Why a strike? The CSA 2010 will cripple trucking.

I'm about to the point where if the pay comes up enough then I could care less what they do.

 

Don't hold your breath waiting for that. You will turn blue and die!!

 

Speak for yourself brother but I'm one of those guys that if I get down the road durring mid-day and feel the need to take a power nap, I'm gonna do it. I know when the loads supposed to be there and it will be but it gets there at my pace. As a company driver when I first started I did everything I could to get the job done and did it in the 11 hours drive time allowed with little to no rest in getting it done. Too much stress and not very safe is what I have concluded. Day after day of pushing it to the limit isn't good for anyone. As I get older I find that I can not sleep for 8 hours straight. Maybe 4 or 5 and then I am pacing the lot and looking for something to do until I am "allowed" to leave. That doesn't work out to well either. I pace myself and do the job as safely as I can and I get no complaints about a late delivery. I'm an owner op now and as such I tend to make my own rules and make the most of my day. If I get a ticket for not having the logs current to the minute than I figure that's just part of the dues we all pay anyways. Lifes too short.

 

Hey :
You then agree... You are saying the same thing I am. My point was , the law makes no provision any more for logging it that way and still getting the same hours. It all has to happen in "their" 11 or 14 and that is my point . Make it 24 like it was. Then we can log it legal and there is no reason to ever drive tired.
They designed it this way to change the time frame trucks would be on the roads. It backfired on them. The trucks are all in the truck stops before the day is over.

It almost eliminated night time truck traffic. Which is Ok I guess, 1/2 of them out here only have 1 head light anyway.

I too drive My truck when I want too. I set my own appointments and am never late....

 

Yep, it gets tough sometimes trying to find a parking spot after the sun goes down. I do a lot of my driving at night just for the reason you pointed out. Less traffic to deal with and it makes it easier to navigate metro areas.

 

The trouble with it is they are not allowing for exposure. The more miles you drive the more your chances of recieving a violation, and remember they count all violations not just log,speed ,and such. We know equiptment problems can come up at any time , you can do a pre trip , hit the road and run over a gator and tear up a brake chamber or an air line or whatever . and before you can do anything about it get cited for it. the majority of the drivers will be the new and inexperienced guys who haven't had enough time on the road to get violations. If you have three million miles on the road law of averages says you're gonna have a higher exposure and the way the DOT is these days the chances are better than not you will have some kind of violations. plus with the weighted scale they are using if you are a one or two truck operation you are gonna get eliminated before the big companies . But that is what they really want anyway.

 

They do realize the point you made. In fact, this is EXACTLY WHAT THEY HAD PLANNED! Get rid of all the higher paid, more experienced and less cooperative drivers so they can justify opening up the borders and hire drivers that will put up with even more garbage (w/o complaining) for even less money!
Additionally, make the medical card almost impossible to retain by changing the standards. (The only people that have less than a 30 BMI in this country nowadays are starving Mexicans! )
And then you heap more rules and regulations on drivers (especially no idle laws) so that this industry becomes so unbearable that drivers even close to retiring quit that much sooner!
I'm just say'n.

 

Not sure how they determine BMI or that they can disqualify you from getting your medical card if your over the 30 you mentioned but being 225 pounds at 5'11" I can only assume that I would be over that index number. Being an owner operator and having an investment as a small business owner to do this I would think they would be opening themselves up to lawsuits over something like this.

 

You betcha! I was married to an attorney for a lot of years. Just some of the stuff I picked up in casual conversation with her leads me to believe that DOT has a long way to go before they can push BMI as a "stand-alone" disqualifier.

 

Difference here is the law and these regulations. They passed regulations about the HOS. Any drivers out here successful in a lawsuit against the HOS?