Cigarette smoke clean-up in a 2023 Cascadia

If I owned equipment or trucks, number one thing on the employment contract would be instant termination for smoking in the units or leaving them full of garbage/trash.

I've always treated company equipment as if it were my own. Somebody spent several hundred thousand dollars on it, it deserves to be treated with respect.

 

Amen!

 

Man that's kind of a double edged sword. Smokers have rights too they just don't trump the rest of our rights.
I think where it's sticky is the fact your living in a truck and could you really pull over 3 times in an 8 hour shift to puff? More or less what the rest of working society is afforded. They might have a tough time finding sympathetic ears at the Dept.Labor on that one though...

As an ex smoker you two really alleviated some of my fear of getting into OTR Truck Driving. Very reasonable positions and all i ask for as a new driver. Get me out of this tar trap asap. Man i tolerate cigarette smoke a lot less having put that poison in my body and lungs. I have tons of sympathy for smokers though knowing how hard it is to quit. I gave up EVERYTHING i associated with smoking for over a year to finally kick it. Aint going back, even 2nd hand.

 

I have it in their contract that they must stop at least once within every 3 hours, and look the truck over in a full circle walk around.
It gets them out of the truck to stretch their legs, back, arms, and keep alert, if they did smoke, do it then. These stops are required to be a minimum of 10 minutes in duration. If they wish to stop more often, they are welcome to, but that is the bare minimum.
I recently wrapped up 2 weeks of heavy haul training a driver of mine. We stopped roughly every 2 to 2.5 hours.
They are also told not to speed, and drive to the weather/road conditions.
If driving safely takes 40 minutes longer, than driving like a maniac.
Remember that an accident will likely mean that load never gets delivered, your truck is off the road for weeks, months, or is declared totally a write off.
You could be hurt or killed, and so could others.
Your insurance also goes up, or gets cancelled, the customer is mad at you for destroying their property, and you get points against your license and motor carrier permit, and more.
Going slower, is often wiser, quicker, and cheaper.

 

Preach it Martin! I'm of that same mindset. I just don't get the hurry and aggressive driving to shave several minutes.

Its intelligent & wise to force those breaks and i agree, since your company is allowing them, i had better not smell smoke in the truck. Use your time wisely.