The Office of the Inspector General for the DOT is finally following up on an issue that drivers have known about for years and has instructed the FMCSA to start looking in to the unnecessary delays that drivers encounter at shipper and receiver terminals.
In a letter from the OIG, the FMCSA is instructed to begin their audit of the problem. The letter begins by highlighting how important trucking is to the nation’s economy, stating that in 2013, 2.4 million CMV drivers moved $11.4 trillion worth of freight in the US, and that by 2040 national freight volume will increase by 42% to 28.5 billion tons.
But getting drivers back on the road to keep the economy moving isn’t the only motivation for examining loading/unloading practices. The letter also highlights driver pay and safety as main concerns.
“To reduce driver fatigue and fatigue-related crashes, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) current hours of service regulations limit the number of hours a driver can work per day to 14 hours. However, delays at shipping and receiving facilities during cargo loading and unloading may result in travel delays and lost wages for drivers. Truckers who experience delays at these facilities may then drive faster to make deliveries within hours-of-service limits or operate beyond hours-of-service limits and improperly log their driving time, thus increasing the risk of crashes and fatalities.”
Before drivers get too excited that the DOT will fight for major reforms that keep drivers rolling though, it should be noted that the objectives of the audit are NOT to find solutions for these problems, but rather to just assess the information that is already available and to measure the potential effects of delays. Whether the issues are fixed once they’re identified is a whole different story.
Rufus Crank says
I sure wish my government would regulate the other participants in my industry.
Doug M Kiefer says
Hmm seems normal in the good ol USA lets further analyze a already known problem and continue to do absolutely nothing about it. Good job guys, thats why y’all make the big bucks!
Stop catering to shippers and receivers and start looking out for whats right! Enforcing a 1 or 2 hr maximum is necessary to help the industry! Put a stop to double dipping companies with these lumpers! And remember the driver didn’t load the truck or count the freight so quit holding us up for 1 case shortages or overages. Start doing whats right our time matters to!
Man I love hauling equipment don’t have the pointless issues anymore. Have a wonderful day
PFM says
Yeah, it sure is a different experience when you’re hauling something that they need ASAP 🙂
W says
Right you are, Rufus. Trucking companies have known for DECADES that drivers sit at docks UNPAID for hours and hours, then drive like hell to make delivery time. Agents and dispatchers give bad pick up times, addresses, directions, and instructions, then go home. “Do the best you can” is truck company management motto. “Logistics” is the information that drivers need but too often don’t get.
Jerry says
When eld’s are mandatory the problem will fix itself. It takes the onus off the drivers to “make up” the time to get loaded and unloaded and forces dispatchers and companies to schedule picks and drops properly or their trucks will spend a lot of time parked. Sloppy companies will loose a majority of their drivers if they refuse to fix the problem or compensate their drivers for waiting times as what happened at my company. I have never in 30 years made as much money for less work until we got the eld’s. I simply inform a receiver I have 2 hours to unload so I need to be in the dock in 1 hour or I will be back in 10 hours as I am running a eld and I cant cheat and it’s amazing how fast I get unloaded. I now get payed hourly for loading and unloading and now I don’t have to make up the delay by cheating my log and using my sleep time to cover the delay. My attitude to delays is to shrug, and say,”there’s always tomorrow.” With eld’s when a load is late it’s no longer the drivers problem….finally
mike says
If elds will fix the problem then why didn’t we have them 30 years ago.
Mike says
Because so many people in our industry love their paper logs and the ability to fudge their hours.
I used to think the same until I drove for a company with eld’s, took all the stress out of tracking my HOS.
Michael says
Electronic logs do keep you honest. Receiver dicks around all day getting you unloaded, now getting home for supper tonight is not an option. I drive a day cab now, so I get to pay for a motel up front and then spend two weeks nagging to get reimbursed. Thank you, Chlorox in Aberdeen, MD, for wasting my entire day in your miserable driver purgatory.
The bright side is I get paid $21 an hour to sit now, which is a big improvement over the OTR days.
crapola says
Walmart was so concerned about this they have gone from 2 hours to 4 hour detention time.
rde says
If you are paid by the mile and the carrier won’t guarantee miles
You’re a part time employee.
If you are paid by the hour and the carrier won’t guarantee hours
You’re a part time employee.
If you are paid by the percentage and the carrier won’t guarantee a base
You’re a part time employee.
randy l boan says
The governments policy of exempting drivers from the wage and labor laws is the reason drivers have to sit and not get paid for waiting,they had to be paid this would end.
Kc says
Really shippers and consignees. Need to be held accountable also. Sitting or waiting at a dock or space is very fatiguing for more than 1 hr. But they don’t care too many company’s don’t press the issue with these people about detention pay rates or just time wasted in general. If the cargo is ordered than it must be needed, yet most places don’t make it seem that way. This wasted time is probably the biggest cause of fatigue.
mike says
I’ve waited as long as 18 hours for a load at one shipper and I would jump in the bunk while waiting .The only thing is you can only sleep or rest for so long .
mike says
this place I just mentioned wouldn’t put your order together until you backed into the door so if 15 trucks are ahead of you and you got into the bld first you be now be #1 to load.
Mike says
That’s why alot of times id jump in the bunk once I got to shipper or consignee. I never really worried about being delayed if I got to the pickup on time and I was delayed not my problem your load won’t be delivered on time and not my problem.
Eckoh says
So they will spend billions just to confirm that shippers and receivers have 0 respect for drivers and cannot stick to an appointment time if they were handed a million dollars.
Sounds like a good waste on money.
rde says
Stop asking the Government to fix things they have no capability to fix! As a driver if you want to be compensated for your time stop working for carriers who treat you as a part time employee.
Nat says
I think most of the problems is the companies giving you a time and when you get there you end up waiting 4 hrs later to load or unload and expect you to deliver at the time they told ya even knowing ya can’t legally. I refuse to do walmart loads anymore as if I have 3 different drops I lose over 1 day with there minimum 2 hrs before they even unload you or even worst they take 9 hrs to unload you then your late for the other walmart drop and you get a fine. I’ve lost so many hrs not paid to walmart and they don’t want you to stay on their grounds when your out of hrs. Good riddance. When you get an apointment they should start unloading you then and not 3 hrs later
mrbigr504 says
Yeah Walmart blows! I started recording my whole check in episode on my cell phone…lol. I would be in the shack with my cellphone in my shirt pocket and make sure i get a good 5 second shot of their clock in their office and then my camera would stick up just enough to capture who checked me in and the whole conversation we had. I had to do that because the grumpy old cat lady in ship/recv would dummy up when it came to signing my detention. I would email it to my dispatch/agent and he would send it to the broker. I dont know who paid but my $40.00hr was on my settlement…lol.
EZmule says
E-logs have nothing to do with this. Yes… Delays @ customers do effect our hours available to drive. My last year on paper logs; I was not forced to drive fatigued. The company I drove for didn’t force or encourage me to drive illegal. Yes…. I made good $$$ that year.
We as drivers need to be adults. We need to stand up for ourselves.
Just because you have an e-log doesn’t mean that the company you work for can’t fudge your hours around to keep you moving. They can also just unplug you, on their end & tell you to run paper, until they get your system working.
There will always be Delays. We are only driver. They see us as an annoying link in the chain. Only when the delays effect the powers @ be; will the delays be remedied.
Arturo Estrada says
They should have a website link or a phone number where we can contribute pointing them towards places with the worst delays; they will investigate probably those who operate smoothly then at the end state that they didn’t see anything wrong with the shipping/ receiving chain.
J. Carter says
“Before drivers get too excited that the DOT will fight for major reforms that keep drivers rolling though, it should be noted that the objectives of the audit are NOT to find solutions for these problems, but rather to just assess the information that is already available and to measure the potential effects of delays. Whether the issues are fixed once they’re identified is a whole different story.”
Yep. Maybe five years down the road, the FMCSA will MAYBE have amassed the data.
Then maybe fifteen years after that, they’ll say they’re studying on a possible solution to the problem. And then ten years after that, they’ll say we’re still looking into the problem.
Regulating trucks, is what the FMCSA is all about. They bandy figures like 25 lives, when….
Yep, how many lives were lost on America’s highways last year to car crashes?
You’re a smoke screen, FMCSA. Everything that comes out of your collective mouths is drivel, and the greater majority of the people employed by you, are uninvolved and disconnected bureaucrats – whose only aim is to collect their weekly paycheck; they couldn’t care less what policy comes down the pipe next.
Meanwhile, WE’RE suffering. Start looking at the REAL problems on America’s highways. Quit sitting up there and soaking up tax payers’ dollars by spouting little of nothing just to make yourselves sound necessary and relevant – especially to the press.
We’re sick of you, FMCSA. We want a government agency that WORKS for us, not one that just seems bent out to GET us.
Ray says
It’s not a drivers fault if company’s leave us sitting for hours on end. Yes we’re responsible for logging correctly but what about the drivers that are already e-logging? Right now I’m losing an entire days driving miles because after waiting forever to get to the dock door my trailer gets rejected for being to rusty inside on the apron. It passes DOT but not the shippers policy for clean. Nothing about “food grade trailer” in the comments section on my BOL eather.
Andrew H says
Doesn’t take a genius to know why we’re delayed at places. Most have no penalty so there is no incentive to load or unload any faster, and if they can’t get to you, it’s not their problem, it’s yours.
Chris says
And I suppose they’ll need at least a few years, a full staff of least a hundred and a couple hundred billion to “assess” if this is a problem for both drivers and the industry? LOL
Allow me to offer a simple, cheap solution. Just ride with me for 1 month. Heck, I’ll even pay for the meals. I figure the point should be clear to the schmuck after the first 2 weeks …. lol
Robert Allard says
FMCSA don’t realy know what is going on and do not want to know the reason being they are not truck driver, and stuck at a warehouse where you have to sign in at 1700 hour and they start loading at 2000 hour but you get loaded most of the time around 2300 hour. You all know who I am talking about it is the Produce people it is a screw up and since we will have the e-log so after 14 hours is up I don not move but take 10 hours off sleeping and personal things to care about.
If we all clog their yard they will find a solution. We will see what FMCSA will look at next.
Longtimegone says
So unnecessary, drop a loaded trailer, hook an empty trailer. The shipper /receiver moves all trailers to/ from their storage yard & docks, with yard hostlers ….. Smaller companies combine resources to cover additional costs in facility security, space & infrastructure. Share the burden. Trucking companies pay a small convienience fee.
Alexander Sidor says
Bill the shipper/receiver 50 dollars every 15 minutes the driver is delayed.
Should keep the economy going nicely.