She ended up in Jail (...why?)

If a driver can't learn enough in that overly generous time-frame to be turned loose, they have no business being behind the wheel. In fact, a person could learn to drive AND enough to be turned loose OTR in 8 weeks (or less).

Do you know the most important thing to know for OTR vs. local?

Remember to pack a lunch.

 

" ordered her to pay $2,454.84 in restitution "

Judge missed a learning opportunity by $454.84

 

That "6-8 weeks" that you claim is not enough is more than I received, and I turned out alright.

No. Incompetent drivers were incompetent LONG before they set foot in a CMV.

How exactly would taking a short cut benefit someone paid by the mile? Short cut = fewer miles. Just like many companies that pay by the mile use HHG miles instead of hub miles, quite a few companies that pay by the hour calculate the average length of time the run SHOULD take and pay those hours instead of the actual time it took the driver to actually complete the run. In an "unsupervised" job such as trucking, it is how the company protects itself against people milking the clock by dragging their feet. It also encourages productivity because you aren't penalized for efficiency.

Exactly. I went to a 2 week school, and tested out early at the first opportunity half way through the 8th day. Took a week off to tie up some loose ends at home, then got picked up by my trainer. 3rd week of training wasn't quite over when the ECM went out and we had to route through the main terminal, and my trainer didn't see any reason to take me back out for another week or two to fill the time the company usually left trainees on the truck with a trainer. I picked up a truck and have been on my own ever since...probably 4-1/2 weeks total of training including the CDL school, and even that felt a little on the long side to me. This isn't rocket science. If it takes you 6-8 weeks (or more) to learn how to do the job, there is a good chance incompetence is involved somewhere...either in the trainer or the student. Of course that is "full time"...I understand a college course that only meets an hour or two per day on 2-3 days per week is going to take the 16 week semester to cover what a full-time course will cover in a couple weeks.

But hell, many of the things I had to learn back then aren't really required knowledge these days, as you've got that silly box keeping track of your HOS and alerting you before you're in violation instead of having to know the regs and track your own hours. We also didn't have the 34 hour reset provision back then, so we had to learn how to recap our hours to know what we'd have available. Check-calls were another thing that drivers today simply don't have to do because the box keeps the company apprised of the situation in regards to your hours available, location, and ETA. Don't have to learn trip planning or even how to read a map, because the company tells you what route to take with turn by turn directions. Don't have to plan your own fuel route, either....used to have a book with the "approved" fuel stops in it, and you had to make sure there would be one along your route when you needed fuel. These days, the company tells you where to fuel and how much fuel to buy. Used to have to learn how to shift...now they just stick you in an automatic truck. That's just the tip of the ice berg...with all of the stuff they USED to have to teach that is simply irrelevant info to know at many companies, they ought to be able to cut CDL school down to 3 or 4 days to get your license and then send you out with a trainer for OTR training for maybe another week. Train you how to navigate through their little black box system, tell you to "do as it tells you", and hand you the keys.

Sad state of affairs, but when you have drivers advocating the implementation of regulations which further dumb down the industry, this is what happens. When trucking became so easy an idiot could do it, idiots started doing it.

 

They revoked my card when I started driving truck You got to keep yours?

 

6 ton bridge is a 6 ton bridge! Basic math taught in every school in America except her's I guess!

 

There are certain responsibilities associated with the job. If you don't think you can handle them then don't consider it as a career.

Though her intent wasn't to collapse the bridge the actions that caused it were deliberate. Just like a drunk driver doesn't get behind the wheel with the intent to kill it happens and it is due to a level of negligence we don't consider acceptable.

If she really didn't know what a ton was that is due to a level of willful ignorance that isn't acceptable. Willful ignorance is another way of saying deliberate. If she did know and went for it anyway it was a deliberate act of stupidity.

Either way I'm glad they were hard on her in sentencing. Whether or not jail serves any good I don't know but with the way the justice system is set up she does indeed deserve some time behind bars IMO.

 

in plain view, she got what she deserved

 

Great song!

 

that's more than enough time, if someone needs more than that then they don't belong in a truck.