Cell phone ban

If there is a pay phone at where ever you stop, odds are it is not working.

Stopping truck drivers from talking on the phone does NOT prevent car drivers from doing it, therefore distracted & obviously from some of the viewpoints above, automatic crash. Have seen car drivers going down the road with a full size laptop pc between them & the steering wheel. Only got a glance though as he had to be doing well over 75 mph.

The GPS speed sensor would just be the cause of someone not accelerating up to speed leaving town.

I do not talk on the phone much at all, just not a fan of more rules/laws enacted. Sadly, the sort of person this kind of law may be pointed at is not going to suddenly focus on the road, they will just find something else "to do" while holding the steering wheel.

 

Personally I think a cell phone ban is impratical. If this passes I guess the next step would be to do away with passengers they're a distraction too. Pets, my god pets, that where they should start. I dont' care if it's in a CMV or your PV if you're pet isn't secure it's more dangerours than your cell phone.

But yeah, phones that's just pointless.

 

That is why I make my kids ride in the trunk.

 

Pay phones are a thing of the past. I'm sure many truckers remember the booths lined up in truckstops.

I agree with others, that hands free is the way to go. But be responsible enough to use it when you aren't in heavy traffic which requires 100% attention. Truckers have several distractions available to them. Common sense with how and when is the key. Why are you reaching for something while someone is passing you? Why are you dialing the phone and tailgating??

I see a bunch of eating and talking on the phone coming out of a truck stop when you have a bunch of steering and shifting to do?? You can either sit still at the truck stop or wait until you get to top gear cruising.

 

Hands free is the responsible course. Especially with the cost of the technology as low as it is.

Something that's being forgotten by some of you that are touting the "never use the phone while moving" position: As available technology changes, expectations change with it. I wasn't around yet, but I've read Futurists' articles from the '70s proclaiming the glories of computers, and how everybody would only be working 20 hours a week because of how efficient everything would be.
What happened? The expectation of efficiency and productivity went up directly in line with the capacity of the technology to streamline the work.

Cell phones are the same. Dispatch and brokers now expect that you'll be available during working hours (in some cases, they go overboard and expect you to jump for the phone 24/7) specifically because of the ubiquity of cell phones. I wouldn't be surprised if there were already examples of drivers being relieved of their jobs because they weren't "reasonably available" for contact.

Give it a couple of years and let voice command tech improve some, and I could see a feasible ban on hand-held, enforced by the aforementioned GPS shut-off safety for the handset.

 

If things continue, the GPS shutoff will be implemented. You'll see alot of vehicles on the shoulder.

 

Cell phones are the same. Dispatch and brokers now expect that you'll be available during working hours (in some cases, they go overboard and expect you to jump for the phone 24/7) specifically because of the ubiquity of cell phones. I wouldn't be surprised if there were already examples of drivers being relieved of their jobs because they weren't "reasonably available" for contact.

Ha, your right! Just went through that as an L/O. Dispatcher was dumping next days work on my voicemail.....til it didn't get done. TM thought he was gonna smoke my arse til I filled him in..... and it's back where it should be...... gotta make voice contact or it's not dispatched ! So now I can screen his offer through the vmx and reject the garbage by not calling back.

Oh.... and when I'm off duty...I'm off and so is the phone. It's a good practice...try it!

 

Likewise. When I log line 2, my phone gets placed on "Silence, I kill you" mode.

 

Distracted driving. Billboards, electric road signs, gauges on the dash board, (you'll know soon enough something's wrong when it goes CLANG!!!!) mirrirs, (can't keep your eyes on the road when you are looking in the mirrors) cb's, (nothing more needed here) short skirts in passing cars, ( guess we need blinders) AM/FM.Sat radio, (can't multifunction, remember?) Not to mention that pesky rattle over there in that darned right door. What happened to common sense? Oh, I remember now, it went the same place that common courtesy went.

 

Well the first things you mention have to do with driving your vehicle so that argumaent bears no weight.

Frankly maybe CB's need to go. When used properly they can be a valuable tool. How many a day spend all their time peeing down their leg about an officer or a scale. Spend countless hours bragging about their supertuned triple digit ##### they spend countless hours stroking themselves to Black Dog over, recite fictional books from the bible to the latest Landline, spend hours telling others why they want to either bend them over or slap them. In a ##### fight. Two plus hous bragging that they are one,one,one,one,one...................

Saw one of those big old rooster cruiser's with the twin(slanted of course got to get the really fast look) weaving all over the #### road coming across 20 yesterday on the way home trying to instill fear in a company driver that dared make him run the limit for a mile.

So yeah your quite right maybe the CB should go.


Your driving a truck. If a guy wearing a short skirt distracts you that much you propbably need to park it anyways. By the way we call them Kilts. If it was skirt I would wear underwear.