https://thefederalist.com/2017/09/13/tru...eat-sleep/

Quote:I never thought I’d come to a time in my life when “Big Brother” would be watching me 24/7. But then I became a truck driver.

Every minute of every day is monitored by Uncle Sam, who takes care that I can never make a decision for myself based on my circumstances. Because let’s face it, I just can’t take on that kind of responsibility. There’s no way I can decide for myself when I’m going to sleep or rest or drive. After all, I’m just a stupid truck driver. What would I know about such things?

Quote:For Truckers, Life Is About Fighting The Clocks

For starters, let’s talk “logs” and “hours of service.” While you’re only fighting one clock on your morning commute, a truck driver is fighting five clocks. Like you, he’s fighting real time. You have to be at work by 9:00 a.m., and he has a 9 o’clock appointment at the local distribution center. It’s 8:45 and I-40 is a parking lot. In addition to this, he has four other clocks to worry about: the “eight-hour break” clock, his “14-hour on-duty, not driving” clock, the “11-hour on-duty, driving” clock, and the “70-hour weekly on-duty” clock. For simplicity, I will call each of these the “eight,” the “14,” the “11,” and the “70.”

Now I’ll explain what’s known in the transportation industry as the “Hours of Service” regulations. The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCA) requires drivers to log everything they do, where they did it, the duration of the task, and when the specific tasks were done. The biggest principle to keep in mind is that when any one of the “clocks” runs out, you can no longer drive legally. Once you start the clock by going on-duty, you have eight hours before you must stop driving and take a 30-minute break.

Also, once you start your clock, you have now started a nonstop 14-hour window in which you must get all the driving done you need to for that day. If you get stuck at a shipper for three hours, you now have only 10 hours to drive. Which brings us to your “11”: In any given 14-hour on-duty period, you are only allowed to drive legally for 11 hours within that 14-hour period. In addition, in any eight-day period, you are only allowed to be on-duty (not driving and driving) for a total of 70 hours. Hence, your “70.” (This week, I made it back home with only one hour on my 70… I was cutting it close.)

Clear as mud? Basically, as I said in the outset, the FMCA (that is, Uncle Sam/ Big Brother) not only wants to know when I’m sleeping, resting, and driving—it tells me when I can sleep, rest, and drive.

Quote:Even now, as I write, I am being monitored. I am on the “off-duty” line of my logs. If I get pulled over next week by a “diesel bear” (a state trooper dedicated to enforcing FMCA regs), he’s going to want to know where I was and what I was doing at this very moment, and whether the FMCA does or doesn’t allow that. For instance, even though my logging computer says I’m “off duty,” if it were found out that I’m writing an article for The Federalist instead of “resting,” I’d be in violation. I’m technically not supposed to be doing any work right now. I’m not supposed to mow the grass, or take out the trash. I definitely would be in violation if I got a part-time job on the weekend while I was supposed to be “off duty.”

I’ve heard horror stories on this. A colleague of mine was once cited for a log violation because he sent an email to his dispatcher while he was in the “off duty” status. The penalty for that? Well, if the judge wants to throw the book at you, he can send you to jail for six months in some states. The fines are at least $500. So if it were determined by the powers that be that I was “working” during my off-duty time, I could be jailed for that. (Just in case my boss reads this, I consider writing a leisure activity.)

Quote:So why does Big Brother impose all of this on the truck driver? It’s supposed to be for safety. While I’ll agree that a man should not be driving until he can’t keep his eyes open, or using illicit drugs to stay awake, the sad fact of the matter is that these strict and complicated log regulations make driving trucks substantially more dangerous in my experience.

The reason I can land an elite driving gig is because I run like a machine. I know how to work those five clocks and to get the most out of them. Often, I’ll end the day with a gallon of fuel in my tanks and one minute left on one of my clocks. But what am I doing to get that done? I’m rushing and in a hurry. That is a very, very bad thing to do when you’re operating an 80-foot, 80,000-pound vehicle that will go 70 miles an hour downhill. “In a hurry” and truck driving don’t mix. But because Big Brother tells me that I am required to get my work done in this time frame, I feel forced to rush and to push things.

Also, if a driver gets sleepy while his clock is running, pulling over for a nap is not an option. If he didn’t sleep well because his 10-hour break happened to fall in the middle of the day, that’s too bad—even if he then must run overnight. All the safety experts will tell you, “If you’re sleepy while driving, pull over and get some sleep.” Well, that’s like calling in sick when you don’t have any sick days left. If you have to try and sleep in broad daylight and drive overnight, you’re either out a day’s pay, or you’re pounding the coffee and energy drinks with the windows down and the music blaring.

Certainly the driver wishes he could just pull over for a few hours and grab some sleep. But if he did that, his load would be delayed at least eight hours because of the clocks. Without the clocks, the driver could pull over and take a two or three-hour snoozer and then continue. But no: since Big Brother has decided when he’ll sleep, he’s forced to either drive unsafely or have his pay docked. A system meant to keep the motoring public safe makes them more unsafe—and hurts a man’s income.

Quote:Henry Ward Beecher teaches us, “Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope.”

I love driving trucks. I would love to buy my own truck and start my own trucking outfit. But every time I think about what I’d have to go through regulation-wise to do that, “syncope” fits the bill.

So not only are these regs not producing safety on the highways, they are discouraging entrepreneurism. Regulations that discourage interstate commerce and entrepreneurism in the name of safety? I could be wrong, but my considered guess is that there’s an agenda afoot here. But of course, as I’ve been told, I need to don my tin-foil hat for that.

The real shame is when we get to the tipping point of automation in trucking ... these regulations will push everything over the edge years and maybe decades before it would otherwise happen. And that's bad news for literally millions of lightly skilled workers who won't have very many options to turn to without retraining.

Not sure what the deal is in the trucking world but there is a ton of Mexican nationals that cross over to drive American trucks for American companies here on the border. I have spoken to them and they have told me American companies just cannot find enough drivers.

I find that amazing.

(09-22-2017 01:23 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  Not sure what the deal is in the trucking world but there is a ton of Mexican nationals that cross over to drive American trucks for American companies here on the border. I have spoken to them and they have told me American companies just cannot find enough drivers.

I find that amazing.

Me too, not a bad gig, especially for a single guy without many skills.

(09-22-2017 12:44 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  The real shame is when we get to the tipping point of automation in trucking ... these regulations will push everything over the edge years and maybe decades before it would otherwise happen. And that's bad news for literally millions of lightly skilled workers who won't have very many options to turn to without retraining.

Exactly how gov't wants it.

(09-22-2017 01:23 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  Not sure what the deal is in the trucking world but there is a ton of Mexican nationals that cross over to drive American trucks for American companies here on the border. I have spoken to them and they have told me American companies just cannot find enough drivers.

I find that amazing.

It's pretty simple Fit.. most trucking companies have gotten into the "You have to own your own rig" policy. Now ask yourself how much does it cost to buy the rig, and maintain the rig.

This isn't a car, where you drive 20 mins to an hour to work and back and then let the car sit there overnight..

My father-in-law and mother-in-law used to do the trucking business, but they got forced out when they were told they had to _purchase_ their own truck to be used.

Now do all fleets do that? Nope, but it's been heading that way for quite some time (probably since the mid 80's?)

So add in the "hours" as Kap wrote, then add in the time you have to spend on maintenance on that vehicle... Not to mention the FMCA stuff. (and this was before all the extended rules and regs were thrown on truck drivers).

(09-22-2017 02:58 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(09-22-2017 01:23 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  Not sure what the deal is in the trucking world but there is a ton of Mexican nationals that cross over to drive American trucks for American companies here on the border. I have spoken to them and they have told me American companies just cannot find enough drivers.

I find that amazing.

It's pretty simple Fit.. most trucking companies have gotten into the "You have to own your own rig" policy. Now ask yourself how much does it cost to buy the rig, and maintain the rig.

This isn't a car, where you drive 20 mins to an hour to work and back and then let the car sit there overnight..

My father-in-law and mother-in-law used to do the trucking business, but they got forced out when they were told they had to _purchase_ their own truck to be used.

Now do all fleets do that? Nope, but it's been heading that way for quite some time (probably since the mid 80's?)

So add in the "hours" as Kap wrote, then add in the time you have to spend on maintenance on that vehicle... Not to mention the FMCA stuff. (and this was before all the extended rules and regs were thrown on truck drivers).

Interesting.

I don't know if it's just because we live on the border but there are a ton of trucking companies down here and they all have their own trucks. Mexican nationals simply take an Uber from the border to these companies where a truck is loaded and waiting for them to drive it to the Midwest.

You pretty much have to start with Prime or Swift if you don't want to be an owner-operator.

(09-22-2017 03:05 PM)DexterDevil Wrote:  You pretty much have to start with Prime or Swift if you don't want to be an owner-operator.

I can't remember who my FIL started with .. I want to say J.B. Hunt (but I'm not sure anymore), but it was kind of a shock when they went to the owner-operator route on him.

And the reason why is.. it happens, Fit.. is it puts things like the operator insurance on the driver, not on the company, since they're now considered "independent contractors" more so than employees.

I just had a patient who is a trucker tell me about all this today.

I ran a small fleet (15 trucks) for 16 years. Truck drivers HATE the electronic logs. East coast drivers in particular. It's driving cost up astronomically in some cases. I know half a dozen guys that have given up riding in new trucks and taken significant pay cuts to avoid working for big outfits that use the electronic logs. Now my father runs the business and has switched over from oversized loads that I used to specialize in and hauls mainly agricultural commodities within a 150 radius that is exempt from electronic logs.

(09-22-2017 03:48 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:  I ran a small fleet (15 trucks) for 16 years. Truck drivers HATE the electronic logs. East coast drivers in particular. It's driving cost up astronomically in some cases. I know half a dozen guys that have given up riding in new trucks and taken significant pay cuts to avoid working for big outfits that use the electronic logs. Now my father runs the business and has switched over from oversized loads that I used to specialize in and hauls mainly agricultural commodities within a 150 radius that is exempt from electronic logs.

Yup. My brother in law who used to be a truck driver now just hauls short distances a couple of times a week.

(09-22-2017 03:05 PM)DexterDevil Wrote:  You pretty much have to start with Prime or Swift if you don't want to be an owner-operator.

I sat on the disciplinary review board of this guy we ended up firing for pretty much being an idiot. A couple months back we got a shipment at work and who comes driving up in a Swift truck but Mr. Moron. How the hell he graduated trucking school is beyond me because he couldn't pour piss out a boot if you put the instructions on the sole.