Driver stuck on I-35 for more than 10 hours

Do most companies send their drivers into these kinds of conditions? My other half is new to the industry, and has just told me he's going to have to spend the night along I-35 AGAIN. This makes night number 3. His company sent him on a run to Oklahoma around 5 pm Thursday, right when the weather was moving in. To me, that was a really ###### thing for them to do. Obviously there are a lot of drivers out there right now, I'm just wondering if that's par for the course or what?

I wish he had told them no, but he's new and didn't want to lose his job.

 

Not paid either.

 

from Truckers Code on Facebook..

OKLAHOMA

3:50P Update from Ofc. Alan Golden from Durant PD and OHP

SB HWY 78 From Achile
SB HWY 377 From Madill
SB HWY 91 From Cartwright
SB I-35 From Ardmore
SB HWY 75 From Durant
All access to Texas from those roads are closed

 

Nope, not making a dime. Where he is, the road is open for now, but he is having too much trouble to continue on. Being a new, inexperienced driver, he doesn't want to chance it anymore. I hope he can get home tomorrow.

 

wow.......

 

not to change subject but what is the difference sitting cuz road closed and sitting on your 34 and not getting paid ??

 

One is that you were rolling with the load into a bad weather situation.

The lack of pay for activity related to the process of earning pay due to a closed road is beyond the drivers control. In the real world, you receive pay for any and all work performed for the company you work for. Truckers do not receive compensation.

So, this leads to the truck driver taking risky steps to get paid where if properly compensated, they would not risk life and limb.

 

I doubt anybody "told" the driver to move into the weather and traffic conditions. Shippers where the weather is fine don't care what lies ahead for the carrier. The carrier is expected to pick up freight, that's what they do. It's up to the driver to make the go, no-go call when the time comes. In the Texas case, a little homework and any driver could have discovered the severity of the traffic and weather situation and it would have been his/her call to proceed closer and decide or to hold short and move later but it's often hard to know when it's "safe" to proceed into the perilous road conditions. Drivers drive in icy conditions every winter, some virtually every day. It comes with the job. If freight stopped moving every time a major winter storm rolled across the nation we'd all go hungry every winter.

Most drivers know what they can/can't do but the newer drivers fail to take into account the fact southern drivers don't know how to drive on ice and southern road crews don't have the material and equipment to properly deal with this type of weather setup. Freezing rain is difficult for all to deal with, regardless where it is but especially in areas where the roads aren't pre-treated with magnesium chloride or other de-icer.

 

Nobody said they did.

 

Excuse me for making such an outlandish reply then ... good grief