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ABF | Question on linehaul

Cut him a break, Stoney. He was being honest with his health problems, and pretty open about the possible ramifications of life as a linehaul driver. You didn't need to say it was "BS." You could've cut that part out, and then offered your alternative to preventing health problems on the road. I ran the road for 15 years when I was your age,....90% east of the Mississippi, where the road maintenance was,....and still is,... ......just wonderful. I had health problems below the waist, too. I'm pretty tall, and I never got over 200 pounds. Road driving,.....then and now,.....will wreck your constitution,.....sometimes even in spite of the best precautions you take. I've been a city driver for the last 21 years,...and I'm here to tell you that just about all those "health problems" disappeared. In my opinion, companies refuse to admit what a lifestyle on the road will do to you, physically. Maybe mentally.....In the 1980's ,...the Massachusetts Institute for Technology did a sleep deprivation study on what they considered was an "average" group of workers with statistics provided by OSHA. Don't forget that truck driving is not covered by OSHA,....We are covered by the Motor Carrier Safety Standards Bureau. Their study recommended that a worker get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep,....in the dark,....at night,....regularly. They were studying the effects of nighttime shift work. MIT said that if you didn't sleep properly, and in the dark, and on a schedule,.....eventually it would drive you to psychosis. At that time,..( and now also...),....Log books at the beginning of the month would have you start off sleeping at night, and as the month progressed, your sleep schedule would gradually creep into the daylight, and toward the end of the month, back into dark time. Overdrive Magazine printed the findings of this study, and said, basically,...in their opinion,....and MIT's opinion,....a truck driver's lifestyle will gradually make him psychotic,.....so, therefore,... he will be disabled, mentally,....so, therefore,......Where's MY Disability Check? (....Har Har,.....big laugh....).....Well.......MIT dropped the study. And.........Twenty years later, we have a sleep apnea problem in trucking. Of course,...that makes the problem the truck driver's , and not the lifestyle imposed by your employer,......thereby placing the liability on the driver,.....not the employer, and his requirements. Yup,....the companies know driving is an unhealthy lifestyle,.......and they don't want to take any responsibility for it.
 
iam4us said:
Stoney, you belong on that oldfart Teamster website,, cranky combative type...
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And just where the heck is this old fart Teamster website? Dammit,....I thought I was on it,.....Hell,....I thought I was President of it.....I'm confused, now...........I'm going to take a nap.........
 
canaryinthemine said:
Cut him a break, Stoney. He was being honest with his health problems, and pretty open about the possible ramifications of life as a linehaul driver. You didn't need to say it was "BS." You could've cut that part out, and then offered your alternative to preventing health problems on the road. I ran the road for 15 years when I was your age,....90% east of the Mississippi, where the road maintenance was,....and still is,... ......just wonderful. I had health problems below the waist, too. I'm pretty tall, and I never got over 200 pounds. Road driving,.....then and now,.....will wreck your constitution,.....sometimes even in spite of the best precautions you take. I've been a city driver for the last 21 years,...and I'm here to tell you that just about all those "health problems" disappeared. In my opinion, companies refuse to admit what a lifestyle on the road will do to you, physically. Maybe mentally.....In the 1980's ,...the Massachusetts Institute for Technology did a sleep deprivation study on what they considered was an "average" group of workers with statistics provided by OSHA. Don't forget that truck driving is not covered by OSHA,....We are covered by the Motor Carrier Safety Standards Bureau. Their study recommended that a worker get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep,....in the dark,....at night,....regularly. They were studying the effects of nighttime shift work. MIT said that if you didn't sleep properly, and in the dark, and on a schedule,.....eventually it would drive you to psychosis. At that time,..( and now also...),....Log books at the beginning of the month would have you start off sleeping at night, and as the month progressed, your sleep schedule would gradually creep into the daylight, and toward the end of the month, back into dark time. Overdrive Magazine printed the findings of this study, and said, basically,...in their opinion,....and MIT's opinion,....a truck driver's lifestyle will gradually make him psychotic,.....so, therefore,... he will be disabled, mentally,....so, therefore,......Where's MY Disability Check? (....Har Har,.....big laugh....).....Well.......MIT dropped the study. And.........Twenty years later, we have a sleep apnea problem in trucking. Of course,...that makes the problem the truck driver's , and not the lifestyle imposed by your employer,......thereby placing the liability on the driver,.....not the employer, and his requirements. Yup,....the companies know driving is an unhealthy lifestyle,.......and they don't want to take any responsibility for it.
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Oh please, he was blaming all his health issues now this job, and taking zero responsibility. I said it's BS that it's only the job causing his issues. I seen plenty of road drivers stay healthy, by doing the simple things.

What do you want from the company? Every driver driving 8 hours a day on a 9 to 5 schedule?
 
That would make it healthier, wouldn't it? How about this? Put road drivers on the same schedule as the CEO. That way they could get a few healthy rounds of golf in before they come to work...........
 
Stoney said:
That's right! Now I remember why don't come in here, to many so called men acting like little boys. Way to sell that Teamster image.
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That's,...uhhh,....."too"..many men......two zeros,....two "ohs"......I mean,....since we're all correcting each others' grammar..............
 
canaryinthemine said:
That would make it healthier, wouldn't it? How about this? Put road drivers on the same schedule as the CEO. That way they could get a few healthy rounds of golf in before they come to work...........
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Never happen, unrealistic, and logistically impossible.

Can you imagine how clogged the roads would be with trucks between 9 and 5? And what about parking? Where are all these trucks going to park at 5?
 
Stoney said:
Never happen, unrealistic, and logistically impossible.

Can you imagine how clogged the roads would be with trucks between 9 and 5? And what about parking? Where are all these trucks going to park at 5?
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Walmart, they welcome all road warriors.
 
Stoney said:
Oh please, he was blaming all his health issues now this job, and taking zero responsibility. I said it's BS that it's only the job causing his issues. I seen plenty of road drivers stay healthy, by doing the simple things.

What do you want from the company? Every driver driving 8 hours a day on a 9 to 5 schedule?
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And I've seen many, many unhealthy drivers,......much more so than the rest of the working population. And.....I've seen companies make a half-hearted attempt to recognize the problem,......A "weight room" in the driver's lounge?.........And who has time for that,.....especially if you're logging hours? More so than any other occupation I can think of,....you have to make a serious, time-consuming, concerted effort NOT to be unhealthy in this job. The Department of Labor still lists Transportation as the most lethal occupation in this country,......and they won't quantify truck driving as a smaller category, like they did when they first included trucking in the Occupational Fatality lists in the late '80's,.....because, as a separate occupation, we were off their charts. So,...now they lump us together with ALL transportation,....Looks better. And.....this is not including things like heart attacks, stress, second-hand diesel smoke, exposure to hazardous chemicals and environments. How about the long-term effects of solitude in the cab ? At least, in an airplane cockpit, or a locomotive, you've got another human to interact with. Would long stretches of solitude,....year after year,.....days on end,......turn someone into a crabby, nit-picking misanthrope?
 
Stoney said:
Never happen, unrealistic, and logistically impossible.

Can you imagine how clogged the roads would be with trucks between 9 and 5? And what about parking? Where are all these trucks going to park at 5?
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With the roads clogged, trucks would be forced to drive much slower, thereby saving fuel and improving safety. In a perfect world,.....one that I would run.....You would have one hour to get in your car and go to work ...8 to 9. And from 9 to 5, ...all cars would be banned from the road. When all those office jockeys left work at 5 to go home,....you would have tons of empty parking spaces for all those trucks you speak of. Of course it's feasible,....I just figured it out, didn't I?
 
Stoney has it all figured out.. Another truck driving genious.. Canaryinthemine.. great info on truck driving and its effects on us. So glad ABF and IBT think enough of us to lower our pay and time off.. The NMFA was created to protect us from most of what you reported.. As I stated in one of my posts, a lot of carriers are going to mainly turns to help with sleep and health!!! Not ABF and YRC!? Cmon yes voters and IBT!!!
 
canaryinthemine said:
And I've seen many, many unhealthy drivers,......much more so than the rest of the working population. And.....I've seen companies make a half-hearted attempt to recognize the problem,......A "weight room" in the driver's lounge?.........And who has time for that,.....especially if you're logging hours? More so than any other occupation I can think of,....you have to make a serious, time-consuming, concerted effort NOT to be unhealthy in this job. The Department of Labor still lists Transportation as the most lethal occupation in this country,......and they won't quantify truck driving as a smaller category, like they did when they first included trucking in the Occupational Fatality lists in the late '80's,.....because, as a separate occupation, we were off their charts. So,...now they lump us together with ALL transportation,....Looks better. And.....this is not including things like heart attacks, stress, second-hand diesel smoke, exposure to hazardous chemicals and environments. How about the long-term effects of solitude in the cab ? At least, in an airplane cockpit, or a locomotive, you've got another human to interact with. Would long stretches of solitude,....year after year,.....days on end,......turn someone into a crabby, nit-picking misanthrope?
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I have to, and those drivers don't take responsibility. I and other drivers found time to get a little exercise. It is possible to eat healthy on the road. Don't tell me it's not.
 
canaryinthemine said:
With the roads clogged, trucks would be forced to drive much slower, thereby saving fuel and improving safety. In a perfect world,.....one that I would run.....You would have one hour to get in your car and go to work ...8 to 9. And from 9 to 5, ...all cars would be banned from the road. When all those office jockeys left work at 5 to go home,....you would have tons of empty parking spaces for all those trucks you speak of. Of course it's feasible,....I just figured it out, didn't I?
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Yup you did, now do you have a realistic solution?
 
iam4us said:
Stoney has it all figured out.. Another truck driving genious.. Canaryinthemine.. great info on truck driving and its effects on us. So glad ABF and IBT think enough of us to lower our pay and time off.. The NMFA was created to protect us from most of what you reported.. As I stated in one of my posts, a lot of carriers are going to mainly turns to help with sleep and health!!! Not ABF and YRC!? Cmon yes voters and IBT!!!
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Simple, where am I wrong? You unable to go for a 30 minute a walk everyday? You unable to eat better?
 
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