Tractor First, Right?

Ya some of these big companies are freaking stupid with the way they interpret the rules and treat they're drivers as dumb monkeys with their zero tolerance bs.

 

I know what you're saying, the way the media reports things makes it obvious they hate big trucks. But ya got to admit as an industry, we haven't needed the help with the bad image. We are perfectly capable of making ourselves look bad.

 

Sooner or later, some desk jockey is going to have a kill switch built to kill the engine so there's no chance for a log violation. Get caught in stop and go traffic long enough and they cut the power. Ran out of hours and now, you need a wrecker.

 

It's the ATA that's catering to morons.

The problems you see, the image that everyone hates, the sheer stupidity...is mainly on the interstates from big companies near big cities and big truck stop chains.
A gross misrepresentation.

 

There are so many drivers an office personnel out there who think that Elogs work like that now. So many bought into the myths from years back that their Elog would kill the truck at 11:01 of driving.

It's one of those things I wish people could understand isn't going to happen.

Though the megas might try it.

 

There's more than the news media hurting us too. So many TV shows and movies that people watch and believe as fact show truckers and truckstops as dirty and full of drugs and hookers.

These mega carriers that will hand a set of keys to some guy who isn't qualified to drive a shopping cart are just as bad.

In a heavy snow storm it's never the small guys pulling decks you see buried up to the windows in a drift. It's always that mega van driver who was never taught that snow is slippery.

 

Don't give them any ideas. It's ridiculous how bad they are. It seems several times a week i hear someone talking about how they got wrote up or made to watch some safety video for going over their hos by a minute or two. And the part i don't get about that crap is the fmcsa doesn't care about the occasional slip ups, you will get stuck in traffic or have trouble finding safe parking. They care about habitual offenders. I've been through 2 different fmcsa safety audits and during the first one i was chastised by mr fmcsa inspector for having perfect logs. He flat out told me that there is no way i was able to go 6 months with out a violation somewhere. The real world just doesnt work that way. Perfect logs are a red flag in an audit, it means we made it look right on paper. A few years later at the next one i made sure that there was a couple where i was over a few minutes. Passed with flying colors. Well atleast as it pertained to logs.

 

All that work we put in to make sure we color between the lines and you get in trouble for that. Hopefully they never look at mine then because there won't be a single error.

 

I was thinking of the fly by night smaller carriers. Think chicagoland outfit and other places with a similar outlook towards playing by the rules. The big carriers got some stupid drivers, no doubt. But they do make their drivers follow the HOS rules. The big hos offenders are smaller carriers. Obviously not every small carrier and independent is running outlaw, nor even the majority, but it doesn't take a lot. Just a couple bad crashes a year where the driver was over on his hours is all it takes for Washington lobbyists to say "see they need eobr's"

 

I didn't really get in trouble. I got a lecture. And a little insight into what they are looking for.