Stranded by company out of state with no money

A lot of drivers don't have the extra money to do this. For a long time, now, trucking has been a job that you take when you can't get anything better. I know that probably irritates a lot of the oldsters, who chose trucking as their career, back when it was a good gig, but nowadays, people fresh off the boat from Cameroon, with no marketable job skills and poor language skills, turn to trucking. It's a first choice before alcoholism and homelessness, for a lot of people who were living close to the edge, before. If you owe back child support, but they haven’t taken your drivers' license yet, you might be able to be a trucker, but not be able to put money in a bank, where the government can seize it. It depends how bad things were, before you thought to try to become a trucker...

There are not a lot of other jobs where employers get away with stranding someone a thousand miles from home on a regular basis. If it were being done to secretaries, the Bureau of Labor would be on top of that in a hot minute...

 

He said he was hauling a nascar vending trailer......
That's A far far cry from a nascar team trailer.....

 

Would you mind finding such a law? According to the FMCSA pamphlet regarding HOS, this is the entry regarding off duty.
"By understanding the definition of on-duty time, you will get a
good idea of what is considered off-duty time. In order for time
to be considered off-duty, you must be relieved of all duty and
responsibility for performing work. You must be free to pursue
activities of your own choosing and be able to leave the place
where your vehicle is parked.
If you are not doing any work (paid or unpaid) for a motor carrier,
and you are not doing any paid work for anyone else, you may
record the time as off-duty time."

It doesn't say anything about lodging.

Further, it says this about resting in a vehicle, not in the sleeper berth, that it is not considered on duty.
"• All other time in or on a commercial motor vehicle other than: (i)
Time spent resting in or on a parked vehicle, except as otherwise
provided in Section 397.5 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations;"

So the regulations define resting in the vehicle as off duty. The regulations require 10 hours off duty or sleeper berth to reset the 14 hour clock. Where do the regulations state that these 10 hours most be in lodging?

 

Bull ####. Stop the cokes and pizza. Cut off the cable tv. Quit buying the latest gadgets. Not saying it is easy, you MUST sacrifice but it is not impossible. Excuses are just another way to get out of your responsibilities and avoiding discomfort and pain.

When I put my ### in this truck at the end of January I had $200 left to my name but still had 6 months of food in the house all saved on under 30k the previous year. I now have about 15k in the bank since January but I own the truck and sacrifice to save that money. Hell, I have not even looked at fixing the a.c. in the truck because I want to put more money away before I do that.

YOU have to decide what your priority is. If you get stuck, excuses will not get you home.

 

I've been everywhere from Colorado to North Carolina, and Texas to Minnesota in my day cab. Nothing wrong with day cabs, and no reason at all not to take them OTR. I don't sleep in trucks, so a sleeper truck is pointless.

 

1st choice before alcoholism, lol.

It's true a lot of drivers choose not to have any money put away but that has nothing to do with their job. You either live within your means or you don't. Fifty-seven percent of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense. Trucking provides a living wage but regardless of job and income if you can't distinguish between wants and needs or are just too foolish to think unexpected expenses will never come up you won't have any money when a surprise cost comes up.

 

Got kids? I know, they're an expensive habit, but try it once, and you'll be hooked for life.

Not everybody is an irresponsible a-hole. And every now and then, you come across an a-hole that is fully and unconditionally responsible.

 

Yep 4 of them. Kids are another excuse.

 

Sorry pal, any able bodied grown man that can't come up with a thousand dollars, by definition is an irresponsible a-hole.

 

The story title was that a $500 unexpected expense would put 57% of American households into debt. I feel I have to challenge that assertion, since I'm pretty sure that far more American households than that, are already in far more debt than that.

We're not talking about an owner-operators who didn't keep enough in a maintenance account, here. We're talking about an employee whose employer dropped out of business without warning. Almost nobody can handle that without incident. If you want to throw blame around, let's start with the carrier, and work our way around the table, because there is plenty to go around, and the lion's share of it belongs there. But the driver didn't ask us to figure out who to blame... so have you got something helpful to offer, or just "haw-haw, you're screwed - serves you right"? Because one day, you'll have that heart attack in your truck, and as you stagger out onto the roadside, the people that you did this to will all seem to be driving by, giving you back that same finger.