The future for trucking is sad

Key words here being "get nailed all the time".

How many times do you think is too many ?

My company will fire your ### with ONE out of service violation, log book related. Policy just put in place in the past 3 months.

How many points is this? Well, it's only 36 for the first year. 90 points is the "no hire/terminate" number here.

When you drive a truck, it's not a question of "if". It's a question of "when".

It's the rare driver who doesn't get hit with some type of violation, over his career. You can NOT prevent a light from blowing, while driving...period. Texas will eat your lunch for a light. They don't give a rats ### if it just blowed, or not.

I know this from personal experience. After one of my students was stopped less than 30 miles from the terminal. Where we BOTH had performed a pre-trip, at night. He still got a warning ticket. Which would add to his CSA score now.

In the past, many a driver could get a "clean" inspection. But be tagged with a simple "fix it" issue. And claim he always gets a clean inspection, because the fix it...was on the company. That will no longer be the case.

Let's take a look at one past inspection, of mine.

Pulled in for over weight on the trailer. No ticket issued, was allowed to slide the tandems. Rest of the inspection was clean. However, the inspection report plainly states the weight violation.

Had there NOT been an inspection. I would have simply slide it, and been on my way. No biggy. Not all weight issues result in an inspection.

Under CSA. I would have the points acquired from the "over weight". While everything else was clean, I now have the beginnings of a pattern.

What am I supposed to do, when my next load picks up 1 mile from the State Scales....and 20 miles from a public scale, on the other side of the State Scale? Don't say it can't happen...because it does.

Refuse the load? Or add more to my "habitual and flagrant" (now) disregard for weight regulations.

Our drivers and many others, are getting hammered by the MS scales coming out of Bugalusa, LA.

Why?

Because a simple "lighted" sign owned by the state of MS is not working. Being from here...I know the drill and stop every time. But others do not. And they are being tagged with failure to stop.

Is this fair ? I don't think so. But, who am I.

After a couple of years, there will be 2 kinds of drivers with CSA. Those that are unemployed, and those who have points.

 

In the past, I would fit that definition....in the past.

Now.....It would depend on your definition of lying.

If you're lying to yourself about your financial difficulties or high maintenance lifestyle/girlfriend/ wife, and what got you there. (as I have done) Then no, you can't do it all nice and legal.

But if your ducks are in a row. Yes, you can run 100% legal.

I've had many a load repowered/rescheduled over the past months. And explained to more than one ###hole of a dispatcher, these are my drivers license, not theirs.

With CSA, a company will only be able to play the numbers game for so long. But it will eventually catch up with them. How many drivers they take with them, will be up to the drivers.

 

The ultimate goal being to driving the wages down so far, that H1B workers will be required to fill the seats.

 

For the life of me, I can't figure out why tbe guy stayed on line 4 at that shipper. If they don't want to get me a dock, fine...I'm going to bed wake me up when you're ready for me. It still burns up the 14, but I'm not giving away one single more minute than I have to.

Regarding companies fudging the logs for you. Yep...it does happen. And will continue to happen. It is about control, not safety. When I was on e-logs, I found myself being more aggressive, driving faster and taking more chances in order to beat that clock to a receiver, a rest point or a shipper before my 14 was up. And don't give me trip planning, either. Sometimes, that's just how the load falls. Shipper is finished with barely enough time to run it to receiver with a single potty break on the way. And that's only if the traffic and construction spirits are smiling on you. E-logs are a detriment to the industry and to public safety.

 

And I'll bet if you could be a fly on the wall, the lobbyists who were responsible for the 14 hour rule and who'd also like E-logs to become mandatory are probably earning their paycheck on funds provided by the large trucking companies.

These rules have NOTHING to do with safety and everything to do with pushing the drivers to their limit on productivity. But all the general public will see is, "Yea! The lawmakers are keeping our roads safe from evil truck drivers!"

 

The point I was making IS that if you log it 100% legal AS you do it. absolutely NO fudging at ALL... there will be many many days you will make as much or less than someone at McDonald's.

With this said, the very real scenario I used(it happened week before last) forced the driver to 'transfigure' the 7.5 hours waiting on line 4 into something more constructive(ie driving)

 

This IS my point, to be logged legal... as you do it... 100% honest. the driver would stay on line 4 at the shipper.... and the other point is that even a little berth time does nothing with the 14 hr rule.

Although, your correct he did use some berth time to do what he did next. That is, shift some times around and get some time to drive(ie lie your arse off)... and I'm NOT saying one does this like a fool... everything MUST match up BOL time/Fuel time ect. ect. Everything on paper looks 100% legal an legit... E-log? Makes it certainly more difficult to pull off, but again not impossible either... Remember these things make mistakes, and there are a few tricks but I wont get into those.

 

they do when they have already signed contracts saying they will have loads picked up and recived at certain times....

 

bottom line is if any driver ran exactly like the logs say they should everyone would be pulling around 3 maybe 400 a week.the fact is other than local or dedicated runs ofcorse,nothing ever turns out the way it should.a simple drop in hook can turn into a 2+ hour ordeal.anyone that wants to be truthful about it will say the same.then you have the shippers and recivers that drag ### all day,lets not forget weight,or a tandem problem.also the biggest one being that at the max if your rolling through a state with a 65mph limit.that would mean you could run 650miles that day in 10 hours.but we all know that is never the case.at best even in a perfect world no traffice no fuel stops no eating breaks so on you could never run mph.u can take a speed of 65 run it str8 for 10 hours guess what it won't be 650 like it should.

anyone that has any truth in them will say the same.that guy shows he has 35 years exp and acts as if he's never ran for a company that pushes u and if they did he quit.if so then i don't see how he would have 35 years exp because he would have been quitting alot. and if your an o/o you could run by the log rules but you would be sitting alot and with all the bills you would be in the hole.

what i find funny tho is this 35year long driver"i wonder" sounds like mr dot man that has no clue about how to run a truck.he has lashed out at the whole hours of service thing yet you have not seen him say 1 thing about drivers from mexico that can roll across our boarders and log nothing the whole time they are here.guess it's ok for them and everyone is safe?

 

yup,i'll say again regulate how people get the cdl,but don't regulate drivers out of a liveable wage.if you ran by the book "or how they think you should run remember just because it's a law don't make it right,i can provide thousands of examples on that 1"why would any driver in their right mind stay out otr.oh ic lets stay away from family and any kind of life so we can not even make enough to pay the bills back home,yup that makes sense.
i see the sheephood is still strong in the usa.but it won't be to much longer and they will see just how bad it has become not only driving but in everything.they will see what the gov is doing,the gov is taking our rights away lil by lil.they want us all to have to depend on them like good lil slaves.people in this country are so blind,i could throw out bills like s.510 fda or how they want to ban fishing in all inland waterways.how the healthcare bill is more than people think, it's about taking all your rights away and no part of it will be free healthcare like the blind people think.

to say we need elogs is saying you think it's just fine for the gov to track every move you make.yup sounds like freedom to me.