A question for Trainers....about sleeping in the top bunk when driving.....

I'm not sure but I think DOT regs prohibit sleeping, or even being, in the top bunk of a moving truck. I know that, when I was in training, I was NEVER in the top bunk while the truck was moving!

 

I was never in the top bunk when the truck was moving during training either. I only went with out the safety harness thing once. After picking my backside up off the floor once, I used that harness thing all the time.

 

At Swift you're not allowed to use the top bunk if the truck is moving. And if a trainee has a mentor tell them to use the top bunk at all they're to report it.


I use the lower bunk and I always use my straps. Like Lilbit.....I don't care to be tossed on the floor. But I use the straps not the harness as it gives me panic attacks.

 

I don't have too much padding, so getting dumped onto the floor of the tractor was a bit painful.

 

That tops my lack of padding hands down, no problem!

 

Wow I never got rolled out of the bunk, sounds to me like either ya'll toss and turn alot or your trainer needed more training, and Bonnie I think your hubby just probably " forgot" you were with him.....just saying.
I never used the straps or the harness, I'd rather go flying out of the bunk than be trapped in those #### straps in an accident.....personal preference ya see

 

Why, when team driving worry about making up a bed unless you're thinking of sleeping in your own bunk! If you decide to sleep in the bottom behind the lead driver (lead driver gets the right to call bunks!) Then get a square (rectangular) sleeping bag and throw it on top of his and catch your Z's! When awake throw it on the top bunk. Easy and not so hard as making up that bunk unless you like to hot bunk!

It's NOt against the law to sleep in the top bunk while moving. It might be company policy. But it's a good policy!

Those straps are a DOT requirement! They're there to hold you in the bunk in case of an emerency! It's the same thing as a seat belt. If you're going to be in a bunk while it's moving use the stupid things!

I have a friend whose wife took out the shifting lever in a freaking 359 Pete! He hit a truck that thought 3 blinks of the flasher was good enough warninmg for an oncoming truck doing 70 mph and actually came off the shoulder on the 3rd blink! MORON!

My buddy had no where else to go because of on coming traffic. His wife was under the covers when he hit. She was thrown THROUGH curtain in the opening ,remember it's a 359 with a 60" sleeper so the opening is if I remember about 36" wide! Not to mention that the closets are next to the bed as with most every other truck, across the floor between the seats and you know how narrow that walkway is into the shifter stack and completely broke it off the trannie and she then went into the dash and BROKE the darn thing!

She wound up with a broken pelvis and ribs, both lower legs, deflated lung, lost her baby (about 4 months pregnant), a broken arm and collar bone, broken jaw and many teeth broken out! He got his face cut and bruised and a few ribs broken on the steering wheel! He always used a seat belt! She did more damage to the inside of that cab than you would have thought possible but about 150 pounds of human (she was a taller woman) bone and flesh under those g forces is like a wild bull in a glass shop!

Yeah, don't use those straps and think you don't want to get tied to the bunk in a wreck! I'd rather be tied to the bunk and then crawl out from under those straps than become a human missile in a truck! And to do what she did in these open cabs I guess you just might make it through the windshield and get more involved in the wreck than being tied to the bunk!

Naah I'll stick to solo driving! Ain't anyone I know a better driver than me!

As for it's against the law to sleep in a top bunk while driving:: Not so or the FMCSA would not have those straps installed in the top bunk!

Unless you enjoy sailing around the world and are used to the swaying and the pitching you get up in the top bunk the best place is the bottom bunk which has less! But don't be stupid and not put those straps on! They're there for a reason! To hold your silly arse down in case of sudden stoppage! That "get trapped" thing is just not there! It's the same thing as I hear every so often some moron that'll say I'll jump before I have a wreck! Yeah that's where I want to be. Airborne and going at the same rate of speed as the truck is before it hits something and falls on my flesh and bones as I roll to a stop as the trailer swings around and lands on my skinny arse!

Again. Those belts hold you in place the same as the seat belt does! It's kinda hard to steer when you're holding on to the silly thing! Besides if the truck rolls over what the heck are you going to hold on to if you're sleeping in bed when the ride starts? HMMM? You do NOT have the strength to hold on to the sides of the bunk or over come G forces with those weak arsed arms of yours even if you're a weight lifter! the straps hold you down, the truck is upside down and you're suspended in air not thrown into the roof as it breaks and a rock comes through to crush you or some stupid scenario like that! Flying through the air while asleep might be a nice dream but getting bounced off every surface in the truck just doesn't sound fun! Volvo had a sales flick of a dummy in the sleeper during a rollover accident and I tell you he did bounce off most of the sleeper! I'll still drive solo and screw the straps! If i do get stupid in the brain and ever go teams I'll pull the straps out from under the mattress and use them! They can be loosened up so they aren't any worse than being tucked in by a loving grandmother as a child!

I wish I could think of the name of a training flick that Colonial Freight in Knoxville showed us back in the late eighties about the use of seat belts and the uselessness of your arms on a dash board. The narrator was some body builder and he gave the perfit example of why puny arms are no match for g forces! It opened my eyes!

But you're all grown up's with a brain do as you want!