Onboard Recorders Survey by FL University

[elevenbravo]

Lets see, the police are knocking on your door. They demand to see your calorie log sheet. The year is 2012 and Congress passed the health protection act coordinated by Dingycrats. Suddenly you have to explain your body fat percentage to some Klingon at the door.

You have no entries on your calorie log sheet from 3:00 pm, and the portable ultrasound device carried by the police have discovered that you've eaten a 12 ounce steak, and what appears to be 13 or 14 ounces of other substances. A blood prick on your finger shows elevated sugar levels. They have reasonable cause to make you vomit the contents of your stomach into an evidence bag. You've not only earned a big fine for violating established public safety policy (Universal Health Acto of 2011, Terms and Conditions, etc.), but you will be incarcerated on a limited calorie diet until the offending grams of fat are eliminated.

That's how I feel on a DOT inspection. It's private property, but public roads, so I don't make a big deal about it. How many college students have caused economic damage due to vehicle accidents caused by lack of sleep? Is it because truck drivers are just too busy to talk to members of Congress that they get picked on?

I can stomach 11 hour drive days and 14 hr work days. After the age of 35, you feel pretty gung ho if you accomplish that. The occasional 72hr binges of accomplishment just don't seem so important anymore. The 34hr breaks are ridiculous. For the guys that spend two days at home, they spend the first day shopping and doing chores. I guess that leaves chuch and an afternoon for the rest of your time off?

Most of the guys with the sat dishes go by the book. The rest of them seem to only rest about 8 hrs? I don't really care, as long as they drive safe. After six months on the road, your body gets used to the rythm of things. Try explaining that it takes 45 minutes to get fuel, and they will probably act like they are talking to a Klingon.

Should you throw a professor in jail if he does not get 8 hrs of sleep? Where is HIS log book? So HOW could he even comprehend what we are talking about? Lets make members of Congress record their hours of "service", their rest periods, and just for fun, what they ate? LOL.

We don't need onboard recorders or 34 hr breaks? Getting rid of the 34hr breaks would bring some sense of sanity to dispatchers? Allow a driver to stop the truck without being fired if he is tired once during the week? Or you could limit recorders to drivers with less than one year experience?

Congress has pretty much looked out for truckers with the per diem deduction, but it only really helps those on the bottom pay scale? Considering that we are buying fuel on a world market, and certain countries are subsidizing fuel, then Congress should regulate the price of fuel, that's why they have the power?

Otherwise, we will just see subsidized stimulous checks?

Beam me up Scotty?

[ranger309]

Originally Posted by elevenbravo

Lets see, the police are knocking on your door. They demand to see your calorie log sheet. The year is 2012 and Congress passed the health protection act coordinated by Dingycrats. Suddenly you have to explain your body fat percentage to some Klingon at the door.

You have no entries on your calorie log sheet from 3:00 pm, and the portable ultrasound device carried by the police have discovered that you've eaten a 12 ounce steak, and what appears to be 13 or 14 ounces of other substances. A blood prick on your finger shows elevated sugar levels. They have reasonable cause to make you vomit the contents of your stomach into an evidence bag. You've not only earned a big fine for violating established public safety policy (Universal Health Acto of 2011, Terms and Conditions, etc.), but you will be incarcerated on a limited calorie diet until the offending grams of fat are eliminated.

That's how I feel on a DOT inspection. It's private property, but public roads, so I don't make a big deal about it. How many college students have caused economic damage due to vehicle accidents caused by lack of sleep? Is it because truck drivers are just too busy to talk to members of Congress that they get picked on?

I can stomach 11 hour drive days and 14 hr work days. After the age of 35, you feel pretty gung ho if you accomplish that. The occasional 72hr binges of accomplishment just don't seem so important anymore. The 34hr breaks are ridiculous. For the guys that spend two days at home, they spend the first day shopping and doing chores. I guess that leaves chuch and an afternoon for the rest of your time off?

Most of the guys with the sat dishes go by the book. The rest of them seem to only rest about 8 hrs? I don't really care, as long as they drive safe. After six months on the road, your body gets used to the rythm of things. Try explaining that it takes 45 minutes to get fuel, and they will probably act like they are talking to a Klingon.

Should you throw a professor in jail if he does not get 8 hrs of sleep? Where is HIS log book? So HOW could he even comprehend what we are talking about? Lets make members of Congress record their hours of "service", their rest periods, and just for fun, what they ate? LOL.

We don't need onboard recorders or 34 hr breaks? Getting rid of the 34hr breaks would bring some sense of sanity to dispatchers? Allow a driver to stop the truck without being fired if he is tired once during the week? Or you could limit recorders to drivers with less than one year experience?

Congress has pretty much looked out for truckers with the per diem deduction, but it only really helps those on the bottom pay scale? Considering that we are buying fuel on a world market, and certain countries are subsidizing fuel, then Congress should regulate the price of fuel, that's why they have the power?

Otherwise, we will just see subsidized stimulous checks?

Beam me up Scotty?

Fuel price regulation ain't gonna happen any time soon in the US. As far as HOS rules, that's a big "if".

"If" you can do what you have to do on the road and still have time to sleep. As far as I am concerned, most OTR companies are guilty of running their drivers so hard that they may as well be a DUI just waiting to happen.

Think about it: Driving While Impaired (DWI): You think some driver that only got only 4 or 5 hours of sleep during his/her rest period isn't impaired, compared to a local or LTL driver that went home to a nice meal, a nice wife and a nice home before going to work at a set hour, or at least spent the night in a nice hotel room with a nice meal before heading back to the terminal?

No way in hell!


But guess what?

If you are involved in a wreck, no matter what, who gets to go to jail on lack-of-sleep or logbook violation(s) because they were trying to make a living driving a rig?

It sure as hell ain't the dispatchers or the company that you drive for, that's for damn certain. Its the driver's fault each and every time, no matter what is said otherwise or to the contrary.

If the public really understood what kind of hell and OTR driver goes though maybe that would change, but they don't, so the industry just sucks it up and hires another driver (or number as my father called soldiers, like he was) and off we go again.

It's no wonder the turnover rate in this industry is so high and that so many newer drivers quit this crap and never look back again.

[elevenbravo]

Well, unless you are paranoid about people draining your fuel while you sleep, you should be able to get a good night sleep in a ten hour break. I would also like to see the system used as a "bank account", if you can't find parking at the 11th hour, to be able to go to the next truck stop along the way, then deduct that available time from the next day (limit to 90 min).

The 34 hr break requirement in addition to a 10hr break requirement is overkill at a time when we need help in the industry. I think the industry will get better in a couple of years, it takes time to work in changes and educate people. Usually the drivers that figure out that after all the "hype" disgarded, and do the math on a calculator, the ones getting paid $5 an hour find something better to do.

The big companies that built their fortunes on drivers instead of customer service will collapse when they run out of credit. When you have companies built on making money from everything a driver does and or uses (insurance in a "third party company", which is really the parent company investments), it's a little harder to get drivers to see whether or not that arrangement is good or bad for them?

If your company is so focused on feeding off your driver's every dime, what does that say about their focus on customers? As long as people flock to big companys, and refuse to take risks themselves, can we really complain?

[Cerberus_Kelpie]

Originally Posted by elevenbravo

Lets see, the police are knocking on your door. They demand to see your calorie log sheet. The year is 2012 and Congress passed the health protection act coordinated by Dingycrats. Suddenly you have to explain your body fat percentage to some Klingon at the door.
--Actually Trucks will not be designed with Doors anymore because of the increased amount of clumsy buffoons that overeat at the Buffets in the newly renovated Slop Houses WE formerly knew as Truck Stops just a few Moons back in 2008. These are the greedy and careless of the new breed of Twuck Dwivers AND THE REASONS for the changes in the Health Policies currently being assaulted upon our Personages.--The Doors were as well a cool group in the 60s and 70s, yet Truck Doors are mere Dimensional portholes through which WE are lowered thanx to the newly redesigned inventions of Dr. McCoy.--
You also failed to mention the FORCED AT GUNPOINT minor incisions upon our upper thigh to insert the Tracking Chips which as well transmit our Blood Flow, Heart Rate, and Libido information along with Calories and Carbohydrates to the NWO database for our protection and the safety of all (which is everyone) who come within 5 feet of US.
You have no entries on your calorie log sheet from 15:00 hrs., and the portable ultrasound device carried by the police have discovered that you've eaten a 12 milliounce steak, and what appears to be 13 or 14 megaounces of other substances. A blood prick to a finger shows elevated sugar levels. They have reasonable cause to make you vomit the contents of your stomach into an evidence bag. You've not only earned a big fine for violating established public safety policy (Universal Health Acto of 2011, Terms and Conditions, etc.), but you will be incarcerated on a limited calorie diet until the offending grams of fat are eliminated OR you can choose immediate disintegration of your Stomach contents through the newly devised and created (yet poorly tested) Tube of Purification that is inserted through your Nose into your Stomach. It quickly cleans ALL offending material as viewed by the attached Camera with Nuclear powered LEDs. Your Stomach lining however gets a wee bit fried. Your Stomach glows from the unnecessary amount of Radiation because of leaky containment fields around the Nuclear material, yet when finished, you are released to continue your Tour of Duty and the Customers are alerted as to your impending lateness.

The Thought Police have their questions as well and meet you at your final Delivery point for interrogation and reconditioning.
---
WE'LL see you in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.