Stevens Transport aviary

What company are you talking about??

 

There are two persons that work Night Safety. Aaron and Randy. (They alternate 7 days on, 7 days off)
Both are very conscienious, work hard and try their best to run a fine line between helping the driver in a difficult situation and the law.
While I find Aaron 'rough around the edges', he is very good at what he does. Randy has a more laid back demeanor, but trust me, he follows the rules and will not ask you to do anything illegal. There is latitude in situations like this that the safety officer has in moving a truck out of hours. While I don't know the exact circumstances of his saying "the Houston police don't even know about logs" I can imagine he was only trying to instill some calmness in the situation. Just as a LEO has the right to tell you to move when you are out of hours, so does a corporate safety officer (within specific and narrow parameters), and he assumes liability for your movement in those circumstances.
Just so everyone knows, both Aaron and Randy have years of driving experience, and I hear them on the phone directly with Kip many times, confirming the proper course of action for a specific need.
I can find lots of things 'wrong' at Stevens, but both of these men do a tremendous job, are very careful in their assesments of situations and take their job with utmost seriousness.

 

How far were you from nearest truck stop? I have a feeling that is what he was getting at, if you drive less than 2 miles at less than 20mph, QC is not supposed to switch to drive. Have a feeling he was trying to save you and the company the cost of towing. Krogers should have allowed you to stay an additional 3 hours so you would have a split and been able to get to a T/S.

 

The frustration with the computer age comes down to the lack of human intervention with common sense. The spirit of the law is to keep drivers from exceeding a recognized time limit on duty to provide safety for themselves and the motoring public.
When we had paper logs, it was easy to 'fix' a situation such as seen at Kroeger, Walmart and Target (to name three of the biggest violators) and allow a driver to move to a safe haven a few miles away.
Computers don't allow that, and quite frankly, if given latitude for the driver to make that decision, too many would violate the provision.
I had a grandson suspended from school for violating the no weapons rule. When confronted, the principal quoted, "we have a zero tolerance provision in our rule. I can't change that." His weapon? A PICTURE of his father's knife used in Desert Storm. (for show and tell)
The same idiocy has crept into the electronic logs. Some LEOs have no common sense. Some compliance people have none.
You would be amazed at the number of drivers that have a problem with their logs and want someone to 'fix' them. (usually the fix is a 34). Night safety sits right behind me and I hear a lot!
There was a bill authored in congress last year from a congressman in Oregon that died in comittee, but we're promised it will be reintroduced next congress. It requires shippers and receivers to provide a safe haven for trucks to complete their breaks if the receiver/shipper takes longer than two hours from appointment to release the driver.
One can only hope...

 

My experience was probably different than 99% of the students that attend the school, just because I am from Dallas. I was home every night for the 3 weeks of class. Then I was gone five weeks, back home a week, gone 3 weeks on trainee/trainee and back home for 3 days until I left out solo on grad fleet.

If you are from out of town be prepared to not be home for about 3 1/2 months @ first. Also be prepared of out of the 350 to only make a little under 300 for those 3 months after the three weeks that you aren't getting paid anything.

Other than that I was also luckier than most of my class mates because I had the same trainer for the 5 weeks. Others had 2-5 different trainers for various reasons.

The school is what it is, it WILL teach you how to drive a truck, it's up to the person whether they learn how to or not. I seen a bunch of students who didn't even make it off the yard just because they couldn't figure it out.

Houston PD may not know about logs, but the DOT officer that stops you in 4 days will.

 

Like driving for Stevens, but want more hometime? Move to Dallas.
It's easy to get loads that terminate in the area...Target, Taylor Farms and Walmart (Terrell) just to name a few. I know several drivers that live here and are home every two weeks or so for a couple days. They get a load in, park their truck at a TS to do a 34 and simply end up at home for that time. Not official hometime, so no alcohol, but it is common practice for local drivers.

 

What thread are you in? SMH...

 

Kroger to Loves in Houston, less than 2 miles, never have to get on the interstate, and randy was trying to get you to move to there or to the truckers haven, a hole in the wall, which is only 3/4 mile away.

Or you could have went to the stevens drop yard just down the street for a few hours to finish the break. Many options, all within the 2 miles from kroger.

 

Why does this not suprise me? I have always questioned that quack of a Dr there... I have mentioned before, but I had surgery in Feb... had bp checked every 4 hrs in the hospital for four days, then had it checked every two weeks during follow up visits... the last bein May 2nd... I get to Stevens and on May 22 all of the sudden I am on med hold with high bp... I mention the recent history and their response was "well its a goofld thing we caught it early"... they give me a scrip, 90 day supply... I stretched it out for over four.months and made sure I had a couple to take whenever on the yard so its always been giod since. Now I am out if the meds, so Indo like they told me and saw my Dr... just left there... BP normal, no history of it. I have not taken a pill in over three weeks. So no more meds... will be interesting to see what it is next time st the clinic...

It was not even close... Stevens limit I believe is 139/89... mine today was 124/82.

 

Medical and insurance CYA. In regard to blood pressure the Dr doesn't care what happened before Stevens, only what happens the day you walked in.