The Lumper “experience” from my perspective, what's yours?

You already let them.

When is the last time you openly defied the zoning code and refused to pay the subsequently levied fines?

You probably live in an area where it's illegal to build an extra unit on your property to rent it out. Most Americans do. I don't see anyone building in open defiance.

I only see property rights strongly invoked when it's for petty things that hurt workers, like letting warehouses deliberately run out company drivers clock and then force them off the property instead of letting them sleep.

 

Disagreeing with the trespassing laws doesn't prevent you from getting towed or arrested. When the customer calls the cops or the towing company you are leaving on a hook or in a police car. HOS don't apply to customers. I don't like it any more than you like it.

 

Supply chain bureaucracy is what wastes hours of your life in trucking. I prefer flatbed. Usually get loaded unloaded 15 mins to an hr and no appt at 2am. I couldn't stand waiting hours to get loaded.

 

I'm a local guy and it's all in-and-out for me, too. Being regional OTR was awful.

Still tho, the feds are lookin at things like the "truckers bathroom access act" and making more parking space, it's the least they can do.

 

I'm sure they did it because truckers would destroy their bathrooms, and that's unfortunately on us and embarrassing. But it does seem pretty bad to not offer any facilities to drivers who have to spend hours waiting there.

If you're lucky some places might have a filthy portajohn that hasn't been touched in months, it can be pretty bad.

 

Poor analogy:
The postal worker is not subject to hours of service, and even if they were, they simply dont wait around for you to sign, theyll post a note and leave.

I somewhat agree that the govt ought not to be telling private buisness how to run their buisness, but thats also in clear conflict with the whole hos stuff. Theyre telling YOU how you have to run YOUR buisness and then the consequences fall on you and the customers you are servicing. I can see a reasonable arguement for saying that a buisness (shipper or receiver) should be responsible enough to be able to provide the facilities and room for truck parking or sleep when they exceed 3 hours load/unload. THEIR innefficiency is costing everyone else time and resources at no cost to them. Thats just a terrible way to do buisness and that it is so widely accepted is proof that a negative reputation has no real effect on their profitability. Something is very broken, but the ideal solution isnt all that clear to me.

 

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/9592?s=1&r=1

It's a bipartisan bill introduced by a Texas Republican and Pennsyltucky Democrat.

Exactly! Everyone is cool w/ the govt tying down truckers, and everyone turns a blind eye to businesses who deliberately screw truckers knowing the govt has their hands tied. But the minute you suggest the govt, should force businesses to treat drivers better given drivers lack of flexibility, oh my god it's an infringement on my rights!

Personally I try to be pragmatic, what's more doable? Eliminating HOS & restrictions on new truck parking or mandating warehouses let drivers sleep & access a clean bathroom w/ running water? I'm not talking about ideals, ideals would be the former but in the current climate the latter is the pragmatic solution to improve workers lives in the near term.

 

I’m a big fan of the lumper experience.

 

Same here local door slammer. I mostly go to the same places and I'd say my average time in the dock is 1hr to 1.5hrs. sometimes I'll get held up but not too often