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How do you feel about the proposed legislation that is being debated about requiring a driver to have 10 consecutive hours of rest with 2 hours taken during the work shift?
I am a 32 year veteran in this industry and the problem is not the ten hours off, it is going to be the extra driving time. I use to drive within the state of California where you were permitted to drive 12 hours providing you did not have on interstate freight. I was in my mid twenties then and it was all I could do to drive 12 hours then. The key is being rested when you start the trip but this is rarely the case, so all these morons in Washington are asking for are more accidents and I guarantee they are going to get them. I am on a run that takes me about 9 hours to run and with today's traffic and construction that is enough.
Rule change in the trucking industry They say it's for safety, what would education for the general public do, if it's not broke don't try to fix it!!! changing work hours is not going to change a thing. If they want to go after someone go after the brokers that try to rush freight.! they put unreasonable time frames on drivers ,not to mention the receiver that think your CDL stands for certified driver lumper. Lets get real here any driver will tell you about brokers and receivers if you ask I know been there and done that! educate the public about trucks and there no zones . How to move with them on the highway what's right and what not to do and you'll see a different highway system.
Personally, I do not see how this can benefit anyone, except maybe the money hungry officials!!! What we really need for log time should allow us adequate rest and up our drive time. 12 hours driving; 3 hours on duty, not driving; 7 hours consecutive sleeper berth; and 2 hours to play with. The biggest fatigue and stress factor in our industry is worrying about logging correctly and whether or not we will get caught. How many factories is there that work 12 hour shifts and also 10 hour shifts. do these workers go home and rest for 10 or even 8 consecutive hours? Hell No!!!
I think this new proposal stinks. It works real well for a team probably, But for a single driver its Called STARVATION. What would everyone do if it wasn't for truckers? They would starve....Supplies wouldn't get there, Medication
wouldn't get there, Clothes, food, The world couldn't survive without us. Cause if a truck didn't bring it....then how did you get it? It had to be taken off a bus or train or boat, then loaded on a truck to get to where its going...Including the mail. Think about it people.....Just like money makes the world go round...So does TRUCKS!!!!!
I think everyone is missing the point. I am sure allot of the owner operators wouldn't mind the change if they were making enough money during the 12 hours on duty to still be able to feed their families. I work for a company which works with tankers and we have allot of inbound freight from Chicago, IL. I talk to allot of the drivers and I see the rates we are being charged for the deliveries. Round trip to Chicago and back is approx. 600 miles and we have rates quoted as low as $870.00 and that particular company pays their owner operators 62% of the load pay. That works out to be $539.40 to the truck, $.899 per mile with fuel costing about $.29 per mile. That same company will not sign on any owner operators with trucks more than seven years old which of course means high truck payment. I have found the average to be about $2000.00 per month. My point being everyone needs to get on the same page and increase the rates so these people can make a living following the rules because right no they can't and still feed their families and pay their mortgages. They are no different from you and I they would love to be home and see their kids play ball or be at their children's graduation or maybe even attend their parents funerals which are missed by allot of them. I think the people are looking out for the general public in on sense but have completely missed the point!
I Think It Stinks Its hard enough to make a living with the pay rate the way it is. From back woods.
The new hos will reek havoc on our industry in my opinion. We already have a problem finding parking. where are we going to park another 180,000 to 200,000 trucks that is estimated just to cover the freight that we now have? we all won't be at home when this 55 HR rest period comes about, so we will have to stay some where in route for the required time then finish our run, now that we have had this time off we'll have to go right back for another load with no time at home because we spent 55 hr. in some parking place in some place that we probably don't have any family. So we go back for the next load and get there and now it is time for our next 55 HR break so now we are on the other end instead of at home taking another break that we are required to take. Now none of these breaks so far have been at home, we have stayed at some truck stop because we Aren't going to be able to afford a motel since we have been taking these extended rest periods and not making any money. so now we get passed this rest period and get loaded hopefully for home and by the time we get there and unload we finally get to see our families for another extended weekend of 55 hr's and find out that since we have been spending all this time resting that we don't have enough money to pay the phone bill so now when we leave to go back out our families don't have a phone, so now we Aren't going to know how they are doing or if there are any emergencies their until they can get hold of our dispatchers and they inform us. As far as being Abel to enjoy our time off when we are stuck in a truck stop some where, we don't have autos parked in places other that where we live or work and there for don't have transportation to go sight seeing or go to any attractions or to any shopping as the last time that i did go to these they required funds to go to them with the cost of our operations going up with every day of operations and the rates not going up our companies aren't going to giving us any raises for not producing the only segment of our society that receives this type of revenue is government employees as their employer does not have to worry about making a profit they can just make another package of c notes. thanks for letting me rattle on.
They must be kidding there is another thing to prove that once we let the government into our homes and businesses the whole thing goes to hell in a hand basket. this will just hurt both the independent o/o plus co. drivers. Can anyone tell what they were thinking? bob o/o for 10 years
This is the worst piece of legislation to hit the transportation industry. Another resource we have in the industry is Brian Chodrow. He works in Washington DC. for the International Association Of Chiefs Of Police. Brian spoke against this when it first started.. He may be able to help us now. He needs all of us to pull together and speak out against this.
do we make people in the factory take a 10 hour break after they work a 12 shift NO! I have work worked in the factory and if you worked a 16 shift they still want you to be in for your normal shift which is 8 hours away. Why the double standard. Also lets make thse people who drive these bigf RV's carry a log book to show how far they are traveling and the general public keep a log book for the hours they work and the travel time to and from work as well. Cause alot of the accidents on the highway are the fault of the 4 wheeler who didn't get enough rest or is over worked and trying to make it home from work after a 16 shift. Which we can't even log legally.
It is bad enough that they are trying to put the trucker out of business O.O's) but they now are trying to make him or her work less. If that is the case how about that we require all people who are driving a vehicle that is more than 22 feet in length to have a CDL license before they can drive it off the lot. And to have everybody in the work force keep a log book and if the work 12 hours they have to take a break and sleep at least 10 hours before driving home from work. That is basically what this bill is saying. At present I drive a mail truck for the postal service which takes me 13 hours round trip to complete. But I actually drive about 11 hours of that a day with an 8 hour break in the middle . If they past this a bill that means the mail will move slower and the gas for your car will be late to the pumps and the food to the grocer will be getting that later and not as fresh. So the only people they are hurting really is the American Public. They need to think about what they are doing before they put foot in the pile of mess
most drivers will continue to do as they do now ,,juggle the paperwork , run the way you have to, sleep a little, work 14-16 hrs. just trying to make a living. until all truck companies stick together and pressure shippers, receivers to load and unload in a reasonable time, we will have to do whatever we need to make a living. maybe a partial fix would be to pay us hourly for waiting times that are excessive !
I am a driver that drives locally now and the proposal they have for hours stinks. Recently I had to move equipment from out of state. I drove the way I felt to do it. In a matter of three weeks I put in more than 300 hours of driving and working. this is the way I have been working since I started working when I was 15. As for the black boxes, I feel if they put them in trucks then they should require them in all automobiles too. It isn't only the tired and fatigued truck drivers that are causing accidents. I myself I drive and work the way I want to. When I am tired I will sleep. I don't let shippers, recievers, or dispatchers tell me that I cant nap or sleep when I am tired.
The fastest way to change the rediculess regulations is very simple;
1] what ever entity that comes up with a new reg has to personally, from the very top to bottom of the dept, is required to live by it to the letter, for 6 months. I'd like to see everyone at FMCSA and all the petty little dictars, like PATT and CRASH, be forced to live by their ideas, in about aweek of being chained to their desk for 14 hrs, then shoved into a closet for 10 hrs, would definately show just how de-humanizing the regs are.
2] ANY entity that forces major changes to another entity is required to pay out of it's own coffers for the re-tooling of the changed one. Hmmmm... think the special interest eco-terrorists could come up with the $2 billion that our industry paid to upgrade to the 2004 reg change? They going to change an entity, they pay for it, or it doesn't happen.
In realality its the goverments way to get borders opened up for Mexican drivers to run freight across the states for less money. just think about it, the avrage run is about 10 hours normal that one with traffic, citys thats really 11 hours of behind the wheel. Ok we have to shut down before we get to orgin spend 10 hours stareing at walls then we are tired because of sitting around the deliver late freight backs up goverment says we cant handle all the freight so they have to get across the border drivers to help out! Really do they think we are so stupid that we dont know what is going on? The fines for going on is so great now we cant afford to take chanch on getting caught so we are forced into loseing money and freight, very slick its not about safety.
It would appear to me that if the FMCSA does nothing beyond what the court has ruled . . . drivers would now be permitted to drive 14 hours.If one were to just strike out the 11 hours of driving from the regs, the regs would then read. . .
"a) No motor carrier shall permit or require any driver used by it to drive a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle, nor shall any such driver drive a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle:
(a)(2) For any period after the end of the 14th hour after coming on duty following 10 consecutive hours off duty, except when a property-carrying driver complies with the provisions of §395.1(o) or §395.1(e)(2)."
The only rerstriction on hours would be 14 hours.The court may have made given drivers more hours.
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