Experienced Drivers - What are your thoughts on this?

Unfortunately most recent elections come down to voting for who you dislike the least.

 

i agree,however, id like to see any rule where it might make drivers lives better as far as hometime and pay.

the new eobr rules,as well as new hos rules,and csa..it all makes shipping stuff cost more, the more rates have to go up, and the more the drivers every task is watched over,the more were likely to be paid hourly and the more likely it is that more of the jobs available will be home every day.

essentially,drivers arent 3rd tier homeless slaves that can be fired for "fill in the blank" and then denied unemployment, summarily..currently they are all of that as far as how they are treated, and worse,and paid UNDER minimum wage.

personally 8 hrs max per day would be fine w/ me if i was able to be home after the 8 hrs,and i was paid a living wage,currently that isnt the case for most drivers and if the mechanism for that is some socialist/marxist obama policy,im for it...

with that said,im against most anything obama does,and im voting for ron paul,i am on the other hand for improving conditions for drivers.

 

If anybody thinks that politicians or government regulations are going to do anything to improve a professional driver's life, or improve anything for that matter, they are either younger than me, have a short attention span or are hopeless optimists.

You can take a look at anything the government has regulated and I challenge you to show me anything they have improved........long term. On the few ocassions they have caused improvements, those improvements brought other more detrimental changes about to compensate for the regulation.

They put limits on fees that credit card companies could charge. These fees were only charged to certain customers under certain conditions. Now credit card companies are all starting to charge annual fees to everyone from what I'm hearing in the news.

How does anyone believe that these proposed changes will improve driver's lives or income??????????

 

If you think back or do a little research you'll find that along time ago truckings companies drove their drivers until the load got there. After so many accidents the government had to step in and regualate the hours a driver could drive. That was done by the unions. The unions want decent pay and good rest times. The companies hated that because it meant less time the truck was rolling. Rep. backed the companies as much as they could and still do. I know that OTR drivers like to see no regualations on how many hours they can drive. The good ones really don't need them. But that get's down to who are the good ones? My whole point here is Rep. what more hours on the road so the companies can make more money. It hurts the very few that are paid by the mile and are local. After all back in the day most of the driving was done locally. Sp HOS really has nothing to do with what the Rep.s put into the pot. They help the companies with bigger items like lesser CO gas emissions and other environmental issues. I just don't think you'll see a Dem. leave a VP position and go to a CEO position with an oil affiliated company.

 

Odd...... seems to me that GE is a "big company" and has been coddled by the current administration.... matter of fact, he has so many corporate "buddies" it's not even funny, including a failed solar panel company that YOU got to pay for..... by the way, they failed before they even opened. All in the name of "Green Jobs" I guess.



You are kidding yourself if you think those "big bad evil rich big-corporation republicans" are your worst enemy. Seems to me, there is more money in the Democratic party than Repub. Nancy "Stretch" Pelosi seems to have quite a bit of chump change lying around (and continues to feed her husband's company).

Either way, I don't trust either party. There are Dempublicans and Republicrats. Take your pick.

 

Gashauler I have the highest respect and regard for you but we won't agree on this.

This shouldn't become a matter of politics but your post was all that.

Our country will never recover without businesses and there are more small businesses than large so I support a politician that supports business. The Dem. do not support businesses. They support social programs and taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

I may still be poor but I worked for what I have. On the off chance I get more I don't want it taxed away and distributed through social give aways. So the Dems are out for me.

 

"i agree,however, id like to see any rule where it might make drivers lives better as far as hometime and pay."
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You need to pick one or the other you don't get MORE hometime AND MORE pay. Why don't you also ask for a guarantee of 72 hours each week at home and an increase in mileage pay of 10 cents a mile, to boot? You live in the real world. It is more and more competitive each year and it is not some utopian dream world where you get everything you want for less demand upon yourself. That would be nice I suppose ... the less you work, the more successful you become and the more money you make ... the losers of our society would really be in control.
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I agree, can we just get rid of the government and start over again. Maybe we won't F___ it up so bad this time around!! When it stopped being a Govt. OF the people, Govt. BY the people and a Govt. FOR the people, and became a Govt. FOR the Govt, By the Govt. and OF the Govt. we lost. Just sayin.

 

I don't want an 8 hour work day, I don't want to be home more and I don't want hourly pay.

8 hours with hourly limits my ability to make money. It also skews the playing field in favor of the railroads. They can already underbid trucking with lots of room to spare. Our only selling point is speed. It takes a solo driver three days to do what takes the railroad a week.

Eight hour days will force team trucks. Possibly with three team members. I don't want that either.

Home time? I like the ol man. But if I see too much of him, I start not liking him so much. I'm able to remain trim out here on the road. Don't want to hang around the house getting fat.

An eight hour work day would make most of the loads I pull regionally impossible to complete in one shift, which is the way they are set up. It would be impossible to run a three drop, 450 mile load and return to the yard in eight hours. I would lose at least $250/week.

Leave the rules alone...with the exception of eliminating the 70 and making sleeper split more flexible.

 

I'm here from the government and I'm here to help.

Be afraid regardless of the party affiliation.