Question for those who say you cant drive fatigued

My son learned this lesson the hard way: Don't worry about getting black-balled by dispatch because you refuse to drive when you are extremely tired. Just like there will always be another driver to replace you, there are other companies you can replace as well. I had a dispatcher try to tell me that I should have had plenty of sleep and should deliver a load on time. I delivered a load at 11:00pm, arrived at the truckstop at 12:40am, did my post-trip, grabbed a bite to eat, showered and finally bedded down at 4:15am. The load was to be picked up at 11:30am that day and deliver that night. That meant waking up at 8:00am, do a quick pretrip, fuel up and drive to the center. BUT the dispatcher failed to understand I was not going to wake up at 10:40am and take off to pick-up! So I refused the load and sat at the truckstop for 2 days because there was nothing "available" yet. Yes, I found another company to drive for shortly after that. My son, on the other hand, drove for the oilfields. His dispatcher had him hammering all week. When he finally had a chance to get some real much needed sleep, dispatch sent him out again. He fell asleep and rolled his truck. He is fine, thank God, but his CSA score is now so messed up no one will hire him. Your CSA is too important now. Don't do anything that will mess it up. Otherwise, you'll end up driving for the oilfields! By the way, I did let my dispatcher know that my license is a "CDL" - "Certified Driver License", not "Certifiable Dummy License"!

 

Don't break your truck and cost your company hundreds of dollars for a road call because your afraid to speak up to dispatch. That is basicaly stealing money from the company.