Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

There is no way to regulate that. I've had to grab a nap 6 hours in to my clock before because I had been up for hours prior to starting, and I've noticed all of a sudden that I need to find somewhere to park in the next hour because my clock is almost up, having felt no fatigue to warn me it was time.

People need to learn that no load is worth lives. If you start to see things, erm, not as they are it's time to get some sleep. I remember the first time that happened to me. Saw a lot of overpasses that weren't real. That was a big wake up call to sleep management.

 

I say do away with the 14 hr BS and leave the 34 hr restart alone! This gives the driver the flexibility to drive his allowed time as he wishes and doesn't force the driver to get it done in a 14 hr window. The 14 hr rule has created a serious mess in that it causes drivers to feel as though they're having to race the clock for every min..this in turn has caused many of normally safe drivers to push the envelope just a bit to far. Running paper logs does open the door for the outlaws but with elog legislation looming over us in the short future what could it hurt to go back to no 14. Like I tell all my students, you absolutely must be able to manage time and know what your own limitations are. If you're tired pull over and take a nap, we as an industry don't need a BS agency like the FMCSA bird dogging us we just need to all act like the professionals that we are. This would eliminate the need for such nonsense. Drivers that get behind the wheel and try to do everything but drive are one of the primary reasons for the accidents that the truck driver was found legitimately at fault. All I'm saying is the trucking industry as a whole has made this bed now we all got to sleep in it! I don't know about the rest of you guys and gals but I'm ready for a new bed!!

 

that's the problem. the govt don't stop to think how UNREALISTIC hos are in our every day lives of trying to make a living.

nor do they stop to think that our bodies aren't a machine that can work like they expect it to. especially in the flatbed world.

i can take a full 10 hour nap in phoenix. if 10 hours were possible for me. either unload OR load. play with the tarps. and by the time i'm done. i'm ready to pass out. that summer heat in the south isn't something to mess with when it comes to hard work. and them tarps AIN'T light. specially if you have to fight them to come off the load.

hos is the most UNREALISTIC ruling. and dangerous when it comes to fatigue

 

I hate the 14 hour rule. It causes more accidents that it will ever fix.
I have no issue at all with the change to the 34 saying you can only do it once every 7 days though. If you are sitting for 68 hours anyway within an 8 day peorid, then you have hours to run. It is only about 8 extra hours that you gain if you do the 11, 10, 11, 10 ect, till out of hours,then 34 then do again. How often in the real world is that possible? The people that log it that way are covereing up things and running loose leaf logs. They are probibly averageing the exact speed limit at all times on logs also.
Kind of easy to figure out when many people are cheating with a quick glance at logs. Then it is just up to the inspector to find a mistake. And there will be some in most cases.
The change making the 34 have to have two peorids between 1am andf 5am is going to mess up LTL, night haulers and teams more than solo OTR drivers.

 

For teams, I would love to see a log for the TRUCK!! Not for the individual driver... There are times when it's not my turn to drive and I'm wide awake, but my husband is fatigued and would love to lay down, but it's his turn to drive... Or if I'm feeling like something the dog drug in (like this week with my cold) and hubby is bright eyed and bushy tailed... He can then drive more hours, and I would drive when I felt safe doing so... Instead, we pushed through and I really don't want another week like we just had!! It was WORK!

But I guess that would mean we as drivers would need to have 'common sense' and actually use it... There would be too many, I'm sure, that would abuse that and one would end up doing ALL the driving and the other just a rider...

Well anyway, that's my dream... Now time to wake up, it's my tun to drive

 

Since we're griping... I'd like to be paid for time spent fixing trailers, whether it's hammering on the tandem pins or waiting on bubba Jo-Bob to wire a marker light back up. by far my biggest gripe in all of trucking is I only get paid when I'm driving... It's "part of it" is the most ridiculous answer I've ever heard!!

 

I agree 100%. I personally think "Pay per mile" should be scrapped entirely. If I had my way, we'd be paid by the hour or at least for an "on duty" block of time. You'd "clock-in" and get paid whether you were driving, loading, unloading, tarping, fixing trailers or whatever you were doing during your shift. After 14 hours (preferably 12 in my book..for safety) you'd park and clock-out.

 

you don't have anything to beach about. trying being a flatbedder. spending 4 hours a day untarping and tarping. FOR FREE.

EVEN paper loggers can't run outlaw. cuz the company knows EXACTLY when you should be running through the scales. BESIDES fuel.

so yeah, i'm starting to get a little tired of this 11/14 crap. and if i make it through the shift for my 10. well, 5 hours later and i'm bright eyed and ready to roll. but OH NOOOOOOOO. i can't drive for another 5. so i sit and watch porn.

 

Wow it's been a while.
On the training thing Central is encouraging trainers to force their students to run team because the trainers have to take a PAY CUT per mile to have a student on the truck. I would be more than happy to sit in the front seat on line 4 giving out knowledge, but I want to be paid for it. As it is I have to drive about 4000 miles a week to exceed what I could make solo. So if I have to eat up all my 70 sitting shotgun and reminding the student to stay in their lane I can't do it.
I would do 6 months but they would have to figure out a better home time and student/trainer match up. I know my wife hates the 1 day off during training crap they are doing now, imagine 1 day off in 6 months or me having to sit on my butt in hicksville so the student can have home time.

On hos I agree 14 is stupidity at it's peak. And a log for the truck would be great too Lady K I feel your pain.

I am kinda enjoying my truck acting up. My starter went out and have been ideling for 2 days (yes I still drive I just dont turn the truck off) any who this load delivers about 30 miles from my house so I will run the truck over to Freightliner and go home for Easter. Best of all because the truck is broken otrm will pay for a hotel for the student and I won't get #####ed at for taking 3 days off. (I called they are closed for Easter weekend and the truck wont even be looked at until Monday Morning)

 

Heads up moose: you might have an after market starter! Central put aftermarket starters in some of the freightliners as an experiment. They're all dying and not covered under warrantee. If you get hit with a bill make sure you get central to pay for it; I know a couple people who have dealt with this and central has foot the bill after it was made known that it was their fault.