New rules coming regarding HOURS?

Yes, of course I can, and I do. That's not the point. Why should I have to is the question?

 

I'll wear that.

 

Why should you have to? Because you burned 55 hrs in five days so unfortunately you've greatly diminished your options. I think I agree with Dave. Planning is everything.

 

Planning has nothing to do with it. The thread topic is potential changes to the HOS rules, not how to work within the existing rules. I think the HOS rules should be tailored to fit different driving occupations. I think company and OO drivers should have different rules. I think OO's should not have a 70 hour rule at all. And I've given plenty of reasons.

 

No no no no. Take the #### thing.

MAKE SURE YOUR STUPID DRUNKEN DISPATCHER UNDERSTANDS YOU WANT AND REQUIRE A RELAY DRIVER to COME INTERCEPT you at the 68th hour on your logbook.

Worst case scenario you baby sit a 34 reset the whole load and then deliver the first morning of your fresh 70 hours the next work week.

 

Then company drivers shouldn't have a 70 at all either....

 

I thought about this carefully before answering.

I was debt free after graduation. Eventually I rented my own place and built a life around it with a trucking company in Frederick Maryland. It was a interesting life at that time. Tough, fast and really... alive for lack of a better word.

My room mate however... he hid (We were friends, nothing more. He had his girl and I had mine) a developing debt problem with a credit card. He was trying to make a living with the DOE in the area of Washington DC on hourly pay at something like 8.65 a hour. I did not understand for many months how inadequate his pay was against my own coming in at 600 net each week rougly give or take including up to 65 dollars safety speed and idle bones that DM Bowman handed out.

His credit card had accumulated to 2000 dollars while he kept up his necessary items. One night he had enough and failed to talk with me properly about it. That was when his situation came out about the debt.

I was in debt myself with a small manual car for $2000 and it was ridiculous. I could have had that thing paid off in 4 months flat rather than 4 years. It's a big flaw in my financial habits. From that point on we bought cars cold cash and only once bought a buick in Arkansas at 9500 dollars and paid for in 8 months flat. POOF. That car lasted us 10 years until the classic transmission plastic part that adds or subtracts transmission fluid from the clutch (Costs about 1800 to replace) started failing. It's the one time we sold it for 1850 flat and got out from a potentail transmission failure situation that would have cost 4200 dollars retail for a replacement factory OEM transmission that was still possible that year.

I strongly got diverted a little bit. Fast forward....

When I closed up the Frederick Apartment and ended the lease early etc I found myself 1200 dollars in debt formally which really has to be paid asap to avoid collections action and including a Court Judgement and Garnishment of wages which was a real possibility. Maryland allows a Creditor you owe money to to get a Judgement granted against you and then take the first 143 dollars of your weekly check, hand it to you cash. Take the rest. so if you made 1000 dollars guess what. You are living on 143 dollars.

I moved back in with my parents. Not necessarily the basement problem. I had my own room formally. (I still do) moving back in and continuing to pursue trucking by washing dishes for 4 months to raise a couple thousand dollars for trucking orientation that was worth about 1.6 years of employment. made for a interesting escape from the parents at that ime. But not te best. The eventual unauthorized use of a tractor going home on DAC combined with a load abandonment on DAC that shut a multi billion dollar factory for 3 days (Tire load from the Carolina to Detroit)

Made for a destroyed OTR sitaution for me. The economic losses lasted about 6 years after. I was not hire-able and so on.

It is not good to be in any debt. Even worse to be in medical and other debt that has to be paid no matter what, and it will be. Espeically that they have done a very good job so far.

I hate debt with the same power and feeling as I hate enemies of our Constitution and those like antifa who will deny our entire birthright, our entire Nation and it's sovereign borders and so on. It did not take very long to identify them as enemies of the state.

But debt is even worse enemy. To have debt is to endure a rusting of your own skeleton or a rotting of everything you have spent a lifetime building. However small or great. It's getting to where I'm happy to put in 22000 dollars for a 400 SF tiny house and a acre of land for another 5000. Something like that probably can be taken care of for half what I pay rent currently over 30 years, which I do not expect to survive and life insurance has the proceeds to extinguish that debt. The tiny house will have to have 8 inch thick walls, Cedar and Oak corner Posts 12 inch by 12 inch backed by 6 inch by 2 inch framing rather than the 2x4 framing so common in today's houses.

As soon I can find someone capable of building such a home to powerful engineering I'll get into it.

Debt. It has the power to destroy everything you are. If you are not careful.