FMCSA Gone and done it.....watch out.

This is one more hurdle for us to jump, either embrace it and accept it, or run away screaming. Although the screaming part usually means you wont make it.

 

I have been on EOBR for a few months since carrier (smaller carrier) I am leased to went to them. Cost to me didn't go up over the old cost for Qualcomm ($10 a week), yet I also got a fairly decent GPS routing program with it. I was pretty apprehensive about going EOBR, but it really is alright.

I agree that EOBR will do nothing for safety. Log books do nothing for safety either. While it may be argued that safety belt requirements are for safety, we all know that it is meant just to protect the governments gravy train.... wear the thing and protect yourself so the government can bleed you for more taxes, or get a fine for not wearing it because you are putting their gravy train in jepardy.

No government agency cares about safety of you or the other motoring public. It is always about control.

Now that we got the obvious out of the way, I agree there should be no mandate at all regarding EOBR, under any circumstances. It will probably not be that way.

If they are mandated, they are not really that big of a deal. In using one, it has not negatively affected my operation. But then, I saw all this stuff coming at us several years ago and changed to doing just a 600 mile radius of home and working primarily with customers that are not grocery warehouses, automotive, or big box stores. That way, most of my runs are not affected by being on EOBR, only rarely do I spend more than an hour or two unloading/loading (and fortunately also a fair amount of drop and hook), and if they implement the two midnight to 0600 provisions of the 34 hr reset, I am home on weekends and it will be rare to not be able to fit that in as well.

My only suggestion is that drivers, especially O/O, try and structure their operation to fit a more flexible routine. The good 'ol just picking loads as they come up, running anywhere and everywhere, etc may be more difficult to pull off effectively in the future. Since I started targeting my operation to a 600 mile regional setup, I actually make more than running around the country, mostly because rates tend to be higher for shorter runs and freight is more consistent with little wasted time. Maintenance is easier, and usually cheaper, to stay on top of, and I can do a lot of it myself on the weekends at home.

Let's face it, this junk is going to get dumped on us. The best thing a person can do is to plan accordingly. You can complain till the sky falls, or you can try and focus your attention on finding ways to make things work more in your favor. Your choice.

 

This attitude is the problem with truckers today. Just accept it and thats it. I will not accept it and never will.

 

Safety? How about this 'proposal'? Mandatory salt trucks dispatched at temps at or below 34 degrees F... Truckers on the road can pull over and wait 2 hours tops and if no salt shakers is seen... call DOT to issue citations $11,000 for the state and $3,000 for the county in violation. Where as revenue will go to the company and driver for down time due to unsafe road...

Oh, I forgot... the current regulations don't have anything to do with 'safety' that is just waht they tell us... to fleece us.

 

Well you can thank Carrier Alliance /these companies for pushing it (Maverick, Knight Transportation, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Schneider National and U.S. Xpress Enterprises)
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=72112

Another way for these low lives to under cut and put every one else out of business

 

Definitely part of the problem. i agree.

 

I will go even further and say this:

So long as FMCSA's ONLY approach to addressing driver fatigue (which is what they are blaming these accidents on) is to continually change the HOS rules and place more and more requirements and regulations on drivers, they will fail to make a dent in the safety statistics.
Until the CORE issues affecting driver fatigue - driver comfort and safety - are addressed, changing the HOS rules will be about as effective as windshield wipers on a duck's butt.

You can mandate that a driver take a *23* hour break but if it is 115 degrees or 34 degrees in that cab, a driver CANNOT get adequate QUALITY sleep no matter how long the mandated break is.
Telling a driver to roll down his/her windows creates a serious safety hazard - both to the driver AND to the equipment and freight. Open windows are an advertisement that scream "Easy Access".

Telling a driver to purchase items such as bunk heating pads shows an utter lack of knowledge of the logistics of using these items as most of those available to drivers plug into the 12 volt accessory outlets. In cold weather, after 2 hours, the cold and the accessory drain your battery down so that your dummy alert on your truck starts beeping at you. What follows is a cycle of 30-40 minutes of sleep, up for 5 minutes to idle the truck, lather, rinse, repeat for the next 8 hours. One CANNOT get adequate and quality sleep within that cycle.

Until these core issues are addressed, driver fatigue will continue to be a significant problem within the industry and little to no change will be effected in the safety statistics.

I may be crazy and it may be an exercise in jousting at windmills, but I have been giving serious thought to pursuing this cause. My uncle is a retired state senator so I believe I could get his assistance in formatting it and packaging it in such a way as to give it the best chance possible of being noticed and taken more seriously. I'm still gathering statistics and am waiting to see what my first working draft looks like.

RT

 

I don't know. I drove legal log books for a long time and still made my money. I understand that some days are better than others but in the long run I had no complaints at my bottom line. I hate whiners.

 

It has nothing to do with whinning it has to do with the gov putting more and more regs on us that cost us money that will have no effect on safty. Just like speed limiters theres a group of companys out there that want them to level the playing field and this is the same bs. Any one that thinks its about safety or the ones complaining are whinners needs to get there head out of the sand. Irondog i run legal logs to for the most part, do i fudge it 15 minutes here and there to get home yes, but i am better rested when home then sleeping in the truck all night. I have no issue with guys or companys that want to use them but dont push then down are throughts claiming safety when they will do nothing for it.

 

All this Gov. crap is BS. The stats for the road show they have never been safer, This is just the same old BS, someone that has no idea of what its all about trying to metal. And you have to wounder if the big 7 are not involved they have wanted to get the little guy out of the way for a long time. Semper Fi