Hype, Histeria from the FMCSA

Exactly My point .... Speeding trucks is a none issue when you look at the data, especially when you break it down further... over 8.8 million registered large trucks with 915 fatalities in speed zones over 65mph , do the math. In how many fatalities was the truck driver at fault due to speeding over 65 mph? ...

 

It's the same thing with the 11th hour of driving in the new HOS . No fatalities 1 year , 1 fatality in another . But Joan Claybrook is the one fighting it in courts and the air bags mandated by her when she was Secretary of Transportation have killed hundreds of people , many in low speed accidents where there should have been no serious injury . The NHTSA solution was to put warning stickers in cars to put infants and small children in the back seat then allow manufacturers to install switches to disable passenger side airbags to prevent further deaths . No arguement by Claybrook or any other "safety" organization should be considered unless they can provide volumes of supporting data . When they make a proposal that is determined to be groundless and rejected they should be fined and forced to pay for the court costs involved .

 

I believe if all drivers ran legal the freight would actually be there instead of you sitting and waiting because you are running legal and the illegal driver just took your freight

Think about it just for a moment, if you have some drivers running illegal and taking the freight from the legal guy. But if the illegal guy would take his break his dispatcher would have 10 hours to get you a load and the legal guy could get moving hence spreading the freight more evenly around .

 

Drivers drive over hours to make money. That is what I did when I was OTR, I went to bed at 11pm got up at 6am, any other hours I was either driving the truck or either at a shipper or receiver.

The current system is designed to let drivers and companies cheat. My log book was legal 90% of time, anything with a time stamp was logged with in 15 minutes of the time. I had my system checked by a friend that is a PSP CMV officer, I taught him how cheating really worked and he would go over my logs to help me work on my system.

Mark

 

I believe that if the truck companies would pay for the time the driver sits waiting to be unloaded, waiting to be loaded, waiting for a load, then your job would not be needed. There would be no need to run illegal to make money if properly compensated.

 

BINGO.............

 

You don't get paid for all that ? We have 2 hours loading and unloading figured into the rate . Anything beyond that we get detention time . We have dedicated trailers and rates are figured with round-trip mileage . No deadhead . I work 50 -55 hours a week and make more than I did working 70 + hours for other carriers . My carrier also watches drivers' hours and mileage very carefully . Nobody misses a load to anybody running illegally .

 

Gee, you give away time too.

I am talking about all of the time.

I am currently just getting back into the trucking. I will be looking at hourly LTL or something later.

I have over 1 million safe miles and many donated free hours to company profit.

 

I used to drive a spring-suspended Freightliner COE pulling a spring-suspended trailer. Driving that truck at 60mph was a workout... I couldn't even imagine getting it up to 70! I'll bet the tires would have been making contact with the pavement less than 50% of the time.

Drivers of the day used to brag about "triple digit trucks"... on bias ply tires that were maybe rated for 75mph? Uh... no thanks!

 

AND I can say to that WHAT a MAN!!!