new HOS regulations fast approaching..........

trucking is the most regulated deregulated industry in the u.s.

 

Gokiddogo,

I read through this a couple of times to be sure, but it looks to me that your argument doesn't quite make sense. You seem to be arguing both sides of the issue. You said that you hope the shippers and receivers jump on the NO EOBR bandwagon, but that you also predict shippers and recievers will actually be forced to pay detention time for holding up drivers due to the EOBR's being installed on the trucks if I understand correctly.

With EOBR's, there is a remote chance of shippers and recievers being in a position of making detention pay part of the shipping contract. Without EOBR's, there's no reason for anything to change in regards to detention pay.

You may have noticed that I personally don't see any changes in detention pay with or without EOBR's. Here's my thoughts on the issue. Carriers are fully aware of the lost potential profit they are seeing now when a shipper or reciever delays a truck or a series of trucks, especially when the shipper/reciever does this on a regular basis. And yet carriers do not (as far as I am aware) come after those shippers/recievers for detention pay, for fear of losing the contract to another carrier that will willingly "eat" the lost profits caused by delayed trucks to keep the regular freight.

EOBRs will not, in my opinion, do anything to mitigate the cut-throat competition of this industry. If anything, they will make it impossible for smaller carriers to compete. And this in turn will cause even more carriers to close their doors and liquidate their assets while the larger carriers (who have greater flexibility due to the sheer numbers of trucks, trailers, and drivers they can field on a daily basis) will grow larger and gain an even larger claim on the freight market.

 

Ahh Brisms--you seem to be one of the few I've read on here that actually GETS IT--EOBR--SPEED LIMITERS etc--are being pushed by the ATA and Mega's as a way to ELIMINATE COMPETITION and no other reason--but they of course push the SAFETY aspect of it--just good PR--anyone who was around in the late 70's when de-reg was being pushed so hard--remembers the old timers talking about a way to eliminate competition--I remember my Dad talkin about--just wait and see--20 yrs after this--there will b 4-5 large LTL carriers--and they will set their own price and get away with it! of course he had the names wrong(looking at the industry and the strongest then)but think about it--
Just my $.02

 

are you guys saying there is a CONSPIRACY amongst the mega-carriers?

 

Just following what I see and drawing some conclusions based upon history and (un)common sense. Rockefeller and Carnegie tried similar tactics back in the twenties. So did the railroad moguls. Big business hates competition (the life blood of the true "Free Market" economic model) and will do anything to destroy competition. Or was I the only one who paid attention to Roosevelt's "Trust-busting" rhetoric during history class?

In my mind, the larger carriers have (or at least are attempting) to build ways around the laws prohibiting trusts (also known as monopolies) using the 'safety rhetoric' to convince the government and general popluation that the new regulations are for the benefits of safer roads. The next step (which we have been seeing) will be to drive the smaller carriers out of business through cooperation amongst the larger carriers in lowballing rates to levels that smaller carriers cannot operate for. Also, we see larger carriers absorbing smaller carriers, thus continuing the cycle of eliminating competition. Eventually there will be only a few large carriers transporting all the freight across the country. The smaller carriers and the single truck O/O's will be a thing of the past.

This isn't occurring only within the trucking industry, either. WalMart has been using brutal tactics to remove all competition anywhere they open a store. An ongoing complaint amongst those who pay attention is the dearth of smaller locally owned businesses after WalMart moves into town. Cellphones, same thing. Remember the days when there were hordes of cell carriers? Now there's what? 4 of 5 major carriers? And isn't it odd that there really isn't that much difference in the rates they charge or the benefits they offer? And only the biggest dogs in the game offer anything special (Verizon and ATT)? Cellphones have become a trust, essentially. And its the board members of Verizon and ATT that control it (more Verizon than ATT these days). I'd love to have a look at who actually controls those boards. Bet you see alot of the same names between the two, just like you see alot of the same names associated with different large carriers in our own industry. Or hasn't anyone else noticed how often Jerry Moyes, the Knight Brothers, and members of the England family pop up whenever new industry regulations are discussed?

 

What do you think the ATA is?

sent from my EVO4gLTE
OCed and MEAN

 

OMG!! the conspiracy nuts were right

 

The ATA? The same ATA that is currently being led by President and CEO Bill Graves? The same Bill Graves who served as Governor of Kansas, and who's family (who owned Graves Truck Line) attempted to use court proceedings to stop a competitor from operating in their area? I give you this from Dec. 12, 1980:

retreived November 22, 2012 from http://openjurist.org/637/f2d/757/graves-truck-line-inc-v-interstate-commerce-commission

I may not be the brightest sonuvagun on the planet, but it looks to me like this was an attempt by the Graves family to use an interpretation of government regulation to limit competition. Is it me, or does this seem similar to the tactics used by the ATA today to once again limit competition?

 

DOT is going to have a hay day with our company. LOL The once a week reset thing is going to be hard to regulate. Sometimes I will work 3 days, then sit for a day then work for a couple days and sit for another day. When I say a day it is usually 34 hours since it is two nights.

The 30 minute break thing kills me. They want us to take a 30 minute break yet we can't stop the 14 hour clock for that break.

We have runs that we do that push hard against the 14 hour clock. This is loading time, unloading time, PTIs etc. Now, legally, these runs won't be legal to do since it will put us out of hours so to speak.

The only way we will be able to do these runs now is to make it an over night in the truck when before we could do it and get home to family.

Too some, the mandatory 30 minute break is going to actually extend their work day by about 45 minutes. By the time then get pulled in to take their 30 minute break, take care of the logging duties on both sides of the break then get back out onto the road then they have blown 45 minutes of their day WITHOUT any compensation for it. For those that have longer runs, were you do your pti then drive 11 hours then pti which would amount to about 11.5 hours then your time each day will be extended to 12.25 or 12.50 hours for each day. Your start time the next day will be later and it will get later each and every day since you will be shutting down later and later with each day. At the end of your run you will have spent 2 to 3 extra hours or more depending on the amount of days it takes to complete that run.

For the guys that only like to run during the day, it will only be a matter of time before you are now running at night and into the time were you are usually sleeping, Not good for the internal body clock as far as its wake time and sleep time.

I forsee a lot more drivers struggling to keep their eyes open at the later end of their day.

I am wondering how long it will take the ELog drivers to start whining over this new stuff?? Us loose leaf guys will just keep doing what we are doing. Then the Elog guys will start crying even harder that EVERYONE should be on Elogs because they are POed that they are stuck doing this stuff and the Loose Leaf guys are still living basically the same life.

 

rat, i think the 34 thing is ridiculous


its saying you cant get two 34s in one week (if i am reading it right), not that you cant work up to your 70

how often do any of us need two 34s? if we do, something is wrong

or am i missing something here?

and the mandatory 30min isnt that big a deal, its been quite a while since i drove 11hrs without stopping