What The Hell Time Is It?

Don’t confuse time zones with daylight savings time.

The time zones were developed by the railroads in 1883 to resolve confusion and avoid train crashes caused by different local times…controlled by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The ICC introduced daylight savings time during WWI and abolished it after the war but allowed states to continue the practice. As a result, confusion and collisions caused by different local times once again became a transportation issue.

In 1966, the Department of Transportation was founded to serve as a “focal point of responsibility for transportation safety” and given regulatory power over time zones and DST was implemented uniformly across the Nation, with dates for the twice-yearly transitions set by law.

This still holds true today. With the exception of Arizona and Hawaii, every state must continue to observe DST between March and November, unless otherwise exempted by State law.

On the bright side…maybe your car clock is finally correct. If you’re not sure, maybe a quick note to your state legislature will get this twice annual exercise relegated to fun facts in the history books.

Given the politicians penchant for over reacting…they will probably get rid of the time zones too and we can watch the You Tube and GAB  railroad collisions.

This PSA brought to you by franksiegler.com

3.14.2021

 

Author: frank

Frank is a pioneer in the use of integrated marketing communications techniques and is the author of a textbook and numerous published articles on the subject. His memberships in The Public Relations Society of America, American Association of Advertising Agencies, International Association of Business Communicators and Investor Relations Society of America span five decades. He has been certified by the Small Business Administration as a SCORE counselor. He taught marketing classes in four school district adult education programs. He was President and CEO of a Midwest advertising agency for ten years, and held key marketing positions with 3M, FUJI and others. He has provided marketing consulting services to numerous high technology startup firms, such as Templex Technology, Best Power Technology, Exide Electronics and CSI of Knoxville. All of these startups eventually went public or were acquired resulting in substantial financial return to the company founders. Frank's B.A. degree in Mass Communications is from The Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. “After surviving two tours of combat in Vietnam, there is nothing in the business world that scares me…unless they start shooting.”