New York Times: Truckers Resist Rules on Sleep, Despite Risks of Drowsy Driving

But too many try and make the point "I can't make any money under these rules" which speaks volumes to anyone listening. rather then saying "I'm having to run ridiculous hours because of the 14 or because I'm not able to get a restart and have to run on recap hours"

All the time you hear drivers calling in "We need a truck driver making these rules! not someone whose never driven a truck or been in the industry" yet, you never hear one of these morons offer up a direct idea as to what they feel they would implement that would stand even a slight chance of being seriously considered in the name of safety. There are too many "driving styles" out here and you're never going to make everyone happy so the bureaucrats have to look at the big picture and also consider that carriers can not deal with a hodge-podge of rules that mean they can no longer plan and dispatch accurately. What you've got is as good as it's going to get. (Other then removing the two 1-5's that would help considerably)

But regardless what's in effect, there are going to be crashes that are fatigue related. You can never stop this. The human body is not a machine that can be turned on and off, and works flawlessly when on. If the FMCSA is not ever going to come to grips with this fact, then we are all in for a miserable existence as drivers who are expected to be perfect in a world FULL of imperfect automobile drivers.

 

No more or at any greater volume than the ubiquitous professional speeding and following too closely.

Actions speak louder than words, and few things could be more obvious than the typical truck driver is unfit to drive nails.

I watched 5 of them last evening, in 12 miles of moderate freeway traffic running ~the SL, provide 5 perfect examples of how a motorcycle should not be operated.

They ultimately all bunched together, including a set of FedEx Ground doubles, with less than the length of two 4-wheelers between them, and the leader was ~5' off the bumper of a compact car doing the SL in the #2 lane of 3.

It is as if the typical truck driver believes they are invisible, or that someone is supposed to imagine those who obviously haven't even the first idea of what they are doing is supposed to be considered a voice of knowledge and reason.

The apparent disconnect from reality is stunning, and overwhelming evidence of... nothing flattering.

 

Are we talking about HOS or poor driving habits. I was of the opinion we were talking about driver fatigue and the HOS. We can talk about poor drivers elsewhere but there's no need to mix that in with a discussion of HOS/fatigue because the two aren't connected.

But you say

... that's a pretty bold statement and if that's the case I don't want to be out here due to extreme dangers and risk of not making it home. I don't think you meant "the typical driver"???? I'll agree that too many are unsafe, uncourteous, unfit, etc but thankfully they are still in the minority IMO

 

Well... somebody wrote:

So I made the mistake of thinking what else might speak volumes that lead to deafness in listeners might be relevant, and "actions" seemed to spring to mind, for some reason.

If you have a video camera please post footage of 1 in traffic.

Please see http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...pickups-4-wheelers-impatient.html#post4081754 for an example of what a purported veteran driver thinks is video of clueless 4-wheelers, posted just ~an hour ago.

 

I was informed by someone in the know, that the WM driver was awake for over 20 hours prior to his shift. Why?? well his D.C. located out of Smyrna,De. He lives in Ga.

 

rules schmules all you need is some west coast turn-around, a pallet of mountain dew, and a couple cartons of smokes. POW!!!! a driver can stay up for days with this regimen.

 

"rules schmules all you need is some west coast turn-around, a pallet of mountain dew, and a couple cartons of smokes. POW!!!! a driver can stay up for days with this regimen."


Herein lies the problem. The policy makers and all of the vocal opposition to trucking and truckers in general --- those who make and largely influence the policy and rule makers --- think that you and others who make comments such as this, whether tongue in cheek or not, represent the general trucking population. These remarks don't really help our cause.... A good case of "I disagree with what you say, but will defend your right to say it."​

 

i think it was cspan

they are debating whether they should change the old rules or new rules

but sadly, it is unanimous from both sides of the aisle that e-logs make drivers safer

depressing

and the NYtimes prints with a slant, "despite killing millions of innocent babies, truck drivers still want to drive drowsy"

how stupid is that?

 

this is what is considered our "free press"

you can see that the "powers that be" are going all out to paint truck drivers to be mass murderers and they need to monitored and controlled with elogs and any other draconian methods they can drum up

and we STILL sit and bicker amongst each other while the snowball is rolling down the mountain upon us

 

"Despite killing millions of babies moms and dads. DRIVERS in big and small vehicles alike still want to drive like IDIOT'S"
There fixed it for them