Should shippers that have wait times be required to supply a safe haven

Simple, we've all been there, you get to a shipper/receiver with plenty of time to get loaded or unloaded, and they end up running out your clock, the nearest truck stop is 10 minutes away, and you may be 2 to 3 hours from having a reset, but have to start all over...so should customers who meet certain criteria (I.e handle x amount of trucks a day, or have the financial support to do so, yes I'm looking at you Walmart) be required to supply trucks with some kind of safe haven, be it a dirt lot, or a paved area

basically if I petitioned the fmcsa asking for a law/rule to protect those of us who run out of hours at a customer through no fault of our own and would have to violate our hos to get to a safe haven, therefore stating the customer has to allow us to stay there until we can move, how many drivers would actually sign the thing, if enough of you are on board, I will draw up a petition, and post a link if the mods allow it

as I understand the HOS now, you can run over your 11 to find a safe haven, however you can not run over your 14 to do so, any way all in favor say I and indicate which regulatory bodies I should adress it to, and any points that should be covered, and I will draw something up, it may be a longshot as customers are private property, and therefore allowed to write there own rules, but I think it's worth a shot, and the only way we can get change in the industry is to stand together as drivers, and push for what we want

 

First thing you may want to do is contact your state trucking association A individule person this day in age when they send something in it will just get thrown in the shredder you need numbers behind you talk to a rep from the trucking association and see what they think otherwise in all honesty especially with the obama administration your just wasting your time

 

Don't bother with the Government...
They won't do anything...if they do...they will just make it worse..

The Law of Unintended Consequences

 

You have a great idea but I don't think you are going to get to far with it. I don't want to sound discouraging but we are talking about the FMCSA here. Also who will enforce the laws? And make sure shippers and receivers do so? That is where the problems lie not to mention it would be like pulling teeth to get the FMCSA to do this. They make laws for revenue, not safety, they could give 2 ##### about truck drivers. And yes that is the honest to god way I feel about them. I don't want to sound like a super trucker but after the new HOS rules, reviewing CSA, and the BASICS its ridiculous. That is why I say they make laws for revenue and don't care about us as drivers. They have honestly pushed us into running illegally and forced us to rush and run to complete our days in 14 hours...well 13.5 now.

So what is it to them to require all shippers and receivers to provide us with a safe heaven? Heck they don't even force companies and shippers and receivers to pay us detention after running out our clocks (Midwest manufacturing is great for that). I have not seen anything about running over your clock to get to a safe heaven, I have never had to worry about it. So I cannot say one way or the other, I do know when it comes to the 14 supposedly depending on who you talk too you can work after the 14 hour mark but you cannot drive beyond it. Weather that's true or not I have no clue I have yet to read that in my HOS manual, and have never had to worry about it personally.

I would say if you want to go about this create a petition to Washington, write your senators, and write the big wigs at the FMCSA, realize you're dealing with educated morons in these letters and don't get you're hopes up but you may get somewhere with it. I would however not expect it to ever he passed as the shippers and receivers are going to kick and scream about it and big corperatuons are going to probably win out. But this would be something worth fighting for. Right along with getting the HOS rules changed back to the way they were last year, if not going back to per 2005. Good luck driver like I said I like the idea but I wouldn't get my hopes up on getting it passed.

 

The government will never be able to force shippers and receivers to provide safe haven parking because they cannot tell people what to do on their private property. If they tried, they'd lose that battle so fast it wouldn't even be funny.

The only way to fix this issue is to convince the lawmakers to change the HOS to allow drivers time to move to a safe haven if forced to do so, and to be protected from violations when doing so. However, I don't see this happening either. Like was said above, the laws are more about revenue than safety anymore, and passing a law like that would reduce the amount of violations they get to charge for.

On the other hand, throwing in the 30 minute break definitely does NOTHING for safety, but does a great job at further confusing drivers enough to snag some good revenue from unintentional violations.

I wish you the best of luck, but I'm not particularly hopeful.

 

I always thought it would be a good idea... but the truth is that the law needs to protect drivers who stay on a property. If they dont load you in time, you should have the right to park on their property... just as the law says you cant kick out someone you invited to your house... for 30 days. If they want you off the property, they can go to the court and wait their turn... just like with rentals.

No more of this threatening BS... threatening a sleeping driver should be a felony. If you hire a truck, you should not be able to kick them off the property once you have loaded them. Because we all know shippers threaten drivers who have problems taking an illegal load... Ive had the cops called on me twice for refusing to break the law. It should be felony misuse of 911, felony threat to interstate commerce...

 

This is a good start to what I'm looking for, maybe instead of a petition I will write a letter to my congressman, and for any one interested to send to theirs on this issue, the funny thing is as I post this I've been sitting at a shipper for well over 5 hours waiting on a door, and was told as soon as I'm loaded I gotta leave, it's also the thrid time this week I've had it happen

 

You can contact OOIDA to get some direction on who to send it to. No government agency can make a law to that effect since it is private property. I know some places will call the cops if you won't leave. They can fill out a trespass citation even though it will put you in violation.

 

Are you going to be out of hours when unloaded or are you already out of hours? If so tell that shipper to eat #### you're out of hours! If they call the police show them your log book and that you're out of hours! If the cop says you have to move or you will be ticketed for tress passing, or you will go to jail get his badge number and turn his ### in because he just forced you to break FEDERAL LAW!!! If you recieve a fine fight that SOB or call the county attorney and have it dismissed and show them your log. That right there is enough to get it dismissed! Also do your damnedest to get that LEO fired. These situations raise my blood pressure and make me want blood. Its complete asanide and ########.

And then people wonder why I say state boys are only out for revenue. Sure I'm not allowed to run 2 log books but if km out of hours on a shippers property and they say I need to move a cop will force me to move or let me move. That is complete ########!!! Guess they don't realize I can still have an accident weather I'm 10 minutes over on my log or 10 hours over. And the treat of fines or jail time if I don't move is ######## as well!!! Its revenue driven and nothing more.

That's about as bad as a dry van guy I met at a shop in south Carolina. Rolled through a Texas scale and had a bad brake can. That's an OOS, he paid his fine never got an OOS tag placed on the truck he was free to go. Like I said revenue and nothing more. Could that have been a tall tale and he was really put OOS quite possibly, but paying the fine and being told he was free to go isn't so hard to believe either.

Ever had DOT wake you up to do an inspection while you were sleeping? Guess what he just broke the law. You cannot wake a sleeping driver. Did you know that the CSA manual they use and what we use are different? And it really makes them mad when they have to play on level ground. Its been one sided for years. I have yet to see a state trooper that wasn't as crooked when it came to truck drivers as the roads in south Carolina. No offense to south Carolinians but you're roads in the western half curve around a lot.

Ugh now that I've had my rant and my blood pressure is about 3000/2000 I need a cigarette and white possibly a shot. Oh well I'm off duty what's it going to hurt? Heck according to the FMCSA I'm safer when I'm drunk and driving than when I'm sober and skipped my 30 minute break anyway.

 

That is true. You could work 'on-duty, not driving' indefinitely, as long as you then take a 34 hr break before driving again.