Roehl Don't believe the Hype

Not only did they want him to violate the 14hr rule but the 70 in 8 days rule as well.

The night dispatcher communicated these illegal requests via cell-phone after my friend told them to not contact him till after midnight when he had hrs to work again.

He has only worked in trucking for less then a year but was consistently given conflicting instructions by this carrier and on several occasions had asked me for advise on what to do.

I told him the rules are simple, you run your hrs and then you shut down, end of story. If they want the load there sooner then you have the hours, then let them facilitate getting it there. He sends his eta's and pta's like clockwork like I told him to always do and is still given MI's and told to do the best that he can.

Luckily his wife has a job that pays well so he is not as dependent on his income from driving as many are to pay the bills but is tired of being told by safety to keep his logs strait which they check weekly and then have dispatch and CS pressuring him to run illegal when they see the load will be late because he is doing what he is supposed to do.

Every OTR company I have worked at, which is 4 in 15 years of driving (none being Swift-Werner or JBH) seems to have a culture where operations and safety run as separate entity's with one concerned only with on time delivery's despite there ineptitude, and the other concerned with compliance of the driver, but not the compliance of the dispatch crew.

I even had a safety guy in a orientation tell us that dispatch will try to get you to do this and that but that he was the one that would fire you if your logs were violated or falsified.

My friend has found another carrier to work for but is wondering if it will be any different there then at his last carrier. I guess only time will tell since what they say and then do is not always the same.

I am just glad that I no longer have to make a choice between my income and breaking the law to do it which at most OTR company's is a given if you are honest enough to admit it. It is rare to have a driver who runs 48 states for a irregular route carrier and does it 100% legally and makes the high dollars promised in OTR trucking.

Run 1 month totally legal which is logging everything as it occurs no matter what and you will see what running legal really is and how much less successful you will be driving OTR when miles and income from those miles are concerned

 

The hours thing seems to be causing big problems in trucking. That must be the reason that CRST only does team driving. Im looking at going through them right now for training and job and getting paid by the mile. Of course, nobody wants to sit in a truck with another guy, but I guess I gotta do what I gotta do. Sounds like I could be undermining all these solo drivers out there who cant legally make the same money. There are several facts I know about truck drivers. They are in it to make good money, why else would they drive for a living. Second, driving is dangerous, driving tired is even more so. SO whats the solution. looks like the TEam concept is taking off, but maybe hard to swallow, especially if you've been working solo. Could be wrong, I dont have my CDL, maybe that will make me smarter.

 

There are lots of solo driving running legal--the thing is new drivers get intimidated by their dispatchers to do this. When this happens, the best thing to do is call safety or qualcomm safety about it. Make sure you have the dispatcher to send it to you over qualcomm so you got proof of it too--that helps a lot. Mainly-Call Safety! If you dont have hours to do it--tell them you cant/wont do it!

 

That seems so weird, how many jobs can you refuse to do something and expect to keep your job or not get punished one way or another. In fact, I was fired for refusing to do something that I knew was wrong. Another job I quit before my boss could fire me. So I am fully aware of what goes on in the "real" world these days. But what is right & wrong anymore? On the one hand you have the Federal Government saying you can drive "X" hours (I HATE GOVERNMENT) and on the other is your greedy monster you call your employer (I HATE CORPORATIONS). I'd say if I felt good enough to drive beyond my hours I may do it. If not, than forget it. But as it looks, most times the driver gets stuck with the short end of the stick.
WHat I am wondering is what is the law for how long you can drive and is it common to be asked or forced to drive over it?

 

THe answer is---- You can drive up to 11 hours from the time you start your official day not to go past the 14th hour after the same start of day. You can only drive again after 10 consecutive hours of either sleeper berth, off duty or a combination of both. Clear as mud, right?

Also, you need to really take a good look at your CDL. I have yet to find the name of my company on there anywhere. I do not drive past my legal limits and ROEHL (yes, I do work with them to move freight) knows that I will and have refused to press myself into an illegal or unsafe condition for any reason. Notice I said "work with them.." I don't work FOR them. They are leasing my CDL from me to move their contracted freight.

Good luck to you....

 

Absotutley!!!!! One thing that gripped my jaws when I was new, was my DSR telling me that I only had 95 miles to go and could easily make it through the back roads of upstate PA in less than two hours.Then the DSR wanted me to give them a firm ETA of when I would get there!?!?!?!? Remember,that DSR has probably never driven a truck and is going by distance/55mph = eta. NOT!!! My favorite reply when it all comes apart is "The load will get there when it gets there legally and safely."

 

I am willing to bet they also have no clue what running the back roads through PA will get you into. LOL They are funny sometimes. Those back roads of PA will put you somewhere you got no business of being!

 

Back roads, the main roads are bad enough!

 

Lots of solo drivers who think they are driving legal maybe but how many of them drive even 1 mph over the speed limit but log the speed limit? Or what about all those drivers you see both team and solo sitting in the driver or passenger seat and logging off duty or sleeper birth? How many of them kill their hours by logging legal sitting in traffic or stuck behind a accident? A snow storm is coming and all these legal drivers let themselves get buried or get the heck out of there? I could go on and on but the vast majority of drivers do not log legal without it putting them toward the bottom of the OTR trucking company's performance board.

Yep you can do that also and you might get a little Astrix next to your name with a notation "problem driver" by the dispatch crew. And you defiantly don't have to be a new driver to know that drivers that cause operations to work harder, sit longer. My last 2 OTR company's had a lot of drivers sitting around doing 2000-2500 miles a week because they can't or won't make it easy on operations like they want you to make it.

Who you going to call at night at safety? A voice mail, perhaps? Operations controls your income, not safety. OP's will say ok, you be safe, and will get back to you in a few days with a load because freight suddenly got slow.

I have read lots of safety pamphlets and watched lots of safety videos at your typical otr company. But not one discussed what they would do when op's repeatedly dp's the drivers on non legal runs and have yet to see them clean house at op's for trying to get the drivers to run mission impossibles or starving them out when they won't.

Op's knows the safety rules but they don't care because A. they are paid to carppy to care ( go look at who these carriers hire to DP these days. Kiddies with community collage degrees in boiler room telemarketing probably) and B. they have ways of making you care when your back gets sore from laying in the sleeper and your spouse and kids are at the food bank. And C. It's not their license or employment in jeopardy, they just want to keep the customer happy and you to cover for their incompetence

 

Sounds like you have all the answers, good luck in life with that attitude.