C'mon drivers! What's the big deal about staying in HOS compliance anyway?

the problem is....some people think they should be able to do whatever the bloody hell they feel like doing. they don't like laws, statutes, regulations, codes, or rules or anyone telling them they can't do something. the truth is...the vast majority of laws that we have are to attempt to prevent people from doing stupid stuff. if it wasn't for stupid, irresponsible people, we wouldn't have to have any laws at all.

 

Rookie mistakes of letting the company put their poor management on the back of the driver.

 

I certainly tend to agree with this statement. The only thing I would add is most new laws only punish those who already followed them anyway.

 

That's actually an interesting question/statement.

Believe it or not, the HOS are actually protection for the driver in a way as much as many dislike them. Imagine what these companies would do to drivers if there were no HOS regs..

I'm definitely very fortunate that I work for a company that runs 100% legal 100% of the time. If anyone in management here even insinuated that I should somehow violate the HOS, their a $$ would be canned if I chose to let a higher up know about it. The flip side to that is if I should run out of time on a Saturday morning, bringing it in is not an option. I have to pull it off the road and call to get picked up - annoying but I suppose the correct way of doing things.

 

Honestly, the current HOS suck. I run totally legal (having an EOBR) and they sometimes force me to drive when i am way more tired than if i had run illegal. A couple days ago, for example: I had been driving kind of early hours, which is a shift I rather like running. 4am-4pm or whatever. had to make an early delivery so I had to split a break and start at 2am instead of 4am. That part was alright. Got unloaded, got to my next shipper, ran out of hours on the dock. Yes, I was there long enough to have completed a 2 hour break and then to run all the way out of hours. dispatch wanted me to swap the load in Roanoke, an hour away. They made it sound like another truck was waiting on me. I split breaked again, but it screwed with me so bad that there was no way I could fall asleep and for long enough to get enough rest, you know. If i had just run illegal, past my 14, it would've been safer. However, I was not too tired to drive. But i was too tired to drive more than just a couple of hours LOL.

Also, i took a nap while i was at that dock. A nap that wouldve made it perfectly safe to drive the truck. But no, not good enough.

As far as the super truckers driving 1000+ miles a day, I think it's really sad that we're paid by a system that encourages this kind of behaviour. Especially with pay as low as it is, but some people will do it no matter what they're being paid, just to make a little more...

But if you violate the 14hr rule like i said, its easy to make it look legal on the log....because the milage is totally reasonable to have completed in the 11 hours. I wouldn't be able to be caught if i didnt leave records around showing i was in violation...

I think the 14 hour rule is totally unsafe and can force you into driving when you're too tired by a scenario like i mentioned. Sure, someone's going to say it doesnt force you to do it, but it does. Because it can have a very adverse effect on your pay. It could cause me to get the load taken away from me and cause my dispatcher to not give me good loads in the future. There might not be any decent freight in the area to get back on the truck. Etc etc etc.

Other than that i mostly agree with the HOS. I have no intentions of violating the 11 hr rule and only very few intentions of violating the 14. If i violate the 11 hr rule it's either going to fall under the adverse conditions exemption, or its going to be because I was looking for a legal place to park. I can usually avoid that violation by looking for parking before I run out of hours, but it happens. Either I get (un)loaded and im not allowed to park at the shipper and theres a truckstop nearby that i have hours to get to, but it turns out to be full, or the truckstops are full at a ridiculously early hour (such as NJ..hehe), or theres just plain not any truckstops in time and i got delayed by traffic, etc. It happens sometimes!