State and local idling laws

Unattended motor vehicles. No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition.....how many people leave their truck idling while in the truckstop.

 

Idling should be curbed, but, not at the expense of safety.

If a truck (or any vehicle) is left unattended, while other task are being performed, such as eating, showering, restroom breaks, shopping, or, just killing time, the engine should be stopped. No heating, or, cooling is really needed during these times.

However, if a driver is resting, in the bunk or not, comfortable cabin temperatures should be maintained, even if a 450hp diesel engine is used to accomplish this.

No way a driver should ever have to lay in a hot, or cold, bunk during his rest breaks. That is just soooo stoooopid. How much rest is a driver going to get in a bunk that is off the chart, hot or cold? Even if the outdoor temperature is perfect, who can lay and sleep in a truck stop with the windows down.

Thankfully, most of the jurisdictions I read about on the listing made provisions for "resting in the bunk" scenarios. Even places like MA, CT, NY, NJ, and PA have that much sense about their rules.

I concur, all class 8 sleeper trucks should have an APU. The $7,000 - 8,000 price tag makes them a hard sell to many fleets though.

 

captain caveman...thanks for that !!! I have been looking for and asking around if anyone had that list. I knew it was out there...awesome !!!!! Now I just need to find the state laws list for shutting down on entrance and exit ramps. Arkansas just made it illegal, I wonder who will follow. No ones seems to know if that includes the entrance and exits for rest-areas. They need to make a quick refrence guide for all 50 states...they can call it the "dumb trucker guide" cause that is me. Or maybe make a search function in Qualcomm that we can just type in a question and it will search the "dumb trcuker guide" so we can have an answer. We could just type in "ideling-Texas" and it will give us the section on that.

 

NY has the limit of 25 degrees for running in the winter. You should look at the post that was titled Idling considered a criminal offense. The driver was ticketed in the rest area in NY.

Massachusetts has even came onto the grounds of a shipper and told trucks to shut off the motors.

 

You're right. I re-read some of those. What are they thinking? Do they want us to die?

I have a very regular run to MA, and camp out on the outskirts of Bean-town, idling all night long. I suppose I'm due a ticket. Should I surrender? Blasted Commies!!!

 

I don't know.

I have thought that if I were in the situation, I would have to ask if he spends all night in a dark house with no a/c or heat?

Then ask how they would feel.

 

I guess drivers could get frostbite and sue them then they would probably change the law. The only way to change laws it seems is to either cost them money or make them look bad politicly.

 

They want the truckers to be safe on the road, get plenty of sleep. If the temp is 100 degrees outside and inside the truck is hotter if your not idling....how can drivers get "good" sleep during their break.

 

I've been told by two different people so far that California just implemented new idling laws in August that make it illegal to idle more than 5 minutes, period.

I also heard that all of the deisel powered APU's currently on the market do not conform to the California deisel emmissions standards and are illegal at this time. In order for an APU to be legal, according to the new rules, it must have a sticker on it that says that it conforms to the new standards, and apparently none do at this time.

I certainly hope that this is not true. Anyone have any info on this?