Why CSA 2010 and E-Logs are a good thing.

It is one thing for conflicts in merging and such, but the guy in the video literally mentioned being hit by merging traffic. And I know it is not what anyone wants to hear, but pay attention to what is heading down on ramps and maybe try to pace oneself so that a merge by them is a minor event instead of a major one. I deal with Chicago several times a week and some other major metro areas and don't have near the issues that the guy in the video seems to have. Sometimes changing one's pace a little to mitigate merging problems coming on actually is easier to deal with than just the mindset of "I am out here, I am going the pace I want to, so oncoming has to deal with it whether they like it or not". Those 4 wheelers may be self centered and want things their way. That doesn't require the guy in the truck to act the same way.

 

I love that it takes that crap off my back! Once I start my pre trip, 14 hours is all they get!

 

Smith System! Give yourself an out! If the left lane is not open to get over, adjust your speed.

 

Something tells me he is an aggressive a hole driver and is probly one of the guys I see in the left lane only 30 feet off the bumper in front of him. One thing goes wrong.....

He is gonna lose 50k per year? That has got to be the gross and probly exaggerated at that.

 

0:45 for the poor merge--

 

Didn't take long, I'm going to court tomorrow (Tuesday) for parking my truck overnight (Christmas weekend). Going to use the HOS/ELD as a defense.

3 tickets in 48 hours is just dogpiling.

 

Well, it looks like the BS is already starting. Shippers, receivers, and municipal entities are too used to the status quo in how they deal with trucks, but this ELD mandate is throwing a monkey wrench into that. I don't feel too sorry for them, though: just like we drivers were warned that this was coming and were expected to prepare, these guys should have been doing the same. It didn't take a genius to realize that the usual way of dealing with trucks was going to go out the window.

 

It always seems to be the driver who is placed on impossible situations.

 

It's like what an old-timer told me some time ago: the problem with this job is that the DOT has their rules for you, the company has their rules, the local police has theirs, so does the shipper - all these people have thier own little regulations they impose on you. And they don't give a rat's behind about anyone else's requirements as long as you follow theirs.

So what happens when you have to violate one set of regulations to comply with another? The usual answer is that they don't care. And so you get a driver being placed in that impossible situation you speak of.

 

Not really. If one is out of hours and are forced to leave, go ahead and do so and document the snot out of it. If nothing happens, no big deal. if something does happen, then warm up that wonderful law firm of Burn 'Em and Run, and file a civil suit against the entity that forced you to leave. That ought to be easy pickin's for a 1L law student and might not even require a retainer.

It is just driving off without documenting it that messes things up. Even FMCSA, CVSA, etc have come out that they are going to take mitigating circumstances into consideration. But you have to document things... cross all those "T's" and dot all those "i's".