New Yorker Magazine Article About Truckers

I'm on board with with Andhe on this. I've only ever driven with ELD and I actually hate when it's down and need to run paper. My father in law drove for 40 years. The stories he'd tell me in regards to dispatchers expecting you to do what it takes to get the load there. There's a reason paper logs are referred to as a comic book. Biggest problem with the way things used to be is many companies almost forced a driver to run multiple log books. If you get caught the company would deny that they knew and you'd be out of a job. Sounds like great times. Why can't you currently take a nap if you need one? You're allowed 11 hours driving and 14 on duty? That leaves you 3 hours to do your pretrip/fuel/break etc. Surely you could catch a quick nap if you need one. If not, do a split sleeper.

I have watched a trooper in Arkansas run off trucker after trucker in a rest area, truckers who were parking along side the road because parking spaces were out. It was hard to watch. That shows me they care not about our safety or the public's safety, all these examples shows me that this is about one thing and one thing only...the all mighty dollar.

That shows me they ARE worried about safety. There's a reason those aren't legal parking spaces. In addition to the obvious of other vehicles hitting you. Would you feel comfortable walking around your truck doing a pretrip with traffic whipping by you? I sure wouldn't.

I’m not sure about the rest of the state but here in VA (the Roanoke area at least) the state has made it illegal for drivers to park in the weigh stations when they’re closed. Years ago, there was a good size TA at the 81/220 interchange that they closed and turned it into a “green space”. There is a tiny Pilot across the road with almost no parking and really nowhere else in the immediate area to legally park for big trucks. The rest areas also have very little space. I don’t know how you guys do it anymore with such limited parking.

Now, I have never run an E-log outside of logging on, taking a break and logging off since we had them in our yard trucks for some reason at my last job. I haven’t had to run an actual log since 2009 when I started working local. I can’t imagine the headaches those things can be but without any experience at all with them, I’ll never know. I’m sure they have some advantages to them but I guess I’m “old school” and see them as more of a hindrance. I guess nowadays the pay is better than it was back then but when I first started out making 33 cents a mile in a 62 mph truck, I never could have survived without the comics.

In my opinion, ELDs make my job safer, easier and less stressful. When I trained, part of the classroom instruction was on paper logs. I can see why drivers need to carry a paper log book with them and why they need to know how to use them if the ELD goes mother-in-law, but I hated filling them out. I even named my ELD Jenny, after Forrest Gump’s beloved Jenny. (Remember “I love you Jenny”?).

Do I wish I could falsify my logs on the ELD? Absolutely NOT. The current FMCSA limits are long enough for me, sometimes even too long. Now that I’m driving for a company that allows split sleeper, I will, on rare occasions, use it to take a Power Nap.

That article stated that driver pay, adjusted for inflation, has actually decreased over the last 30 or 40 years. If that is true, I’m not happy about that happening.

Assuming one is not totally mismanaging their diet and sleep schedule during off duty hours, 20-30 minutes should be an adequate nap. Per the Mayo Clinic, sleepfoundation.org and other online sources I've reviewed, here are some notes and best practice napping tips I have found if it helps anyone:

* Ideal nap time is 15-30 minutes (regular napping of 90 minutes or more may contribute to high blood pressure and/or alter core sleep patterns) * Caffeine naps are a great option: 1) Right before taking a 20-30 minute nap, have a cup pf coffee OR take a caffeine pill 2) When arising after the 20-30 minute power nap the caffeine is starting to kick in. *Avoid napping within 7-8 hours of your usual bedtime

Now I will stop playing sleep doc and get back to my CLP studies. DOT physical and CLP exam on February 14th!

Have a great weekend all..stay safe out there!

Just touching up here before bed...

The truck drivers being asked to leave where on the property of the rest area, not on the road or ramps. I couldn't see any logical reason for police to run them off in that situation. The truth is, the infrastructure for Truck Driver Parking is sadly lacking, I'm sure we can all agree on that. It's like a game of musical chairs, eventually somebody will be left without a chair to sit in. However, I hear where you are coming from, but this wasn't the case for this particular night.

As far as the Electronic Logs and how much time we have to sleep and nap, I don't run drop and pulls, I have to sit at the terminals while waiting to be unloaded, then drive someplace else to reload. You would be surprised how quickly that will eat up your priceless On Duty time, leaving you with an equal driving time to on duty time ratio. However, I feel if the DOT truly cared about anything other than money, they would allow us to go off duty and it not count toward our drive time so that we could take a nap without it conflicting with our drive time. What instead happens is that you have drivers pushing themselves when they are sleepy behind the wheel because they don't want to use their drive time for napping. We see it all the time on the road when drivers are swerving all over the place. According to gsgattorneys.com, drowsy driving is within the top 3 causes of truck driver related deaths. So clearly the ELD's have not corrected that one bit, I would even argue that due to the nature of how the ELD's function, the number of drowsy drivers are no better now than they were in the 1970's and 80's. Just an educated guess, not being stated as fact.

As far as DOT weigh stations, I'm sure there are some who will allow you to weigh your loads and adjust your tandems on your own without consequences, which ones I have no idea. What I have seen is a good portion of them are closed during off hours and even will block the entrances with barrels, but if they truly were concerned about safety rather than the cash they can collect from us if we get caught slipping, they would have a digital readout outside for us to see so we can take care of weight limits on our own, this way they would not have to keep the stations manned 24/7.

That's my two insignificant cents, not that my opinion matters, I won't be changing truck driving life with my little opinion regardless, heh. I have just one pebble of an opinion in an ocean, hardly enough to create a wave, haha.

I don't run drop and pulls, I have to sit at the terminals while waiting to be unloaded, then drive someplace else to reload. You would be surprised how quickly that will eat up your priceless On Duty time, leaving you with an equal driving time to on duty time ratio.

why not take a nap during that time then? Unless you're extremely lucky and you're getting loaded/unloaded instantly often times it takes a minimum of an hour. Perfect time to nap.

if they truly were concerned about safety rather than the cash they can collect from us if we get caught slipping, they would have a digital readout outside for us to see so we can take care of weight limits on our own, this way they would not have to keep the stations manned 24/7.

why not just take advantage of cat scales? Cat scales are far more frequently found in our travels than weigh stations. The only one with a digital display outside in the areas I run that I'm aware of is the NB scale on I35 just north of I90 in MN.

What I have seen is a good portion of them are closed during off hours and even will block the entrances with barrels,

if you ever make it to Iowa feel free to park at any scale houses overnight. The 2 "super coop" (both scales on I80 around Des Moines have a ton of parking. Iowa DOT posted the other day that they encourage drivers to park there overnight. While the truck stops around there are overflowing only a quarter or so of the scalehouses legal parking is full. They say you will not be woken up for a surprise inspection. You're also more than welcome to stop in and use the restroom, grab some fresh coffee on your way out. The only way you're going to be bothered is if there's something visibility wrong with your rig when you roll across the scale, like the Amazon contractor in WY that didn't have any tires of their passenger side tandems....

Kal-el, you might be thinking the 14 hour clock is unstoppable once it’s started. That’s what I thought not so long ago. Now, when I get to a shipper or receiver for a live load or unload, I get docked and put myself in Sleeper Berth to preserve clock time.

Maybe someone who is more fluent in the HOS language than I am can give a little lesson on how that works and why the 14 hour clock is not unstoppable.

I would like to read this, but apparently, I have already read my "one free article" from The New Yorker. I can subscribe at the price of $6 for 3 months (not bad), but then it auto-renews at $117 for a year - and I tend to forget about cancelling before the auto-renewal kicks in. That's how they get ya!

Deb, you are exactly right about the marketing thing.

Potato King? Are you from the Stevens Point area?

Potato King is located in La Crosse (Wisconsin).

Maybe someone who is more fluent in the HOS language than I am can give a little lesson on how that works and why the 14 hour clock is not unstoppable.

The latest update to the HoS regs allow the driver both an 8/2 and a 7/3 option instead of just a 10 hour break to reset their 14 hour clock. The problem is it's pretty easy to kill 2-3 hours waiting to be unloaded but you rarely get a 7 hour break. You still have to shut down for the 7 or 8 BEFORE you use up your 14 hours. The only, "advantage" is that you now have just 7 hours before you have to go back to work again instead of 10.

If you have to park on an exit ramp to shut down you either a) didn't trip plan or b) aren't very good at trip planning or c) are just lazy. I have NEVER parked on an exit ramp. I have NEVER had a peace officer ask me to move my truck because I was parked illegally. I have paid for a motel room to have a place to park my truck. I've planned ahead and paid for a parking space if I knew I was going to shut down late at night.

If you need frequent naps you should see a doctor. That isn't normal or healthy.

....That shows me they care not about our safety or the public's safety, all these examples shows me that this is about one thing and one thing only...the all mighty dollar.

Nah, they're an inefficient bureaucracy. For all their faults, they DO NOT care about the almighty dollar. If they did a few greased palms would have let them allow Hector, Lupe and Jesus to drive trucks in the US for 15 cpm decades ago.