite the federal government’s own records that show truck-related accident deaths are down almost 30 percent going from 4,204 in 2007 to a record low of 2,987 in 2009.

The federal government is proposing reducing the daily limit for hours that a trucker can drive from 11 to 10 hours. The Department of Transportation also wants drivers not to work for a period of at least 34 hours when they reach their weekly driving limit. Those 34 hours would have to include two full nights.

This won’t come cheap.

The federal government says this will cost at least $2 billion more a year by requiring the hiring of more drivers. The American Trucking Association says that is on the low side.

Whatever the cost, you will pay for it as the consumer since transportation costs for moving everything from raw materials to finished products is collapsed into the price of goods. That is roughly $7 for every American a year.

That won’t necessarily mean new truck drivers will be well paid – or existing ones for that matter. Many firms have indicated in order to meet the standard and stay in business they will have to reduce the pay of existing drivers when they hire new ones to make ends meet.

The bureaucrats proposing the driving rule change point to this month’s Amtrak-truck crash in Northern Nevada. They argue that driver fatigue may have been a factor.

Since they are supposedly the safety watchdogs, can anyone back in DC explain how the driver of the Amtrak truck who got numerous speeding tickets – including three in California while driving school buses – could be licensed to drive truck anywhere in the United States? Could it have been a more realistic contributing factor to the crash that the driver might just be a bit too reckless to be allowed to climb behind the wheel of a big rig?

It would make more sense to spend money weeding out drivers who have been proven to ignore the rules of the road and basic safety considerations instead of penalizing safe drivers who would end up with pay cuts.

A national data base of driving records that’s accessible by all 50 states instantaneously makes more sense. Such a data base should be coupled with federal rules requiring any state that accepts federal dollars for roads must hold licensed truck drivers to a specific standard. That could be something such as two speeding tickets in two years and you can no longer drive truck.

And how sure is anyone that fatigue is the biggest cause of trucking accidents?

Take a look on Highway 99 or Interstate 5. Ever notice the number of cars zipping in and around trucks? Truck drivers are routinely cut off. Motorists also rarely adhere to standard safety zones to give trucks maneuvering room.

Given the current trends in truck-related accidents American consumers are about to be fleeced for another $2 billion a year for a microscopic improvement – if that – in road safety.