Here's a suggestion to the DOT

Is'nt that the truth though.Most the ppl that agree with you have been in this industry for yrs.

 

"Rest".

It seems reasonable to assume a more rested driver is more alert. The problem is the manner of operation of truck drivers, rested or fatigued, exhibits no deliberate intent to avoid accidenting.

It's like drunk driving. Once upon a time the typical manner of operation of 4-wheelers was not grossly negligent to begin with, so drunks didn't so often crash.

I'd love to read that data.

Under the old 10/8 rule I'd take from ~6am to ~midnight to get in my 10 (or often 8.5). Drive an hour or two, take a break. Drive an hour or 3, take a break for lunch and a shower. Drive another hour, take a 2 hour nap. Drive another 2 hours, maybe take a break to allow time to remove all the rush hour crashes. Drive another hour or two, grab a bite, drive another hour to my planned overnight stop.

When the 14 hour race of insanity was imposed, I quit. I'm not insane, and I was just going to be fired for lack of production anyway.

 

Most Old Timers have a proven track record, why should they change just because someone without experience says theres a better way?

 

When I was solo I would regularly extend my 30 minute break as needed if I needed sleep, especially when getting dispatched for the dreaded night run after running days for a week or vice versa. In cases like that I might take more than one long nap during my 14. Whatever it takes to stay safe.

Especially when approaching technical driving areas, like heavy traffic through a metro area or winding and steep grades through the mountains, I will take a long break to make sure I'm well rested and alert.

 

You are a piece of work. Do you have stats to back up that "old timers" are responsible for more fatalities than "young timers".

Was it your 7 yrs in retail that gave you the experience to comment on "old timers". Or was it your experience as a school bus driver that you gained since Nov 2013?....oh I am sure you can handle a big vehicle you auto crosser you.

Some of the posers that pass judgement on this board are quite something.

 

That's true, many times, dispatch would tell me, "you have a 7:00 am appointment", when I knew darned well, they just wanted me in and out of there, to get on with the next task. What dispatch didn't realize, was everyone else had the same idea, and there would be half a dozen trucks there at 7:00 am. I'd take my nap and show up at 9:00 am, and back right in, and deal with dispatch later. Another plus of being an O/O!

 

Why do you think regulation exists? Because people don't do the right thing to begin with. They exist not to make life difficult form the average law-abiding person; they exist to make sure those icewhorls who don't care who dies as long as they get their buck, do things that don't kill people.

It's all in response to humans doing the WRONG things and hurting/killing other people.

Why do you think this stuff has come about??? Because of those fool "supertruckers" who think they do no wrong ended up killing people because they thought they could drive 36 hours straight while cranked on speed, who don't care about anything but their own profit.

They make regulations to control those who WOULD do those things that get people killed. Are you gonna drive fatigued and ram a line of cars when you fall asleep at the wheel? Are you gonna shirk your pretrip inspection and ignore those bad brakes because you're in too big a hurry, or too cheap, to get it fixed? Are you going to take amphetamines and drive nonstop until you have a psychotic break??

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then those rules are for you. The rest of us get it: they're there to protect us AND them, they are there to protect us ALL...mostly from those morons that don't give a dang about the health or safety of others.

 

"proven track record" of what, killing people?? If that's the case, I want them in jail or a psych ward, not out in the general population killing people.

 

Wow Lux, I don't agree with ANYTHING you just said.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4072060]Wow Lux, I don't agree with ANYTHING you just said.[/QUOTE]

I hope they take your license soon, then, because you are dangerous to the general public.