Sleepiness

I don't know how else to phrase it. Drunk driving is illegal. There will always be drunks.

HOWEVER, people do not have any thing that will prosecute them for driving sleepy when they kill others then its manslaughter or something.

It will take a particularly damaged person to abandon reason to try and get drunk for the reason it's easier than sleeping.

There has been way too much whiteline fever rolling a tractor trailer and it has to stop. And that will happen with a pernament change in the culture of dispatching and appt scheduling etc vs human needs. Nothing is more human than to get a good rest when necessary either with a proper sleep or with a nap when not able to invest 8 hours or whatever.

It's also easier to be trucking at 50+ than it is at 21. I only need 4 to 6 hours sleep a night and maybe a two hour nap or a little more. At 21 it was really tough. So I did not sleep at all. Which is why another saying sleep next week came into play. But you take away years from your future abusing your body and mind like that. And for what? That load of widgets to be delivered on time over which you have no control in establishing?

I understand your position and share it very well, it will be ME who is stuck to Mr 18 wheeler Sleepyhead. Story of my life.

With that said there are people in my church who boast they can go to Connecticut from Arkansas for example in their truck straight through without sleeping. Rah rah. have at it. There is no long preventing that. (Pickup truck or car)

However you and I and everyone knows a three day run with proper sleep each night for two will take care of the Ct from Ar trip. Otherwise it's overnight straight through from little rock. (Overnight and part of next day)

As far as someone being damaged enough to try to think driving drunk is somehow easier than driving sleepy they are inclined to drive drunk anyway. Which is essentially what they are doing. It will be on them if they are caught by the law in the act or after a wreck.

You don't prosecute dispatchers, brokers or anyone firing a trucker for being late because trucker did not get a good rest and has a service failure as a result. States don't care when they show up on the unemployment line. It's not something that matters in anything.

However it will matter if you did not get rest and you kill someone or hurt them for it.

 

At last! We have found common ground.

 

I can’t be too honest on what I do because a bunch of hypocrites will eat me alive.

Speaking of eating. clean up your diet. Sugar crash is the worst so if you drink soda, energy drinks the sugar crash will do that to you. Same with bad food. Will make you drowsy too.

 

I went through similar symptoms when I was younger, before I drove for a living.

I'd come home from work and eat supper with the family, and usually fall asleep at the table, in the middle of a conversation. Then I'd go to bed and sleep 10 full hours. I swear a bomb could've gone off and I'd have been oblivious. Next day, I'd be so tired after 9-10am that I couldn't function. At lunch, I'd go out to my car and sleep for an hour. I figured this was all because I worked like an animal all day.

It started to take a toll on my marriage, and against my wishes, my wife made me a doctor appointment.

So I went and had a physical, and full blood test done. They found my vitamin B12 was dangerously low. If I recall correctly, a good level was anything over 350. I was at 85. They called me once they got the results, told me to come in right away. I was greeted with two shots of B12, and told to come back everyday for the next 3 days for two shots each day. And follow up with supplements. Let me tell you, it worked wonders.

Go to the doctor and get checked out. You'll thank everyone who told you this later on.

 

I do not drive drowsy, period. I have stopped for a short nap a couple of times and if that doesn't work, I will shut down (hasn't happened yet).

If it ain't safe, I ain't doing it (other than the job itself being dangerous of course)

 

show me a human and I'll show you a hypocrite...