Why 10, why not 5 or 3 hours?

Because it isn't about the individual driver, it is about a regulation that can be enforced.

BUT for some reason everyone cries about this without getting why.

It has not changed since 1938 and it worked until two things happened, one is the deregulation of the industry that allowed anyone to have a carrier and abuse the system but also the internet which allowed quick communication which forced these idiots (US DOT) to look at flawed studies to make a change in 2003.

I would not mind it going back to the 1962 version of the regulations, simplified and straight forward but alas because we have a lot of crap drivers out there who can't drive a truck let alone tell time, we end up with the archaic regulations we have and an added bonus of having ELDs forced on us.

 

Because the HOS isn't there to make sense, it's there to create a false sense of security for non-truck drivers who know nothing about driving a truck and generate citation income for the politicians that represent them.

I work well between 10-12 hours a day. Any more than that and I get dangerously tired, which is one of the main reasons why I took a regional position (where I work on average 10 a day). Some people can work more than that, some less, and even more, many people can't work a straight 10-14 hour shift. They have to split it up into two parts with a 2-3 hour break in the middle.

What the people who make the law need to understand is that you can't paint every driver with the same brush, and many are being pushed out of the industry... amazing drivers, because they are being too heavily limited by the HOS.

 

3 hours won't cover it.

 

I gave what I need to. Look it up yourself. It is 589 pages, look it for yourself to answer your questions. Get into it and all the info you need and have questions for you is in there.

 

The 11 hr driving is reasonable. It's the 14 hr clock that screws everything up. With the 14 hr rule, if a driver gets tired during middle of the day, he can't stop and take a short rest as needed because he will run out his 14 hr clock.

I was traveling to Orlando a couple of months back. Drive time was going to be right at 11 hr. The problem happend when I had a 4 hr delay because of a blowout. That put me over my 14 and a day late on my arrival. That threw my whole week off and running hard and tired trying to play catch up. I could have just as easily took a nap while waiting on a new tire, got to Orlando on time, and not have to run tired the rest of the week.

I can't drive 11 hr with just one 30 min break without getting fatigued. It's not that I'm sleepy, I just need to get out and stretch my legs. I can get 11 hr driving done in 14 hr if there are no delays but we all know there are delays. This is one of the reasons why I mostly drive local, only going beyond 100 miles a few times a year. I'm not cut out for OTR.

 

But without the 14 hour rule, we wouldn't need a 10 hour break as we could now work 24 hours a day.
And we all know that without any rules every driver will stop for a short nap when they're tired.
The 8 hour break rule is silly, but I can live with them

 

What about all the semi wrecks due to falling asleep with the 10 hour rule. Man the numbers would skyrocket.

 

You don't even need the best of the best. Any subject will do, at the end of the test they'll take the best results for their cause and report them to the study. Throw away the rest of the reports that effect their study in a negative way and wallah. You have an "unbiased" study done in the name of safety.

Every statistic made by the government is made this way.

 

In a ideal world, you'd rest when you got tired and you'd drive when you felt like it. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the government telling us when we are tired and when we are rested. I think the solution is somewhere in between but I don't really know where that is. I do know the current system doesn't work for me, therefore I don't OTR.

It's not like we don't currently have drivers fall asleep as things are now. I would submit that some of the falling asleep wrecks are caused by the current regs. At the end of the day, you can't legislate stupidity or when somebody is sleepy.

 

No need. You made a statement. I question your statement and you tell me about a "study." I question the study and the conversation falls apart. Happens every time someone starts throwing in questionable research as factual.

In any study of human beings, there is only 1 fact that they all want to ignore. Get your pens and paper out, people cuz I'm stating the fact:

All men are not equal. If all were EQUAL, none could be strong.