FMCSA wants to see how 2005 HOS rule affects drivers

Yes for the most part logs does pertain to pay, however I can pay you if I chose to sleep for your 10 hours.

Many/most companies do not pay off your log sheets. They pay by the mile and many companies do not look at your logs versus dispatched miles (well the log auditors should to false check you).

I agree you should be paid off logs! This would eleminate allot of false logs .

 

Yes I had one Friday

 

A good couple of days does not mean two days. Please forgive my lack of preciseness. I'll go get my logs to tell you how long it took me last time.... depart LA 05-30-07 11:30 AM. Arrive New Caney, TX 5:45 PM 06-01-07 where Walmart DC refuses first drop because they say my load was due before I ever picked it up in LA. That is interesting??? Wait until 06-02-07 at 5:15 PM for Walmart to stop punishing me. Leave Wally World DC at 9 PM go to Flying J and sleep. Leave New Caney for Macclenny 8:15 Am 06-03-07. Arrive 5 PM Macclenny, FL 06-04-07. Thus, with broken truck in Texas that took half day to fix, and 24 hour Walmart punishment, it took me 6 days. You are correct. That is more than a good couple days. That is a good three sets of couple days.

My point about 55 mph was merely to be conservative in assigning a value to my hourly wage since many times I cannot average more than 55 mph due to things happening like traffic and breakdowns and fuel and Walmart DC punishments.

By the way, my dispatcher never paid me any layover pay for his scheduling error. Geez. That's a surprise huh!

Hope this clarifies things.

BRI

 

Hourly pay is the only way. I am paid buy the hour. and my employer charges unloading time to the customer so the customer unloads me quickly because me sitting cost him money. therefore I am more productive. And I probably make more per hour than many drivers. I also have more home time. because I am driving more instead of burning my log up loading and unloading. So if you have never been paid hourly you wouldn't know anybetter.

 

Does anyone consider the HOS rules as protection from overwork by employers?

 

That is what they are SUPPOSED to be for. Unfortunately there are so many ways for an employer to terminate a worker who "doesn't play ball" that it has become a joke (this is why logbooks are referred to as 'comic books').
The companies that have been audited and threatened with sanctions (fines, criminal prosecution, and even shutting the company down) usually will comply for a while.

Of course if enough drivers "drop a dime" about an employer the DOT will investigate. Many reports turn out to be sour grapes from disgruntled employees though and DOT doesn't want to waste time for each cry of wolf from a recently fired driver.

Right to work states also make it difficult to prove you were fired for refusing to violate HOS. They can fire you for no reason whatsoever and by the same token you are free to walk anytime you choose.

 

That's great insight, thanks.

It's interesting to me how drivers almost seem to want more time to work. It's almost counter-intuitive. If my boss extended my workday, I'd be upset.

 

Nobody really wants more time to work.

They want less unpaid, wasted time on the docks.

In order to make up for lost paid driving time, drivers cheat on their load/unloading times to conserve what's left of their daily clock.

If you hit your 14 hrs before you've used up all your 11 driving hrs, that's less money you made for the day.

 

Bingo!

It's also about scheduling the loads. Sometimes you can end up being delayed at the shipper for so long that you "got a 10hr," and if you don't drive at least some of the miles off right then, the load will be late. This increases the "gun pressure" that drivers feel when dealing with HOS.

I rather like the idea of an hourly rate based on logs. Sure, some will try to fudge in the opposite direction then, but with GPS tracking, and time-stamping BOLs it can be thwarted the same as HOS violations. The difference is, there'd be plenty more honest people wanting to do the job, so the dishonest lazy ones would get fired for "fraudulent time sheets." No unemployment benefits for that as far as I know.

 

Half of the over the road drivers are messed up in the head. A lot of them are psychotic from sleep deprivation over worked very little time too live life. They have what I call Jello brain. You can tell witch one are really sick when they talk on the C.B. or you see them in a truck stop. They will believe anything a driver recruiter or a dispatcher says.