Petition for Eliminating the 14 Hour Rule

As much as I loved the old rules, they had a terrible flaw, and that was if you were driving for days, which happened much more frequently then than now, you main sleep time, if you didn't split your sleeper time, would shift from night to day in just 3 days.

You did your 15 for a pretrip at 6:00, drove for 5, took lunch for an hour, which was on duty, not driving because you couldn't go off duty unless your carrier authorized it in writing, which they wouldn't because of liability for the load. Then you drove another 5 hours, and you shut down at 5:15 in the afternoon. You took your 8, which meant instead of starting at 6:00, the next day you were starting at 1:15, and so forth.

As much as we hate these rules made by these idiots who have never driven a truck, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the body never gets a rest cycle. I had that happen. I stopped in Corning, CA for 6 hours, as I would split the sleeper to 2 and 6. It was 3 in the afternoon, and I spent the next 6 hours trying to go to sleep. Finally at 9:15, getting no sleep, I ran and stopped 2 hours down the road near Sacramento, and slept.

 

NO one said you had to start after 8 hours. LOL

I love the old rules. They worked perfect me. And i split. I have NEVER driven in one long constant shift. NOT EVEN today.

 

I have tried for several years to get a question answered, even made a call to Dave Nemo's radio show. I am still waiting for an answer.

Why did the gov. leave bus drivers under the old hos of service and change truck drivers?? A bus driver can stop, restart his 15 hr clock anytime and as many times as he wishes. A bus driver with a load of human lives, can actually work 24 or better hours and never violate the hos. I can pick up a load of people 3am, go to DC tour all day, take them out to dinner that night, take them to an event that night, get back home 3am the next morning, I will never be in violation. I have no place to lay down and stretch out, but I can stop the clock. Somebody tell me where in the hell is the logistic to all this???

 

The rules are not about safety.... they are about money.

 

If you want to know how insane the current rules are, I have a run that takes exactly 11 hrs. Loads in the afternoon, delivers the next morning.

So you leave at 5 to 6 pm, and get there at 4 or 5 am. But can't unload until 9. FMCSA says you can't pull off at 2 am and nap for four or five hours during the worst window for safety. You have to keep driving in order to be "safe". Pure insanity.

 

Because PATT is not against tired bus drivers, they are the driving force behind hos changes. And they are still pushing to make them tighter.

 

Rules or no rules, you **** up bad enough you go to jail.

It's all about the $$$$$$ for fines.
They want people in buses to die, population control.

 

No problem with 11/14 here.

I say ####can the 30min rule and the 70.

TA

 

Do you want to tell a bus load of tourists to "be quiet back there! I'm trying to get my 10 hr break".