Eliminate Hours of Service

Heck yeah, dump the hours of service, and while they are at it, dump the speed limits too.
That way i can do two Salinas to Hunts Point turns each week.
Ca-ching!!!!!

 

There is a trucking company in my town, maybe 10 trucks, mostly company drivers. They too are looking for drivers.
Here is what the sign in front of their business says:
Trucking positions: First year $90,000
Late model glider trucks available, which is code for you're on paper logs and can cheat all you want.

I happen to know one of their drivers, they pay $.60 a mile, some deadhead miles not paid. So in order to do $90,000 you have to drive a minimum of 150,000 miles per year, or 3000 miles per week 50 weeks out of the year. Including loading/unloading/fuel/traffic etc we are talking 72-80 hour weeks here.
Do you know anyone in any other industry who is expected to work that many hours a week? For years on end? I don't.

 

I prefer the ELD, paper logging is a PITA. It's quicker to just let the log do it's thing. Working the clock and split sleeper, etc just adds to the brain side of trucking for me. Especially as one who is really productive, I like to run and for some odd reason enjoy the challenge of fitting 10lbs of stuff in the 5lb sack.

I was an engineer in a previous life, the fun in that job is same thing, figuring out how to make stuff happen.

Good times.

 

If you can't make a living on 70 hours a week the hours of service isn't the problem. Go find a good company that pays better. They are out there.

 

When I’m tired I can push on a bit, but when I’m TIRED, as in feeling the nod? You couldn’t put a gun to my head and force me to continue to drive. At that point I’m pulling over anywhere and taking a freaking nap. The ELD just causes stress. Stress throughout the entire day when you’re running a tight load. Stress throughout the day when you know you’ll be quitting later and it might take you a few extra minutes or an hour to find a place to park. Lots of times I’ve had to park in a place that wasn’t really safe because the ELD told me I had to stop. Then I end up not getting any sleep.

I get why we have it, but the simple fact is, IT DONT WORK LIKE THEY INTENDED IT TO!

 

You can still drive 70 if you want, you can turn down freight, BUT you can drive up to 84... by the way you are either on duty or off duty.

Lets see this example.
You drive 10 hours, you arrive at the consignee. You are still on duty, line 3 and 4 are the samething. That counts against the 84 in 7 days.

They knock on your door after 1 hour, here is your bills driver, thank you. Okay you are now 11 hours on duty, you have 3 hours on your 14, but since the trailer is empty, you are off duty. You drive to the Truck stop and tie up for 10 hours.

For the day you were on duty 11 hours, 10 were driving, 1 was unloading, but they are the same, it all on duty. You now have 73 hours on your 84. You HAVE to take a 34 on the 8 day. No more running a recap or split sleeper births. You get a solid 10 each 24 hour period.

Something is going to have to happen because of all the traffic, people that do not want to do dock work, do the lumper jobs, those are huge problems and its going to get worse. It going to take alot longer to load and unload. Look at the p-lets, unloves Yuck Stops. Long lines, nothing is getting cleaned, its a real MESS. Just think it over. Its going to take a lot more time driving. Bridges, wash outs, detours, anyways. Trying to be upbeat here. It doesn't sound so, but I am.

This system makes that much easier. You are going to find out that you need more than the 70 hours to make the same money. Trust me. The ELD already marks your positions. How much longer will they allow 15 mins for unloading and loading in the ELD? When you claimed 1.5 hours detention on your paychecks, the ELD marks you there for 3.5 hours? So why make it harder on yourself.

Take care. Happy Travels. Times are a changing, I see alot more stress and strain. So lets get ahead of it. Write your congress and senators. God Bless.

 

I won’t be writing anyone. I prefer to let the market decide what happens. Someone earlier brought up the 30 minute break. Remember how that happened? OOIDA said the 14 hour rule was too rigid and drivers couldn’t stop for breaks. They had a form letter on their website that you could fill out and email to the government telling them all about how you couldn’t even stop for a break. And the next thing you know they regulated a 30 minute break into our day. Little good ever comes from asking the government for help. Public Citizen, PATT, CRASH, and those groups have way more money to lobby for stricter hours of service rules than any group has to lobby for more hours. And say what you want about being able to turn work down, you know well and good every employee driver would be expected to work 84 hours if 84 hours were available to them. Go to any larger OTR company today and try and run 50 hours a week instead of 70 and see how that works out for you.

All the reasons you list for wanting to work more aren’t all that relevant. Freight will always move and someone will make a profit doing it. The solution shouldn’t be having to work more hours for the same money because of delays. I know everyone always jokes around about “trucker math” but sometimes it’s actually true. Like when people want to work more for the same money instead of worrying about making the same money for less time.

 

That is true, European Drivers shut the Continent down because they did not want to work more hours.

 

I think it is less about working more hours, and more about having the freedom of movement as you see fit (as it should be, and as it is in any other way of life). Imagine spending the night 2-3 hours away from your house/yard/better parking spot because you ran out of this arbitrary hours? I've had times where I'm on a phone call or in a good "groove" to keep on driving only to realize I had "30 minutes left" on my 11, when I was perfectly capable of continuing for a while longer safely. On the other hand, there had been times where it has been a drag to just even finish 9-10 hours. Not all days are the same, we're not robots.

Also, What happened to personal responsibility? If you don't want to drive more, don't. No one will force you to, if they do, quit! There are endless trucking jobs

This is so typical of any subject, everyone is so busy arguing semantics, like two dogs pulling on a bone, that we fail to see the big picture. In this case, in regards of the ELD, it was never about "safety" or whatever else they chose to pacify us with. It has always been about DATA and getting us ready for the new digitized world and the internet of things. Take the time to research how valuable data is, and that's what that ELD does, record all kinds of data, on us, the trucks etc.


It always pains me to hear the same old argument from truckers about "paper logs". They fail to notice that they are admitting to circumventing the HOS. I do not mind the ELD, it is better than paper. Now that we are all 100% legal and enforceable, the HOS should be changed to a "guideline" and not a LAW. That way we have the FREEDOM of movement/running how we see fit, and it all gets recorded. It isn't like now you don't get found "at fault" if you were fatigued, even if you were legal to run... Also, what's with the hand-holding, we are all adults here, bad things happen. It is not like the accidents stopped now with the ELD.

Remove the HOS as a LAW and leave as a guidance to follow. Let us drivers choose how we want to run. What happened to this once great land of Freedom? Are you guys going to be defending the self driving car laws that will be passed, making human driving illegal? Because of "muh safety"?