Trucking; the Dollarama of the professions.

Well then let me try to phrase it a different way, with most other criminal or civil charges the penalty is not assessed or assigned until after you are found guilty, with this CSA2010 system you are assessed these points, even for warnings, without the ability to "have your day in court" until after they are given, and then I'm wondering if it will be more like trying to clear a DAC record vs. a more legal situation.

 

A drivers CSA points follow him where ever he goes,however they are only applied to the carriers if they were aquired during his tenure with that company.

 

I have read all of the post. But the first thing I do, Is look on the right side that shows how many years of driving you have. Most of you have 25 and up years. These are the guys I want to here, about the CSA2010. I think it is going to be a good idea, This will make drivers be very aware of there actions on the road. But I think we will hear more about how unfair it is, because some driver just messed up and this is going to hurt him, if he only has a couple of years driving. Me, personally, I could care less, I'm retiring soon, my wife retired 10 years ago. But, if I had to keep driving, It still won`t bother me, I try everyday, for 37 years to be the safest driver I could possibly be. I had a ticket back in 1985, and one before that in 1974. No accidents. Everyone can do this. I don't want to explain how, Its a life long experience.

 

Dionysus

I see ya working, and agreee with most everything you wrote regarding the profesional aspect. I think this comes down to the way people are brought up, and where. If you have visited any truckstop here in the USA, you can easily find more than enough drivers sporting baggy pants, flip flops, and a wife beater shirt with a 3 day old mustard stain. 20 years ago ya never saw this. The only explanation I can come up with is the upbringing (or lack thereof) of youth. Standards and morals change over generations, and not for the better IMO.

Personaly, I get my truck/trailer washed more times in a given week than most any of the mega fleets do in a year, shower every day possible, and wear repectable clothes, often including a collared shirt. I have driven truck through Canada, both southern and very northern, and I don't see as much trashy appearing drivers in your neck of the woods as I do here in the States, probably do the idiocincracies in growing up in rural canada vs some drivers who grew up in a dumpy ghetto.

As for your views on CSA 2010, I have to respectfully disagree with you. By that, I mean that I do not need a punitive system put in place where the desired outcome from the feds is one that is emotionaly based on percieved tragical potentials. Here in the states, we are governed by corrupt people in office, to often millionaires who buy their own election, who crave power and this transends down into the bureaus who keep placing red tape in front of us, all in under the guise of saving ourselves from ourselves.

Over the last 30 ish years, our moraly bankrupt politicians have continualy lowered the once acceptable morals and standards, into ideals and laws that have become "acceptable" today, that our founding fathers could never envision.

30 years ago when arguabley the morals and decency of both the public and government were higher than they are today, we had trucks that were relics by todays standards driven by men of good character. Todays trucks,compared with trucks from the 70's, are safer tenfold, but regulated fiftyfold.

I run my life and truck business based on my personal morals and beliefs. If I were to ever kill someone due to my total negligence, I would never drive again - a self made decision has already been made. Hell, I'd probably eat a self induced bullet. But if only 59 out of my 60 trailer lights are working durring an inspection and it gets wrote up, then yeah I do have a problem being lumped into a group that is percived as a detrement to society and/or a crash waiting to happen.

I've served my country in the military, I've done no drugs ever in my life, I've never been arrested, and I've never caused a wreck, and
you'd be ######### hard pressed to find someone in gubermint that has the clean record that I do.

 

Up this way, it's a very normal thing to carry a spare headlight , marker lights and tailights. I also carried a set of belts. air to air hose and clamps etc. The only time I ever had to pull over on a highway is when I blew a Turbo. The KW services truck came out within 3 hours (I was 160 miles out) changed the turbo etc. and I was rolling 1 1/2 hrs after he got there.

 

can not wait for the roll out go big gov

 

I also think electronic logs, if implemented in a way that makes sense, has a lot of potential to help trucking. On the other hand I hear a lot of concern about them which is all understandable.

 

Is it really our fault the trucking companies hire anything that breathes? Now companies will be held to higher standard and our image will improve some. But a total fix? I think not. There are always ones that slip through the cracks. There will be CSA2015 and CSA2020. Trucking and DOT is like Newton's Law... for every action, there is a reaction.