Silly HOS question

I have been to customers that don't have parking for trucks within 60 miles of the facility.

And those mega carriers have low criteria for hiring because the OTR field has a 130% turnover rate and there is a demand for freight that never slows down. Wal mart is part of that demand seeing as they contract a lot of there freight out to companies like mine and many others.

 

Then trucking companies will need to find different customers, not expect the FMCSA to bend its rules. A customer taking 6 hours to unload is occurring because the delivering carrier is doing nothing about this lengthy detention. I wouldn't be surprised if the driver sitting all that time was doing so with no compensation. Why would a carrier make an issue of a customer taking 6 hours to unload if they are not paying their driver for this time?

The problems are with trucking companies and their operations, not the HOS. 14 hours a day is more than enough time to operate. No reason to be going over and then having a DM falsify the record. That DM needs to find his butt in prison one day for committing fraud.

Maybe when you have a lot more time under your belt than less than a year, you will better understand what I am talking about.

 

Again, this is an operations problem with the carrier. This should be known when the load is booked for transport. So you park 60 miles away and leave early to make on-time delivery. What is the problem?

 

My company does pay detention and they charge the customer detention, but if the lazy warehouse workers don't care then nothing will happen. And situations like this have to happen at least once before they are addressed. So someone has to be the unlucky guinea pig.


Large carriers aquire so many new customers every day and who knows who will be the first to run into an issue with them.


If a driver sleeps for 6 hrs do you think he would be unsafe to drive 20min?


I guess because I don't have decades of experience I must be completely void of all common sense.

 

If a customer takes 10 hrs to unload you and won't let you leave. Again we can play the what if game all day.

I'm not disagreeing 100% with you. I just think that HOS, like many other regs, are black and white but don't cover the grey areas all that well.

 

You said he was over on his 14 hours. What was he doing for the other 8 hours that day?

Having less than a year experience just means you have not wised up yet to the excuses your company will give you. Go violate the law, have an accident, then see how quickly your company develops amnesia and throws you under the bus. There are more than 20,000 drivers sitting in prison right now for similar reasons. Your choice.

 

I'm assuming he had to drive earlier that day and didn't expect to have a 6 hr unload.

I make my decisions for myself, I don't let a company think for me. I think I would have the capability to drive 20 miles after sleeping 6 hrs.

As for "wisening up", I have had days in my past where I made more life and death decisions before breakfast than most have in their lifetime. I don't need a lecture on what is at risk and I certainly don't need to have my character and wisdom judged by the amount of time I've spent behind the wheel of a rig.

 

What you mean is, you are ok with violating the law.

Yet, when it comes to making decisions complying with the law, you have no problem ignoring it. I am not here to lecture you, nor will I lose any sleep over you violating the law. I bet your company loves having drivers like you who would violate the law for them. Just be prepared for the day when you look behind you and your company is not there backing you up, but rather helping to dig your grave. That is something you will learn with more than a years experience. My signature line is what brought me to the level I am at today, not cutting corners and violating the law out of convenience.

 

This is obviously going no where. Tom, I appreciate the conversation and I do genuinely respect your experience.


Looking back at the posts I realized it is just a bunch of posts of us debating and I really don't think anything useful is really coming of it so I will stop.


I do genuinely appreciate your time and obvious effort to educate a less experienced driver. We agree on the facts, we just have differing opinions.


I don't violate that law(I mentioned before how I have never gone over on my HOS) but there are many laws that are broken everyday by honest people (to include yourself) because those laws don't cover every situation.
I'm not going to argue anymore and make what was intented as a helpful thread into a ridiculous show.


have a good night.

 

Best wishes to you.