DOT initiates 4 Major Rule Changes

Horse crap. This is about keeping guys off the road after 14, 15, or 16 hours on duty. Every #### time we allow some sort of break in the middle yahoos work through it an lie to make it sleeper berth and then get out on the road driving fatigued.

We all know the wink wink nudge nudge usage of the "splits".

 

I haven't quite figured those folks out yet. I like driving like the next guy, I really do. But I don't see anything admirable about working 14,15,16 or more hours a day. It doesn't put hair on your chest or make you more of a man, it wears you out and nobody thinks you're cool beside the idiots at the lunch counter. If I had the chance to be in the position of person A, I'd take it without thinking twice, and wouldn't feel any less "trucker" after the fact.

I'd laugh my way to the bank and have plenty of time do other things, you know, enjoy life a bit which seems to be a sin in trucking. "WHAT! You don't like to drive till your seeing double? You don't take pride in having no life and running up and down the highway for ungodly amounts of time?! Then maybe YOU shouldn't be truckin!" Yea....OK hoss, I'm so envious. I'll tell you who I'm really envious of, folks who have an actual schedule, a real semblance of a life, who can plan events with their family, do extracurricular activities, sit down and have dinner with their wife and kid, read bedtime stories, go to sporting events etc etc. Those are the people I envy. "But you chose to drive a truck," Yea, I did, and I enjoy it, I'm good at it, but at a certain point you just become a slave to that truck. Does me saying that make me "less of a trucker?" If so, then so be it. Will I drive forever? I don't know. I do know there's cushy driving jobs that allow you to have a life, and when I find one, I'll take it and go from there. For now, I'll continue to save $$$ and plan for a future move, whether it be within the industry, or outside of it.

 

Unbelievable...Just because the h.o.s. allow you to work up to 14 hrs. a day doesn't mean you have to.

 

I do my job, hours and ELD be damed. I am paid well, and my customers appreciates the effort. The customer (contracts) comes first. Because ultimately, they are the ones paying my bills. I am not out here to trash around in a truck stop, I am here to make money. Flame suit on...

 

What's unbelievable is your statement. Good luck telling your employer "nah, I'm done for the day," when you still have available hours. Tell me how well that works out for you. Unless you're a O/O your statement is invalid.

 

That just makes my point. Just because the speed limit says 80 mph doesn't mean I'm "required" to drive that speed. It simply gives me the "flexibility" to do so if I choose to.

 

My employer is essentially the broker I contracted with to do a load. It's all the same.

 

Lovely. Now companies can push local drivers to work 16 hours / day for the same money. Because it's legal. So you work 16 hours / day, and then face a 1 hour commute back home, and a 1 hour commute back to work the next day. That leaves 4 hours to sleep, allowing for an hour to get ready to leave in the morning, and an hour to unwind and eat after getting home.

No thanks.

I want to see the HOS tightened. Then the shippers, receivers and carriers will be forced to become more efficient and pay more money to the drivers.