FIRE THOSE "FATIGUED" DRIVERS, or maybe.......

It is very true that there are areas of the country where it can be next to impossible to find a place to stop to sleep. With states closing rest areas due to finances, and/or not allowing you to park along an on/off ramp it puts an added load on truck stops.

You don't see a lot of new truck stops being built. In the past at least, in many areas, the land is just "too valuable" to be used for truck parking. Cities and towns won't allow you to park on their streets, and shippers and consignees don't want you on their property unless actually being loaded/unloaded.

We are in a tough period for rest right now, due to the above problems. Don't look for it to change anytime soon. What it means is, you really do have to PLAN your trip! You have to plan your stops so that you can get in early enough in the evening to get a place to stay.

Or drive all night and sleep during the day. But this really doesn't work for the majority of trucking. For this whose time schedule will allow it, it is really a good way to handle the rest situation.

 

And if you follow every single rule.................

you might as well stay home !!!!!

 

hehehehe i used to cheat line 4 time when i helped out on a dollar general account...hehehe

 

now i no a lot of drivers , i mean new drivers are going to find fault with what i say about the subject of getting enough rest while in the road well so be it here it comes.

first i didn't start driving yesterday and im along way from 20 yrs old and i got a little more expeirence thew 1 or two yrs and my momma taught me a long time ago to go to bed when im tired and you no what i believed her and i do. and i get plenty of sleep in fact most of the time i get to much #### sleep so im lazy.

is the log book responsibel for my rest? nope, is the DOT ? nope , is the politition that makes these redicules regulations? certainly not. I AM . PERIOD. when i get tired i go to bed thats all there is to it, when i need a nap i take a nap #### the poiticians that cant even spell truck or the DOT that out to make a buck for the state ot the goverement when i get sleepy i go to bed period .

now when they come out with the log book or rather when i first saw the log book i payed no attention to it and i got a flash for you i still dont and im not going to start no cop is going to decide if i live or die aint going to happen when your tired you need to go to bed and i don't care if you have drove 5 or 10 hours or two hours when you get sleepy you need to nit the sack either that or die and possibly take some one else with you.

now you may call me an outlaw, a crook whatever and that ok by me but ill be here when your gone and ill still be alive. got a question for all you new guys you no the ones that went to truck driving sachool so they can be experts.

the people that pass all these regulation and laws do you think they have a CDL? nope they do not, o you say they get advice from there staff, gues what they dont have a CDL either , they in fact have never drove a truck before they have no idea what a truck can or can not do and that makes them qualified to regulate a truck? i think not they #### sure are not going to teach me anything, hell they have been tryting to get the log book right sinch 1937 and there still messing with it and they still have not got it right , why ? because you can not drive a truck by a book, just can not be done .

for christ sake they have a women in charge of the dot has she got a CDL nope she cant even spell truck , a shining example for us to follow , yeah right .

the point is no matter what the law says concearning that #### funny book if you get tired you have two choices go to bed or die and usally take some one else with you, will the funny book bring you back to life? will the DOT? NOPE , HELL THEY DON'T CARE they just want to do there job and write you a ticket dead or alive that is there job.

so those of you that think all these rules and regulations are great , you might give it a little more though dont let a rule book cost you your life, the rule book wont bring you back. and letting a politician decide your fate is a fools game.

best of luck to each of you , if you go by the book your going to need it .

southernpride

 

Before the Interstates, we asked the following question. On a two-lane road, would you rather meet a sleepy driver or a driver high on pills. Pills win every time. Bounce them off the windshield and catch them in your teeth. If a simple math formula (log book) is telling you when to work or sleep, you will need pills.

 

I'm a newbie for sure (just about 1 year experience), but I don't agree.

I've been running legal for the last year and have yet to experience any trouble getting rest or getting miles. I'm on the bottom of the pay scale according to some, but I make more than enough to live quite well.

This notion that the log book is some horrible thing that will force you to not make any money and run tired is ridiculous. It is simply the refusal of some to conform to the changes presented to them. If you want to run 4,000 miles a week and have three log books, good luck. I'll be here waiting to take your miles when you get found out.

 

It is almost impossible to run legal, and I mean legal, not looking legal, when delivering to distribution centers or hauling produce.

With produce you can sit at a packing house many hours waiting to get to the door, and just as many getting loaded. Then you may have a 3AM appointment after driving 700 miles to get there. That appointment is right in the middle of your 10. Doesn't matter, be there. Pay some lumper a weeks wages to pull a few pallets, that he takes five hours to pull, then be at the next stop 200 miles away, that by now you are late at because of this stop.

Same with big distribution centers. Be there at 4AM, sit until 10 listening to the CB for an open door, sit another four hours getting unloaded, now you have to drive 150 miles to pick up your next load by 9PM.

Try logging that 100% legal.

I drove for a couple of years and never logged at all unless I heard on the CB they were checking ahead. Sometimes I would go months without even opening one up. I ran when I felt good, slept when tired. Some times I may need 12 hours sleep, other times I would wake up after 4 hours wide awake, and down the road I would go.

You can't do that now, and I have caught myself wanting to stop, but Mr. 14 hours would be staring me in the face sitting right next to Mr.Quallcomm. I stopped and took a nap anyway. If I'm sleepy, I'm going to take a nap.