Will you go without sleep in this job?

I absolutely will not ever drive my truck if I am too sleepy to do so, and I don't care if the President himself is waiting on this load. There is NOTHING in or on your trailer worth dying for.

With that being said, a 10 hour break is required every day, so it's up to you what you do with those 10 hours. Very rarely do I not get enough sleep, and when I do, it's always 100% my fault.

 

This job is about time management. I dont need that much sleep but 8 hours a day is easy to get which is more that recommended for healthy adults.

 

Like you, I don't need much sleep. With the Hours of Service rules and Electronic Logs, you have so much non-driving time you may get bed sores. No matter how tired I am, 6 hours sleep & I'm ready to roll & has been that way most of my life. In the Navy aboard ship, maybe work 12 hours, then meal & shower, then sleep 2 hours, then get up for a 4 hour watch on deck, then sleep a little before breakfast and freshen up, work another 12 hour shift, etc. All this I found not too hard to do; trucking came easy.

 

Lol! I love it when these drivers say they will never drive tired. What a bunch of BS!

Its the nature of this job to drive tired, and there is not one driver that has pushed their limits and drove sleepy.

 

If you're worried bout sleep, find another career.

 

It's not BS, at least not where I work.

Happened to me just yesterday. I woke up yesterday at 7am to get my work assignment for the day. I received one at 9am, but there were problems with the logistics or something and the load was cancelled. I stayed up all day, checking in with my FM repeatedly. Finally received a new assignment at 4pm. Drove 3 hours to my pickup, then did a drop and hook and got on the road. 694 miles to go. I drove another 3 hours until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I told them I was stopping for the night at about 10pm because I was too tired to drive safely, having been up for 15 hours. The load is going to be late because of this, but they were the ones who had me stay up all day waiting for an assignment. They responded with a 10-4 and asked for an updated ETA. By the time my break is over they'll have changed the appointment time.

I'm the driver and I have full authority to shut down my truck if I cannot drive safely. If I choose to do so anyway, anything that happens is 100% my fault. I've never been questioned when I exercised this authority, probably because I don't abuse it and use it only when absolutely necessary.

But, when it all comes down to it. It's my decision as to whether or not this truck moves, and no one can tell me differently. If I a, not safe to drive for any reason, I don't, period.

 

Stop lying. You can't honestly tell me you have never drove tired, and pushed it a little longer then you should have. Ever!

 

None of the posts mention driving tired. There's a difference in driving tired and driving sleepy. All drivers have probably driven while tired, but that doesn't mean the driver is sleepy. I can drive several hours while tired, but why waste time in the sleeper berth if I'm not sleepy and can't sleep? No two drivers are the same.

 

And there isn't a driver that has never drove sleepy. Give me break.