BREAKING NEWS: Proposed HOS rule leaves open for comment 10- or 11-hour driving time,

All valid points, however, working more hours is not what we are arguing about, rather how we are not allowed to manage our working and rest times individually. A local P&D driver that works a 5 day week and is home every night is not going to be impacted by these rules. An OTR driver that may be gone from home for weeks or months on end will be greatly affected. Personally, if I am not at home (or otherwise at a location of my choice) for my "off duty" time I would rather be working (with proper rest) that forced to sit in some hell-hole of a truckstop, or pay for a motel, for what looks like now might be 50+ hours, all this time costing me money. If I am not going to be "home" then it is more stressful to have to sit for two or three days to meet some government regulation when I could instead be working and able to take my desired home time that much sooner. I do not see these changes accomplishing the goal of safety in any demonstrable way in the real world. A solution would be layover pay for the days we are "stuck" obeying these off duty regulations, alas, we all know that would never happen. The driver pay issues are a real issue, however how much do any of us really want the government involved in telling us how to get paid? I fear that would open up an even bigger can of worms that has happened with the HOS debacle.

Also I would like to see the "research" that says after any break of 34 hours, or for that matter, the ten hours of off duty time, that PROVES that I am not rested enough to drive. Trucking is a dynamic environment that is not the same for any two trucks or drivers. To force rules that are so specific upon this nearly infinite number of combinations of possible scenarios makes no sense.

The individual driver is the first (and often only) person to be blamed when something goes wrong because he failed to use good judgment, being the trained professional he is. Why is it that this same trained professional is not allowed to exercise individual judgment when it comes to knowing what is best for his own need for rest and sleep, within broader guidelines as we had with the old 10 drive 8 off rules?

What's next? Sensors on the steering wheel to make sure your hands are in the proper position on the steering wheel? Surely that can be added to the EOBR mandate easily enough ...

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS all ...

 

As an O/O I found through experience that many shippers, receivers, and even some brokers, have no concept of what the HOS are....and many do not care if they do know....

I almost booked a load out of the Port of Long Beach to El Paso....about 850 miles give or take....The load was to have been picked up from the port at 3 pm and dropped in El Paso at 6 am the next morning.....Broker claimed "Everybody else does that run with no problem".....

Then there's the receiver who wanted a load from Atlanta to Fontana in two days...For a solo run no less......

 

WCP ..

every time I've queried an FMCSA or DOT official about the shippers, receivers, and brokers making unreasonable deivery demands, their answer across the board has been it is not their job to be involved because those parties are not directly responsible or accountable for highway safety. This is followed by "We educate the shippers and receivers through the carriers".

translated that means ... "its not our problem"

 

My answer to the shipper/receivers/brokers....

"It will get there when it gets there...."

I don't tug a reefer behind me and nothing I haul is that important that I should risk my life or lose my authority over....

 

....I also don't hang around the truck stops or chrome shops....
My left door is closed and like the tortoise....I run a steady pace.....

 

WCP

I don't play those games either. I get there without delay, but safe and legal. Funny how I can see the same super-trucker blow my doors off four or five times in a day. All I see is someone else volunteering to be a radar target up ahead, and wasting a ton of fuel.

 

I'm a LTL driver that is out and back everyday and the mandatory break doesn't work for me when you have no place to park doubles in the middle of the night and the truck will only idle for 3 minutes then shuts off. Thanks to all the states with mandatory idle laws.Just adds 5 more hours to my work week with no pay and 5 less hours at the house.

 

Most LTL trucks have not been able to idle more than 3 minutes long before the no idle states became prominent.

More like the company and their restrictions.

 

What do you mean no place to park? I read a government funded study that says there's more than enough parking for trucks. I do have my suspicions that they checked all the parking lots between 10am and noon, but that's just my opinion.

 

Ya I forgot. Dumb me I guess all them double stacked parking garages at the rest areas I pass every night that say vacant come on in.