Three more hours added to the fourteen hour duty status

Does your oil change come as a surprise? Good grief seems you could stop whenever and not make su h a big melodramatic event out of buying oil. Hell 99% of us do it routinely and fit it in.

Your convenience is not under consideration in 395. The motoring public does not care about your horse needs. What they are concerned with is road safety and limiting the number of hours we drive a commercial vehicle.

No more, no less.

 

Nobody cares because it does not apply now.

 

The conversation was a bit different topic. The guys that do 800 to 1k miles in one 11 hour drive period.

 

Yes, I would support your decision to do something else.

 

You took a break right? You chose where to stop at.

No feeling any sympathy for you not liking your decisions.

 

Legal precedent is kinda important when it cones to less and regulations. Heck our constitution is partly based off of greek city states from over 2000 years ago.

 

Unless stopping would push you beyond the 14th hour by the time you make it home. THAT is where being able to stop that 14 hour clock would be helpful.

If I lived in my truck, it wouldn't be that big of a deal...but I don't. I go home, and I'm in favor of any tools I'm allowed to use to make that happen legally, and I'm opposed to anything that makes it likely that a delay will put me in violation before getting home. Either way, though, I'm going home...so you may as well allow me the options to make it possible within the scope of the law.

 

Explain to me how that is possible. Please. ####, ride along with me sometime. Days like today happen. Yesterday, my bank card wasn't working when I tried fueling up the wife's Suburban (no biggie...it's why I carry cash) so I swung through the bank on my way up to deliver. Took about 45 minutes...turns out there was a security breech somewhere I've used the card, and the bank shut it off as a precaution. Got a new one and we're good. Got my load dropped, empty trailer hooked and arrive at the shipper for the backhaul, and there was a mix-up with dispatch...apparently the shipper emailed him to ask if there were any trucks headed up here today, and he said "no" ...so I had to wait for the loaderman to turn around and drive back in. So now, I'm 4-1/4 hours from home...4-1/2 with a fuel stop...and I'll have 4-3/4 hours left after I finish my 30 minute break. I still need to stop and collect my pay on the way home, too. Good thing it's Friday, and I can use the 16 hour exception to make it home legally, and with a 34 restart over the weekend it'll be available again Monday IF needed. However, something like this happens early on in the week and then you're ####ed if you experience delays again during the week. #### happens out here in the real world, and it doesn't matter how much planning you do, chances are a wrench or two will be thrown into the mix before all is said and done. ####...now it's starting to snow, too. Like I said, it really doesn't matter how much you plan, things don't always go according to that plan.

 

Yes, it was not similar at all.

Trucking as we knew it then is gone. Stopping to help another truck, or at least hollering at them to see if they needed help is a thing of the past. Reporting on anything that one should be aware of down the road.... gone.

You new breed truckers that spend most of your time worrying about where you're your going to sleep at night, and wondering if there is going to be a parking spot will never know how it used to be. Proper trip planning is synonymous with shutting down after seven hours so that you can park close to the buffet, and make sure that you have time to play your video games.

Two days to make a twelve hundred mile run is overworking you. You think it is fine to spend five miles passing another truck that is governed a bit slower than you.

Hooray for automatic transmissions so that you are not required to use your left leg. Lumping your own load is as foreign to you as changing your own oil. You don't know how to use a grease gun, don't have to adjust your own brakes, can't repair a burnt out light, and never check your own tire pressure. Adjusting your clutch is as foreign to you as speaking Latin. Throwing tire chains on is unacceptable, regardless if it means that your load will now be three days late while you wait for the weather to change to your liking.

Parking in the fuel island is common place. Peeing in a bottle and throwing it out on the ground is normal because you're too lazy to walk to the truckstop.

Times have changed, and some of it certainly is better, but most of you will never experience the fun and pride in our jobs, trucks, and work ethic that we used to have.

The old HOS were bad enough with the 70 hour in 8 day rule, but at least we could run hard and get home to spend time with the family, instead of being stuck somewhere we didn't want to be twiddling our thumbs for 10 hours waiting for the clock to determine when we felt good to drive. Numerous times I have stopped to take a nap within and hour of the house because I was drowsy, but never ever have I spent 10 hours in the truck within an hour of the house just because some idiot sitting in an office somewhere decided that I must be tired because I have already worked for eleven hours.

You all enjoy it, and hopefully they will change the HOS so that you only have to work 8 hours a day, leaving you a full 16 to recover, and never over 40 hours a week. Then you will be truly happy.

Rant over.

 

Yes, I’m quite aware of that. Ever heard of civil disobedience? It is ####ing stupid, the #### I have had to do to comply with the law since December 18th. The only thing that law has accomplished is to make me ####ing angry... all the time. It’s made me ####ing hate mega carrier drivers, especially Werner with their stupid ####ing “We’re the pioneers of all this horse ####” stickers on their trailers.

Uh, no. It was designed to put the small carriers out of business, which it is doing perfectly. In my case, it’s not because of the money—my bank account is overstuffed since the end of December—but at what cost? All the the freedom to just get my ####ing job done without a bunch of regulatory ######## is gone. So I’ll move on to something else and let you keep that government boot on your neck. You seem to like it.