Getting over exhaustion from OTR

It isn't a stupid response, it was made to get YOUR attention drivers.

my point is that if he is going through this pain at one month, what happens when he hits three months on the road?

Some of these mega companies don't care, period and they will push a driver into the ground unless the driver pushs back and many will not, the driver thinks he will get fired for demanding home time or demanding a rest of more than 34 hours.

Many fleets operate on this idea that drivers are a commodity, they don't give a crap what happens, there is always something else willing to do the job, seriously think about the 1099 owners who own junk trucks and expect drivers to bust their butts to make the owner money.

I have drivers who will do 6 months at a time if they are allowed to, it burns them out quickly, I don't want them burned out from driving, so I made it a point that they get off the road for at least a week if not longer even if it is at my expense. I view a good driver far more important than my trucks and other equipment, they make me more money than the truck does because the truck doesn't drive itself.

Many don't get the long term fatigue effect that many go through, some think it is easy to coup with while others don't realize they have it, this can lead to complacency then that leads to accidents.

My advice is to take time off for you, OUT OF THE TRUCK and more than a few hours, like maybe a couple days. If you are on the road for 4 weeks, I mean almost bumping into the 34 hour reset most of that time, then do it every month, if you are on the road for 12 weeks and with a majority of it running tight and bumping into the 34 hour reset most of the time, take at least a week off, get the hell away from the truck, enjoy a diversion that lasts a week.

AND by the way, I know a few drivers who were hired by a couple megas that have been driven into the ground, didn't want to even get back into the truck because they were condition not to ever say no. It is sad to see good people abused like this but I also understand that they feared in losing their job.

 

Yeah I look at ads that still say typical day is 12 hours. Plus the drive time to hurry up and commute home to enjoy being local to home and do something besides sleep.

 

I feel kind of dumb right now. Just realized "home daily" just means "sleep at home", which I guess is better than nothing but not quite the flavor of ice cream I was hoping for.

I'm home weekends and about 16hrs somewhere in the middle of the week. I guess it's not going to get much better than that.

"I told you already, I'm your dad, I live here"

 

Personally, I would've stuck to the "I'm more awesome than you" position, but that's me.