H.R.2514 - Trucker Bathroom Access Act

(Imagine if TTR was a government website.)

“Hi! In 2 weeks, I start training at Moron Trucking! I am nervous and super excited! What should I bring with me in the trainer’s truck?”

Can you imagine a government response to a common noob question? They would require regional drivers in Florida to carry Eskimo garb.

The people wanting the goobers involved in the restrooms are the same ones that want them to butt out of drug use. I started in the days of the performance enhancing drugs. These types had their eyes bulging out of their heads (think Rat Fink), hair blasted off the tops of their heads (even the women) and black stumps remaining from their teeth. Non of my business, I still have my teeth. Personally I think the old burnout crank heads were actually safer than the incredibly stupid types they put in trucks today.

 

I love my ELD. Who wanes wants to work more than 14 hours in a day or 70 in a week? I don’t even wanna work that much , but at least I’m guaranteed not to have to do more

 

The Bathroom act. Sounds obscene, really

 

There's another aspect to consider here too. When a law is created it's very common to see said law expanded over time. It often expands so much that it becomes overbearing and creates more negative issues in it's wake on top of the original "problem" it was written to remedy.

Also, more legislation is written which stem from the first law. One crack grows into a huge crevice over time. This always ends in massive stifling of individual rights and freedoms due to governmental bodies created to enforce the first law written.

FCC, IRS, DEA and EPA...I'm looking at you. Once the feds pass a law, it is guaranteed to grow oppressive over time.

 

The legislators would set regs according to the very bottom of the industry. They always do. You know the guys who don’t bathe, or struggle to wipe their arse, or who explode on the floor and the back of the seat? Or who has 4 mudslides every 10 hours?

Next thing you know, everyone would be required four 15 minute stops, on duty per shift. Get pulled into a weigh station and have to take a mandatory dump. Heck, they set the HOS for the slackers, and morons who do not have the spine to stand up to travel agent bullying, and Teamsters, so why not do the same thing for people who cannot tend to their personal plumbing?

 

It's so strange how so many people insist that making a law requiring shippers and receivers to provide a restroom to drivers is the slippery slope that's going to lead to Big Brother. Why are you lobbying so hard against your own self-interest?

 

I agree. I have always run more or less legal, and not having to take the time to draw lines all the time? Im good with it.

And being on paper doesnt mean you have to run yourself ragged. I used to have a dedicated run that took me eastbound across Wisconsin just as the sun was coming up, so I would stop for an hour and stayed on the "driving" line while I did it to let the sun come up so I wasnt blinded. That gave me the flexibility to run over the speed limit 5-8 mph without exposing myself to getting a speed ticket because I couldnt "legally" get to where I was in the time my logs said it took me.

Ive never had a cop even consider that with ELDs.

 

Remember how we ended up with the mandated 30 minute break? I do. OOIDA had everyone and their cousin submit comments about how they didn’t have time to stop and take a break because of the 14 hour rule. Their intentions were to have the government do away with the 14 hour clock but instead we got a mandated break so people could stop and eat like they said they wanted. Things like that are the reason I feel like the less government involvement the better off we are because most of their solutions aren’t a simple easy solution since they have to justify their existence.

And as I’ve mentioned before, as an industry it’s ridiculous for everyone to cry about the government getting involved in one hand and then ask them for help on the other.

 

And? Requiring a 30-minute break within 8 hours is not onerous at all. It brings trucking in line with other work that requires the employer to treat the employee like a human being and not a robot. No way in hell I want to be driving more than 8 hours without any kind of food.

 

Exactly. Don't forget the unintended consequences of that 30 minute break. Illegal parking on the shoulder came out of nowhere and has never stopped.