A truck driver is in hot water this week after a local Florida ABC news station picked up on a series of Facebook posts in which the driver bragged about driving 1,470 miles in 20 hours.
Driver Kerry Cuthbert was about to start his run from Wisconsin to Florida and posted the following status on his Facebook: “…Lakeland Florida is 1,470 miles away it gonna take 20 hrs to do this run the white ghost will be sitting In Lakeland Tuesday 6am forget sleeping $$$$ talk”.
Cuthbert continued posting to his Facebook throughout the trip, even taking videos while he was driving. In one of the posts, he tells friends that he’s taking a 4 hour nap near the Georgia/Florida border and then will resume driving. Then, as promised, Cuthbert checks in to Saddle Creek Logistic Services in Lakeland, Florida – nearly 1,500 miles from where he was less than 24 hours ago.
The math on that one is fairly simple. If Cuthbert’s posts were true, he was well over his allowable hours of service.
ABC Action News based in Tampa Bay, Florida went to the truck stop where Cuthbert was supposedly parked, but he was no longer there. ABC reporter Ryan Raiche called the driver’s company, International Logistics Group, to see if they could share any insight.
According to ABC Action News, Cuthbert’s manager, Mike Thomas, claimed that using Cuthbert’s electronic onboard recorder he was able to tell that the truck was currently at a truck stop in Georgia – right where it should be. He claimed that Cuthbert must just be joking with his friends. He also said that Cuthbert had not broken any laws and that the company is proud of their clean safety record.
Contrary to the manager’s reports however, the security personnel at Saddle Creek Logistics in Lakeland confirmed that Cuthbert had checked in to their facility at 9:14am. When ABC talked to the manager again, he allegedly gave multiple different explanations, even claiming that Cuthbert “must have picked up a second driver without telling them.”
The Florida State Patrol is currently looking in to the incident and International Logistics Group has suspended Cuthbert while they conduct their own investigation. They continue to claim that Cuthbert didn’t break any laws.
“The bottom line here guys is that this driver drove more than 1,500 miles in a semi-truck in little more than a day,” said Raiche.
Source: abcactionnews
Wow talk about not knowing the industry and throwing the driver under the bus. How about you stay in your lane media and leave trucking to professionals. We all know how you twist the truth to match your ideologies
If this driver did this. It will only look bad on all of us drivers. It is nothing when a person driving their car or pick up truck dose this. Then we have the people in motor homes and buses get no training or have to get a license to operate them. Yet again they are allowed to drive as many hour as they want to. Remember that when you vote.
Lol! Never mix old school driving with new technology!
If you are going to be dumb, then you have to be tough.
What I find interesting about hours of service is we (truck drivers) can only work 14 hours in a day and drive 11 hours of that. However if you watch tv shows with police solving crimes they often tell us they haven’t sleep in 24 hours during the investigation but yet they still get behind the wheel of their cop car and either drive some place to investigate or drive home to catch some sleep after being up more than 24 hours, but they are in a commercial vehicle also. So it’s ok for a police office to work over 14 hours and get behind a wheel of a car but it isn’t ok for a truck driver. We know from research 70 percent of trucking accidents are caused by the person driving a car.
Good point!!
Actually, they are in public safety vehicles, not commercial vehicles.
The law never sets a very good example.
A police car doesn’t weigh 80,000lbs
And the federal government doesn’t require a semi truck. To do a minimum of 150 MPH like police cars. Anything else you got to say?
A truck driver isn’t carrying a gun on his hip.
That said, TV isn’t much like real life. Police are not working 24 hours to solve a crime.
yes cops do work 24 hr shifts
How about class a motor homes that are the same size as a truck yet does not require a class a cdl and they can drive 24 hours straight if they choose. Also these are driven primarily by 80 year old rich retired guys that probably worked mostly in an office… how is this different? We drive daily…. its what we do. If you are to stupid to know when to sleep you probably shouldnt drive a truck and i sure as hell dont need the government to baby sit me. Everyone wants their shit yesterday and for cheap yet lets put more restraints on every PROFESSIONAL driver which makes this impossible
“A police car doesn’t weigh 80,000lbs”
Unless it stops at the donut shop a lot…
My truck and trailer only weights
36000 loaded and very rarely does it ever weight above 77000
Their is light freight out there
So your comment only shows your not an trucker the public only go by what they hear now facts ltl and air freight may only weight 8 to 20000
This about sums it up: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/11/21/distracted-minn-state-trooper-crashes-into-elrosa-couple/
True enough, they aren’t driving an 80k# truck, but they do put very long shifts in and do a lot of their driving well over the posted speed limit. And look at other first responders, operating ambulances, fire trucks or other larger equipment, with no regard to how many hours they were on shift or how long they’ve been up before they took the wheel of their emergency vehicle. Thank god they do that, but the trucking industry isn’t the only one who struggles with trying to get a job done within the confines of these hours of service.
Ya but we truck drivers working 14 hrs a day almost everyday , but cops……
Actually, truck drivers can only work a maximum 13-1/2 hours if any driving is involved after the 8th hour of coming on duty. We are required to take a 30 minute break every 8 hours, if driving occurs during those 8 hours.
You gotta point there.
More importantly they get behind a gun with no sleep… So they make life and death choices on no sleep.
Sleep driving =
drunk driving…
Exactly. Thats not rite. And its also not cool that most of the time we cant talk on the phone with a handsfree device. But the police can surf the web and be on facebook and text and whatever else on their phone while there driving that commercial vehicle. Oh and by the way to the one who said its a public safety vehicle. If thats what it is then tell why police officers or public saftey are able to have there nose to their phones while driving that “public saftey vehicle” and thats ok. But if us truckdrivers get cought just just looking at the phone for a split second to see who may be calling or to see if its a family emergency considering the fact we are away from our familys for long periods of time. We get the max punishment. But its ok for a officer of the law to do whatever they want on their phones while driving that police car.
Don’t you think that the number of accidents caused by trucksack would increase if there were tired truckers on the road with tired four-wheelers?
The 11/14 rule doesn’t just keep us from driving tired, it protects us from driving tired. Dispatchers already get on drivers for enough crap….how do you think it’d be if they were able to say either keep driving or lose your job?
And let’s not forget the huge difference in damage when a truck hits something vs a car hitting the same thing.
The system isn’t perfect, nor is it always fair. But it could be a hell of a lot worse.
Caused by trucks*
Idk how ‘trucksack’ ended up there lol.
Some people haven’t figured out yet that anything posted on social media can be looked at. Secondly his truck has an EOBR if I’m correct. If the company computer shows the driver at such a place then that’s where he/she is at…Unless they have figured a way to remove such devices, and leave it on the property. This highly improbable. For future reference…HIGH EINSTEIN…BRAGGING ABOUT SUCH ENDEAVORS WILL GET YOU IN HOT WATER…KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, AND DON’T POST YOUR WORK ON SOCIAL MEDIA!! This kind of driver only accentuates the stereo typical driver as being a complete idiot. On the contrary. Many of the drivers out there are very intelligent and obey the laws.
Not all devices are current to the minute. Our device is at least an hour behind as to where our location is between truck and dispatch. There’s a difference between smart trucking and dumb A. trucking. Clearly he’s a great example of the dumb.
HOS have nothing to do with days. Do a pretrip at midnight, drive 11 hrs with a 1/2 hr break within 8 hrs. Off duty/sleeper at 11:45 am. After 10 hrs back on duty at 9:45 pm. Line 3 at 10pm, 2hrs driving until midnight. 13 hours driving in a 24 hr period. Learn how to run a logbook.
He would still need to be driving at an average 120 mph to make that distance.
Still over in miles driven. And, no matter how you add it, he is over HOS for the trip.
Well I guess he is fired thanks to him and Facebook?
HOS have nothing to do with days. Do a pretrip at midnight, drive 11 hrs with a 1/2 hr break within 8 hrs. Off duty/sleeper at 11:45 am. After 10 hrs back on duty at 9:45 pm. Line 3 at 10pm, 2hrs driving until midnight. 13 hours driving in a 24 hr period. Learn how to run a logbook. Now do the math with the 8/2 rule….
And doctors can operate on a 36 hour shift operate on you and be exempt from fatigue just like the police.
It even easier to figure this way. Coming out of Wisconsin the max speed limit you will find going all the way to Lakeland Florida would be 70. Most drivers would log 65, that’s 23 hrs of driving time and 715 miles for a 11 hour shift. That still 700 plus miles to go. Even the 8/2 split wouldn’t help unless your ripping out pages of the log book. But wait there’s also the on board recorder
Dumb drivers posting this information, Doctors, police and Fireman normally take 24-36 hr shifts probably OK for heart surgeon to fall asleep on patient.
As long as the doctor doesn’t weigh 80,000 lbs.
Thanks social media hope the u reckless ….. keep posting and getting caught and not killing people on the road ways hope dude get what he deserves
We should have a biometric system that operates on eye movement, circadian rhythm, fitness, reaction times and other input and output parameters. Companies can kill you with HOS rules and be legally protected, i.e. split shifts, breaking the body’s circadian cycle, non-idling rules, so its too hot to sleep, no fridges or other nutritional and exercise regimes, to keep drivers in tip top shape. You’re just a slave and the companies couldn’t care less as long as they can say, well you complied with HOS, so we are not liable, it’s driver error. I call bulls***.
Ah stupidity at it’s best.
I totally agree Anthony, most drivers, including myself, follow the rules. No amount of money is worth an accident that kills another person. This is exactly what helps to stereotype truck drivers. Professional drivers are the safest drivers on the road with 10xs the miles as ordinary drivers, in all kinds of weather, all times of day and night, and not to mention, avoiding unsafe drivers like playing “asteroids” at the old arcades.
Some people can’t help but to brag
Nobody was killed or injured. I’ve done many hard runs myself. That was trucking before crybaby steering wheelholders came along.
Bo… Statistically he’s an accident waiting to happen!
While we have all done dumb stunts like this and we have been lucky. It has never been smart. We have all also seen drivers in a ditch or along the road who lost their ability to concentrate for just an instant because they were tired. The unlucky ones simply aren’t around to explain.
We were a different breed back in the day.
Wouldn’t cry about taking breaks etc….
Same here!
You got that 100% right
That works out to an average speed of over 70 mph for over 20 hours straight. I call BS. You can drive fast for a while but have to fuel, have traffic, etc.
I turned Atlanta,Ga. from Prov., R.I. in the same day .You have to do all your duties when you stop for fuel then get back on the road and get it done.
Total BS you can not make 1470m in 20h that’s 73.5m/h average…
who said you can’t do this . if you don’t get caught you can do want you want to do.
That’s what trucking is now a days if driving400 miles a day makes enough money for the driver and company , that’s all they would aim for.
Ok 1470 in 20 hrs no fuel stops not stopping to pee not eating streight driving average speed would be 73 miles per hr get a grip didnt happen also company said they are on e-logs
you can jam an e log
Great point
You don’t have to sow stupidity. People have it from nature.
What a way to spend one’s 15 minutes of fame. Even a fish doesn’t get caught if it keeps it’s mouth shut.
Okay, this guy is a lightweight. I made it from Chicago to San Francisco in 32 hours. I only had to take a 2 hour nap in Cheyenne. I’m not worried about my company catching me though, I did this in 1986. BTW we had a 55mph speed limit back then.
I been driving for 5years when I first started I was told by a old school never tell on yourself. If nobody saw it that mean it didn’t happen
play dumb
Figure driving 70 MPH for 11 hours only equals 770 miles with a 10 hour required break equals 22 hours hours, with the half hour required break twenty two hours . Looks like it is time for audit of the company record keeping and a shut down of the company. Violations of this type can only happen when a company willfully violates HOS rules through intimidation of it’s drivers and falsification of HOS.
Just woke up, correction twenty two and a half hours and legally only half way there.
No explanation needed.. If you have been driving with a cdl for 1 week you know this guy couldn’t do it legally.. Not saying anything about the the except $$$$$$ money talks…and so did you…
How did the news channel catch on to him in the first place? Yes I know he posted on social media but they have to know someone who maybe said “hey I know this trucker and he claims…….”
So who opened their mouth besides the truck driver?
What difference does it make who else said anything? The driver opened his mouth.
All these people that have facebook are lame to begin with. . They have quote hundreds of friends.. They probably only really know a dozen.. He could have accepted a friend request from a dot agent and not know it..
I’ll be honest with you I’ve seen more big companies on e logs pulling dumb stunts and end up in the ditch than those that likely didn’t have a perfect log. Just seen swift going the wrong way on an exit ramp the other day.
So…. What took him so long…..
four famous words ” been there,done that” but not in today ‘s era. To easy to get caught and the fines are much bigger.
Back in the seventies and during a strike the media found who they wanted to portray the transportation field which gave trucking a black eye. The trucker was loud mouthed and stupid. It does not help to offer the politically correct media ammunition to once again undermine the efforts of others to run legal and make a living obeying all the rules which is a bigger feat than running twice the mileage allowed breaking most if not all the rules. We or I come here 40 years ago for the freedom. I admit it is increasingly difficult but none of the few of us left wish to deal the industry a black eye. That’s the difference between those of us that are old and those of you with little respect.
One thing I find ironic is. You deliver a load on monday morning after driving the weekend to get there.. Your dispatch says drive 200 miles to pick up a load at midnight the following day.. So you drive 6 hours and its 3 or 5 in the afternoon and you hang out go to bed wake up at 9 am and sit there all day rested.. Then you have to drive to get the load and get loaded and drive as far as you can until your clock runs out which would be around 10 am.. so basically your up for 24 hours… but hey that’s not illegal
Company tried pulling that crap on me all the time, so when I’m up, my clock has started. Keeps their planners from going “Well you were off duty for 10 hours so you can run” even though you’ve been up all day waiting for a load or being loaded /unloaded
Ummm, if you followed the law, that is not legal. You would have to log on duty to check in at the shipper. You have to be on duty while performing any task at the shipper. So, unless you were in the actual sleeper or away from the truck for more than 10 hours while it was loaded, then your 14 hour clock was still going. If you were there that long loading, you should have slept while waiting.
WI to FL…could be, if he didn’t travel through Chicago. Nah, not even.
Another name for stupid! Shouldn’t have bragged, what he could do. Even when he didn’t! He wrote that not only once, but in several posts! For what point? He must have written them, while he fueled !
Hasn’t everybody here stayed awake for 24 hours straight at least once? For example, you’re sitting at the terminal for Megacarrier X all day waiting for a load after you woke up at 0500 and put yourself available for a load. Then around bedtime you get that JIT load that has to be there the next day then your “day” isn’t ending until 0900 the next morning for a total of 28 hours straight of no sleep.
Obviously the drivers stupid. He was running illegally. Then recorded the trip. Posting it on Facebook. A true moron. And now he is out of a job. Most likely will never be able to drive a truck again. If not worse. Chances are he will permanently get his cdl taken. Maybe spend some time in jail. All for what? To prove he can drive 1500 miles without rest. Hope he enjoyed it. And that’s if the story above is true.
Many times you can trust what a driver says only half the time. And can’t decide which side is the half. I say this driver is full of bull.
Do the math you can’t drive 1400 plus miles in 20 hours that’s 70 plus mph average. And with traffic means he be doing 80 plus.
Is this what trucking is today? The man should not have bragged about breaking the law. You only asking to get caught. It can be done. I do my best to travel through big cities when there’s no traffic. We have no idea how fast he was driving. Not every truck is governed. Log book laws don’t make HWYs safer. Or means obaying will prevent fatigue. We only need one law; Don’t drive fatigued.
Even if you can drive 80mph you still have places that it is impossible to maintain speed. It is inevitable that there will be slow downs in route for instance construction, hills, or traffic. Can’t be done in a truck.
Well. Very interesting story and comments. Again no mention of God and family, right and wrong. As long as the industry can hire drivers to do these types of runs and convince drivers that it’s standard procedure. It’ll will continue. I hear drivers saying they’ve been out weeks, months at a time as well. If you let a company tell you that being out or bending rules is how everyone does it you may want to head for another company. If your not with a company that takes care of there drivers. Get with one. If your working more than 5-7 days and can’t make ends meet financially. Your with the wrong company. You need to be home with family and friends as well as taking a break from the insanity out here. Lotta places to point fingers here but may want to consider how to change the industry. I work for a large carrier. Home daily and off almost two days a week. Well paid awesome benefits. If you own your truck it’s completely different. But if your a company driver pull your head out. B safe. Have a great holiday. God Bless us all.
What about the shipper/broker/receivers?
Although I KNOW the DRIVER is ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE…..
They (shipper/broker/receivers) knowingly shipped and took delivery/paid knowing it”d be physically impossible for a solo driver to perform at this “level”.
A lot of “blame here” What about the pressure exerted on drivers to d”deliver at all costs” (we ALL have had THAT!)….
I have a lot of respect for old school driver that even if they bend the rules here and then they are aware of the consequences. But we have a new breed of young super truckers who come to the industry thinking they know it all, doing unsafe crap and posting everything on social media. No professionalism at all. I’m proud of driving trucks and I love my career, will never do something stupid to ruin it or put at risk the motoring public. The only time I take videos and share them is when Im out on my motorcycle or when I’m flying with my gopro, since aviation is one of my hobbies. But this driver in the article is a dumbass.
The prison system is full of idiots that thought they was smart enough to get away with it. The old school ways are over and I for one am glad. Get your sleep and be safe losing your life over a $500 dollar run isn’t worth it or killing someone and having that on your consensus along with losing everything you’ve worked for and possiblyg getting your family put out in the street when you lose everything you’ve worked for. Wise up driver’s.
one of the greatest lessons i know in my life, is: don’t joke around with your reputation. I have friends who have been fired jobs and expelled from school or lost their spouses for stupidity like this. He might be joking with team mates, but the joke’s on Cuthbert for missing so much work.
How many of you peopple can sleep 10 hrs in a roll? Mabe if there are baby readers under age of ten, im not talking to you. Personaly me, i cant sleep more than 7 or 8 hrs. But after i woke up and cant sleep no more, i have to waste 2 or 3 hours every day, waiting for my logbook. Over years of driving i learned, its not amount of sleep hours, that makes you fell straight all day long. Its time of your personal sleep, thats what metters. For example if your bodys clock feels best to sleep from midnight till 7am you are going to feel straight for the rest of 17 hours without drinking any coffe if you not addicted to it. Second scenario is strict log book scenario. 7am woke up 7:15 on the road. +11.5 hrs driving with brake, makes it 18:45 you out for sleep but your body just cant sleep yet. So mabe if you try very hard you can finaly make your body sleep at 10pm and by logbook you can wake up and drive at 4:45am at a time when your body normaly sleeps very hard. So you woke up sleepy as hell, pti and you back on the road at 5am fighting your sleep, kiling your self with strong coffe. And this is only day one. Tomorrow you must wake up at 2:30am and be even more sleepy and drink even stronger coffe. But you must be productive in your work, allot of brokers pay less to companys if the load is late, and they will not give them loads after, so to be late for the company means to go out of business, very soon. So the problem is, the peopple who make those laws have no clue how it is to be in drivers pants. Most of you peopple sleep 7 or 8 hrs and live the rest 16 or 17. And feel healthy and strong. How much more healthy, productive, and happy drivers would be if they only had to show lets say 8 hrs of sleep a day but importantly around same time every day, and the rest of the time use as you wish. Drive, sleep, dance…Every 8 hrs stop for at least 30min can stay. I believe there would be much less if not none accidents caused by trucker felasleep. And every old school trucker who drove trucks for 50yrs and survived will agree. This system would be perfect for long haul. Could be more complicated for regional drivers due to every day 1 delivery and 1 pickup. Appoitments and long dock time would kill it. What could help is allot of time dock time = sleep time. Acsept for some stupid companys that require drivers sit in waiting room while geting empty, like sams club or bj’s or many others. There should be a law restricting companys from holding driver out of his bad. Only that right there could save some lives, Nice nap at the right time. Instead they can simply lock red airline. Or use dock dot bumper lock. If they afraid that drivers gona drive off. Also some companys take keys from driver, which on hot day equals no sleep possible. Even if its 75, under direct sun light in the sleeper its over 100. We live in democratic country so let drivers vote for laws, i mean all drivers not only truckers. Talk about it make propositions and vote for them, or against…
What a retard , but if he was running a elog then he was being pushed and we all know how dispatchers and companys are they all tell you the driver is #1 but we all know we’re treated like #2
Lol…yep
I never had time to post an FB status about that type of run lol in my red phantom 😉
This guy if he did actually break any laws was an idiot to be documenting his journey of doing it. What makes me mad is how the DOT makes all of these laws for truckers and treats us like a bunch of kindergarteners that can’t tell when we are too tired to drive. I drive team and have to abide by the same regulations set forth for a single driver. Why? If I get tired period, I notify my co-driver that I am feeling fatigued & to come up & watch/talk with me until I find the nearest truck stop or rest area and stop. If my co-driver is rested enough, why can’t he resume driving? Instead the truck comes to a halt until we wait out a stupid clock. Just a waste of time. A responsible driver will be responsible because responsibility comes within each person- not forced rules etc. You take a naturally irresponsible person and force rules on them, it will only be a matter of time before they find a way to side skirt the rules or get caught for breaking them. Besides this half of the rule makers have never stepped a foot into a semi and driven to be saying what goes and what doesnt. I shake my head at the stupidity.
The worst hours law is the 70! If I have been off for 10 hours what difference should it make if I only drove 2 the same day last week? This ignorant law only forces more trucks on the road because trucks are grounded for 1 1/2 days roughly every other week.
Well…here comes more strict laws…smh
HOS -No one person or book can really tell how some people feel or how awake one is .People should use their heads and drive professionally. Please use common sense when driving and remember NO TEXTING. The only job you have when driving is to drive Be Safe
Can be done legally if your truck runs 68 mph and you keep the left door closed . I run electronic logs and have done the same miles legally so if you never driven a semi truck .don’t judge someone else .and keep your opinions to your self .remember everything you own we deliver to the stores
Thanks sir!! I ran that run legally and those truck stop to truck stop drivers do know anything about keeping that left door closed
I don’t know if the story is true but I do know one thing. Social media did not get him in trouble. He got himself in trouble. Don’t blame Fakebook.
I’m still trucking all this is nonsense!!! No trouble came my way
Why is the dispatcher giving anyone any information in the first place?