Hey truckers I truley understand the fact freight may be slow and you get a run and you want to run illegal, however please PRETTY PLEASE, keep in mind if you are running illegal you are taking that chance of not going home again. Either your life can be lost or someone else's (I hope it's not my child and in this situation you won't be home to pay any BILLS. I know it's tough lately, really I understand . I am the queen of understanding money/bills/being broke and stressed out. I live this daily and gosh how I would love to do something illegal (hell legal would be great) to get that extra money to get my life back on track due to a set back, however I can't. Why? Well I ponder sometimes "what if I can get by with it" then I ponder if I take that one chance will I get caught and my kids will suffer due to that one chance worse than what they would if I was just doing what I could.

I can't say enough when my almost 18 year old says to me "mom I am glad you don't give me everything I want" Her boyfriends mom gives him everything such as this: He is negative 1.27 in the bank account so she deposits $50.00. Well he of course is not learning to manage his money and I have been a firm believer I want my kids to learn not to rely on me (heck I can't afford it). I did however tell her be glad you have someone to rely on when you need help (she knows I would do what I can to help her REGARDLESS). But do you understand the kids will understand and actually relate better later if they have to do without the nike's. You just have to stick and get them to understand you are trying to do what you can and if it's not good enough sorry but I love you and I want to be home if daddy does something bad I might not be around to give you just the meal you eat .

Some kids do adjust to this situation and some just rebel. I am no pro but all I really want to get acrossed is that I don't want to hear you are in prison due to them nasty log books or I don't want to hear your daughter,son, grandkid coming on here saying my daddy, grandpa ran illegal and is now in prison and we are going to be homeless or how much we miss them

I can't stress it enough, winter is really bad time to be running illegal because the winter brings black ice etc and accidents are more likely to happen so PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE I BEG YOU, try to be as legal as possible and don't listen to the speed you may be taking (meaning caffeine, speed, caffein pills etc).

I hope you understand where I am coming from guys/ladies I am only once again trying to get you to see my point as I have been seeing WAY WAY WAY to many drivers running illegal lately Oh should I add you are giving me much more work to do

Oh let me add I don't mean make them logs look legal, remember if in an accident that is a DOT reportable accident they will probably be investigating you as you just shot someone (it's pretty much the same). So please make sure the logs reflect what you really did (understand what lines 1,2,3 & 4 means) and not just make them legal. I had a driver today it is logged legal, key word "logged legal" but it's not what he did and he ran over his 11,14 & 70 hour. So if he was in an accident I could talk to him from prison if he killed someone.

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

I totally agree with you.....
I do my best to run legal as I can

And the following is not condoning running illegal....

When the bills start piling up and the bill collectors start calling.. Not to mention the wife (I don't have one thank god lol) starts to nag.. I understand why one may be pressured into doing so...

freight has not been good at all and stress is rising... economy is slowing stock market dropped 300 points yesterday and predictions say it will keep falling so things are still going to get slower...

In my situation I lost my job do to the company going out of business... It took me about 3 weeks to get a job that seemed would be a good choice.. The company holds back 2 weeks and on the 3rd week you will get a small check for running half a week do to orientation ext.. Then it was over the holidays where it is hard to find anybody open so you still end up sitting and waiting.. little money comming in period.... (6weeks total before I received a $200 check) Company then offered me several loads in a row that they new could not be done legal.. I chose not to take the first load and found myself sitting a few days for a load.. See where I am getting at???? It didn't end pretty after I told them I was not going to do it anymore and now I am probably going to get something negative put on my Dac for not choosing to run illegal...

Now I admit I may fudge on my pickup times and delivery times here and there but they was comfortable in making me run 850-1500-1700 without a break, something I am really uncomfortable in doing becuase I have kids and I want to see them grow up (not behind bars). It only takes somebody to hit you, pull out in front of you, ext... It doesn't neccesarly has to be you..

Anyways I did find myself pushing my luck but then I said no more.

I guess I am lucky in someway becuase I can pay my bills for a little while and not work..( I would never collect unemployment unless I really needed it for something serious like being injured where I could not work.. I always have worked for what I have and well that seems right to me) A lot of people would be in serious financial trouble if they was out of work long as I have been.. Sure I can get a job tomorrow but I am making sure I do my homework and doing a good check this time around.. This would include calling different recruiters at the same company (using different name) and see if I get the same info, and a few other tricks....

You have to understand, there's a fine line between legal, tired, and dangerous.

Case Example (of all 3 )

6am wake up from full 10 break (7 actual hours sleep)

7am receive dispatch--pre-trip truck and leave

9am arrive at shipper

1:30 pm loaded took 3 hour nap during loading

9pm I'm done for the day

4am next morning...wide awake and can't move because the law says so.

7am pre-trip truck and roll

noon grab a quick bite, get drowzy take 2-3 hour nap

again I HAVE to push until 9pm (to maximize miles)

repeat the above for 10 - 14 days

While the law is good. It is only a band aide to a larger problem. The main problem, politicians who pass "feel good" laws.

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Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
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I wake up at 6am at shipper after being loaded the night before.

But according to my log I cannot start to drive until 8am. The yard dog comes into work and wants me out of there.

There's a truck stop 40 miles up the road.

At 6:30am I leave the shipper and go to the truck stop, take a shower, eat, and start driving at 8:45am.

Why are you begging drivers we just follow in line with company policy and greed and ego to get the loads your corporate schills select and demand on time if all your drivers ran legal or else their would be no one to drive your crappy trucks., thus you would be unemployed
play along or move along .
Heres where youl hate me
Your a patsie too your just as much to blame as the load planners and dispatchers.
You know all drivers run how they do and all the illegal logs you c
whats you gunna do about it send a letter.
I get those their annoying get enough of them have to talk about what something you already ####### know .
We work 4 times as long as any office personal and dont get a day off.
And the corporate schills keep us a rollin
Its like we get to a place a few minutes late have to reschedule now wait just one mother ###### minute missyou dont send you employees home when their a few min late and tell them to come bac tommarow or next week.
If all freight was 24 hr window freight everyone could drive legal but thats an imaginary world
Bottom lines it for ya dosnt it
Of course that all being said I work somewhere now where i can say im tired or the weathers bad #### this #### until tommarow like i did on monday that power comes with experience Its the same experience that has no damged freight
for the year.

I know

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

I am not sure if you noticed a previous post I made about having to terminate drivers due to logs prior to Christmas and how bummed I felt because they wouldn't listen to me.

So yeah them letters I agree read them if you want and trash them if you want, I really don't care. What will happen at my company is I will call you when you are having issues and you will be put on a Corrective Action and don't scan your logs and you will sit until you do!


And since you are being pretty harsh I must say "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it". I complain about my job just like you and wish I could be you sometimes. The freedom of no one over my shoulder, smoking my cigarrette when I want. Stopping at the beach if I want, umm not to mention the other oppurtunities drivers have that I never will probably in my life experience.

My concern is for the drivers and you want to bash me
Sounds like one of the drivers we just let go that everyone else was to blame for the problems , but didn't realize he was causing his own problems.

I have helped many drivers understand the regulations after years of losing money they could of had and have been very gratefull and I never had a driver that I termed to say you did your job you tried to get me to understand them and I just need to try harder.

Now go to some other company and maybe they don't react on what they say. WE DO! So hopefully you don't ever driver one of our piecees of #### trucks one day


Also we demand can you pick it up on time? (Y OR N) can you deliver on time (Y or N) Yes I can pick up on time but no I can't deliver on time. Why can't you. I couldn't get there until 10:00 pm instead of 8:00 pm. Ok let me see if I can adjust that time. Yes we can move it to 12:00 am instead. Hmmm sounds simple to me. Now do you lose a load if you can't do it legally sometimes, yeap! Guess what you may never know if you "would" of been in an accident running illegal and BE GLAD you would never know.

Sorry you have such a bad attitude towards us office people, I hope I never went out of my way to help you like I do daily for drivers

Bash me I bash back, but a tad nicer

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

I know and this is the problem I have is I UNDERSTAND what you are saying totally and it's hard to do what I have to do when this happens to one of my drivers. I guess that's why I get frustrated and just wish drivers would do it legal and in doing so I wonder how freight just might spread out to make those drivers getting low miles get a little more.

I know we had a dedicated run and some of the drivers miles was low and others was "HIGH" Well they was running illegal and the others wasn't. When we got the others to run legal it spread out to be better for all. Minus the few that just couldn't live on 3500 miles a week (needed 7,000 a week he said, I said u will be gone in 3 months). He quit. I hope he is still alive and free Drivers on that run was complaining I could of done it legal but he took it.

That's not all directed to you TruckerJo by any means, just something to maybe help others understand. It won't work I am beating a dead horse aren't I. Or should I say dead truck?

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

Logs do you work for Celadon?

DO YOU L.O.L.

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."