Posted on 12/29/2001 12:17:30 AM PST by MoJoWork_n
Keith Stanley gulped some fresh coffee and leaned forward at the table, his bloodshot eyes narrowing. "Sweatshop is a good description," the longtime trucker and father of five said as he tried to pump some life into his weary body at a truck stop in Fort Stockton, Texas.
"But I've got to do it. I'll probably kill myself putting my kids through college. But there's no way I'm ever going to let them drive a truck."
In the last two decades, trucking has become the lifeblood of the American economy, transporting 8 billion tons of freight annually - almost two-thirds of the total tonnage shipped. Yet as trucking moves the economy, truckers aren't reaping what they've helped sow. They drive hard, putting in long hours day and night, often for not much more than minimum wage. And they have to drive tired, pushing mile after mile on a few hours of sleep, sometimes just to break even. That makes the nation's highways treacherous for both cars and trucks - more truckers die in accidents each year than workers in any other profession. Congress, the trucking industry and safety advocates have debated for years how to get tired truckers off the road.
But the bedrock problem isn't the law that tells truckers how long they can drive. It's an economic system that pushes them to drive past exhaustion, no matter what the law says. Although some companies strictly enforce federal regulations and pay their drivers well, many don't, and independent drivers confront the hard truths of deregulation. "Until you change the economics of trucking, nothing will happen," said Bob McEvoy, former director of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Maine office.
"The Kansas City Star" spent nine months examining the trucking industry. As part of the project, a reporter drove an 18-wheeler for 6,000 miles to witness the pressures faced by truckers as they try to make a living. All along the way, "The Star" found zombie-like drivers putting in long hours for low pay. They were spending weeks away from home and family, living out of duffel bags at crowded truck stops, showering in seedy stalls the size of broom closets and waking in the middle of the night with prostitutes banging on their truck's door. Some drivers said they were running so hard that they hadn't been home in two months. Some were on their third and fourth marriages - a driver drinking coffee at a Texas truck stop had just been divorced for the fifth time.
At the Dixie Truckers Home in McLean, Ill., one Missouri driver said his wife had just told him that if he didn't get home that weekend, she was leaving. "There's no way I'm going to get there," he said. "They've got me headed in the opposite direction." A trucker sitting next to him said he could relate: "The only thing I've got left is four cats and a truck."
Scott Voyles was bleary as he finally finished dinner about 9 p.m. Driving 130,000 miles a year has let him take home about $36,000, he said, but then he has had to pay for his own repairs.
It all goes back to deregulation. In 1980, Congress loosened restrictions on the trucking industry, making it easier for companies to start up and haul freight from coast to coast. Deregulation, which many believed would create equal opportunities, became unbridled competition as the number of trucking companies grew from 30,000 to more than half a million. Freight rates fell, bankruptcies skyrocketed and wages stagnated. "If a guy can get a bank loan and a truck, he can go out and start a company," said Dave Brinkman, an owner-operator from Indiana. "And to get a load, he's got to cut the rate. And the cheap truck always runs." The average trucker works more than 3,000 hours a year - roughly 60 hours a week - and makes between $30,000 and $45,000, said Julie Anna Cirillo, the government's head truck-safety officer.
"Most blue-collar Americans work about 2,000 hours a year," she said. "So they're working 50 percent more for not much more pay, if any more pay." Jerry Stricker, a trucker from Illinois who has driven for 44 years, said he had never seen things so bad. "I made more in the '60s than I do now," said Stricker, who had stopped for lunch at a truck stop in Denton, Texas. "I'd take home more and be home more. Now, it's all cutthroat."
Stricker drives 3,000 miles a week, working an average of 60 hours. His take-home pay is about $500 a week - or less than $8.50 an hour. Gary Rosenberger of Kirkwood, N.Y., who has been driving a truck since he was 16, also logs about 3,000 miles a week and makes $500. He tries to stay on the road a month at a time to make more money. When you add in time spent waiting to load or unload, he said, "there's days out there a trucker don't even make minimum wage." Last year, Brinkman drove 130,000 miles and grossed $149,000 with his truck. His taxable income: $18,000. This year, helped by lower fuel costs, he's clearing about $3,000 a month before taxes. Brinkman said he was paid about the same money per mile in 1972 but fuel then cost only 27 cents a gallon.
Still, Brinkman figures he's in better shape than most truckers because he has a shop and can do his own repairs. But he worries about some of his friends. "I've got guys I run with, they have to cut costs because they're broke," he said. "And a man out here going broke, he's going to run as hard as he can."
Most truckers must drive long and hard to make money because they're paid by the mile - not by the hour. And unlike almost all other industries, trucking is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the law that established a 40-hour workweek. That means truckers don't have to be paid minimum wage - $5.15 an hour - or overtime unless they're in a union. Union drivers often are paid by the hour, but fewer than one-fourth of truckers belong. As a result, truckers routinely work more than the 60 hours a week and 10 hours at a stretch that federal law allows.
In a 1997 survey conducted by the University of Michigan Trucking Industry Program, 10% of the drivers reported working more than 95 hours in the past week, with the average non-union driver working 66 hours. To drive that hard, truckers sometimes take extreme measures - even answering the call of nature without stopping. In fact, Oregon passed a law in 1999 making it a crime to toss containers of urine onto roadsides. A state transportation official blamed the growing problem on harried truckers. North Dakota transportation officials want a similar law. They've put shields on maintenance tractors because mowing crews have been getting splattered up to 40 times a year when they run over urine-filled containers.
At 1 a.m. in Waco, Texas, a truck crept into the Flying J Travel Plaza. The driver backed his rig into one of the few open parking spots, then crawled directly into his sleeper berth in the back of the cab, so exhausted that he forgot to shut off his left-turn signal. Inside the truck stop, several haggard drivers stood in line at the fuel desk, duffels in tow, waiting to get a coupon for a shower. In the trucker's lounge nearby, one driver stared blankly at the TV screen while another was sprawled across two seats, out like a light.
Over in the restaurant, two truckers filled their plates with pancakes and home-fried potatoes at the breakfast buffet, then shuffled back to their tables to eat in silence, their circadian rhythms in chaos. Two hours later, the red turn signal was still blinking on the truck out in the parking lot.
Robert Flint can see truckers' exhaustion at weigh stations, too. Trucks sometimes get backed up at the scales, said Flint, a state trooper in Maine. As inspectors walk down the line, they find drivers asleep at the wheel after waiting only 15 or 20 minutes. "That's pretty scary," Flint said. Flint said the truckers were not solely to blame for driving too hard. "They're just trying to make a living." The bigger problem, Flint said, is the companies. "They push these people," he said. "When these trucks park and are not moving, they're not making any money." Sometimes, Flint said, the truckers point out faulty brakes or bad tires to the troopers. "I've stopped truckers before and had them say: 'You didn't hear this from me, trooper. But I want you to issue a summons to the company. I've been telling them to fix this problem for three months, and they keep blowing me off,' " he said.
"Have I heard that? You bet," said Dave Osiecki, the American Trucking Association's vice president of safety and operations. "It's probably the exception rather than the rule, but I'm certain that's occurring out there, because there are some companies that don't take maintenance as seriously as they should."
In May 1999, the owners of C&J Trucking Co. in Londonderry, N.H., were sentenced to four months in federal prison and the company was fined $25,000 after the owners admitted they permitted truckers to violate hours-of-service rules. The company paid drivers "off the books" for illegal driving time. An investigation was triggered after a company driver rear-ended a car on I-93 in August 1995. The crash killed four people.
Shippers, too, have created a system that pushes truckers to drive farther and faster. In recent years, manufacturers and retailers began stocking smaller inventories to decrease warehouse costs, so when they need an item, they need it fast. It's called "just-in-time" delivery. Shippers now demand precise delivery times, sometimes penalizing drivers for being late - which can happen if truckers run into delays from road construction, heavy traffic or bad weather. And once they get to the dock to load or unload, truckers often must wait. While they do, they don't make any money, and the hours count against their allowable driving time. "We show up on time, and we sit and sit and sit," said Dave Morgan, a driver for Werner Enterprises. Recent studies have found that truckers spend 30 to 40 hours a week waiting at the mercy of the shippers and receivers. Many truckers don't log those hours because they would cut into the driving time they're allowed.
James Thurman, sitting at the breakfast counter at a Virginia truck stop, said that the week before, he had gotten to the dock of a home improvement store at 4 a.m. after driving all night. He got out of there at nearly 3 the next afternoon. "It was a whole day wasted," he said. "With any other job, the law says you're to be paid for the work you do. But we don't get paid for that."
For many truckers, the job isn't worth it. Industry experts say annual driver turnover at many companies runs from 60% to 120%. That has created a shortage of 80,000 to 100,000 drivers, according to the American Trucking Association. To find more drivers, the Truckload Carriers Association is asking the Motor Carrier Safety Administration to authorize a test project putting 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds in big rigs. Current law requires interstate truckers to be at least 21. Although critics say the move would be deadly, the trucking association says the young drivers would be required to undergo lengthy training and close supervision until they turn 21.
Want ads for drivers fill the numerous trucking publications. Companies also are searching for drivers in non-traditional places. In California, prison outreach programs are placing parolees in trucking jobs. Some seasoned drivers don't like the newcomers. "It's like they scraped the bottom of the barrel and put 'em all in trucks," Bill Rushing said as he sat at the horseshoe-shaped counter in a truck stop in Toms Brook, Va., eating fried potatoes and a sausage omelet. "You can't trust them," said the trucker from Baton Rouge, La., who has been driving off and on for 25 years. "Now you see guys running across the country, falling asleep, crashing and killing somebody." Maine trucker Guy Bourrie said he, too, had seen a change in the new drivers. They travel at speeds well over the posted limit," Bourrie said. "They weave in and out of traffic and follow less than a car length behind autos, using intimidation in hopes that the small vehicle will move. They cheat on their logbooks, drive when overtired and fill the CB airwaves with language that would cause a barroom dog to drop its bone."
Almost everyone agrees that highway safety won't improve until the trying conditions of the trucking industry are addressed. The first thing that needs to be done, safety advocates say, is to start paying truckers by the hour and not by the mile. "The pay-by-the-mile system is the root cause of driver fatigue," said Daphne Izer, a founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers. "Until truck drivers are paid for all time worked - including loading, unloading, waiting and driving - the highway truck crash rates have little chance of decreasing." Izer, of Lisbon Falls, Maine, formed her group after her 17-year-old son and three friends, ages 14, 15 and 16, were killed by a tired trucker in October 1993 while on their way to a hayride.
They're putting in so many illegal hours, one study said, that carriers would have to hire 130,000 more drivers at a cost of between $2 billion and $7 billion to get legal. But studies also indicate the public is willing to pay for safer trucks. A 1998 Lou Harris poll conducted for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety found that 71% said they would pay more for goods to get tougher truck safety standards.
Interested to know what opinions other people have, in or out of the business. Under NAFTA rules, the cream of the Mexican trucking industry is going to be free to migrate North, to compete under the same conditions, pretty darned soon. Are there going to be cross-border (and/or state-to-state) overlapping regulations/safety codes?
Don't get me wrong, I think enforcement of current rest regulations should be stepped up, along with a few more regs, but tied to research on circadian rhythms, not union opportunists.
Where is Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?
I was never a Teamster, you can have it!!
To stay within current regulations they would log a weeks worth of travel while doing it in 4 days to take 3 days off. While I cannot say this is true, this is what the story conveyed to me, and that was what one truck driver in the story said in a round about way (you have to read the entire expose).
As far as the pay is concerned, the article is also accurate. I am out about 150 hours a week. That is six days on the road a week. That includes the driving, unloading, loading and sleeping times. On a good week I make $1000. On a bad week, I make $300 to $500. So you might say that is a lot of money. Well, lets put it into perspective. An average person making $12 an hour working 40 hours a week will make about $480 a week. Now have that same person work the same hours as a truck driver. I can drive a maximum of 70 hours a week. Plus the loading and unloading time that I log as sleeping time. Together, I am actually working about 110 hours a week. That is the number of hours I am awake and doing something that makes my company money. So If the average person out there making $12 an hour were to work the same number of hours that I do, they would make about $1320 a week. Now you see that we don’t really make that much money. As I was saying before, the driver is responsible for the equipment and freight the whole time he is out. So If you figure that is worth something, then you see that over the 150 hours a driver is away from home, he is only making $6 an hour. Pretty sad paycheck for what we are doing.
Now consider the fact that we have road expenses. We buy two to three meals a day if we are lucky. We have to keep a home away from home in the truck. The company does not cover the cost of the our living expenses. Sometimes we have to pay up to $10 for a simple shower. The food in truckstops is way overpriced and god forbid we have to buy anything from the store at the truckstop. Most things are marked up 3 to 5 hundred percent. I can usually get by on one meal a day and try to shower only when I can get a free coupon. Most things I bring from home and if I need something else, I try to do without. Even doing this, I still end up spending about $100 a week on the road just to get by. That is lost money. It would be like anyone else having to give up a portion of their paycheck just for the privilege of working.
Just remember, the next time you four-wheelers are tempted to cut us off, speed up when we try to pass, or are just being a total pain in the butt, we are tired and just want to be left alone to do our job. Please read the article. It is very true. Those of you that have smart remarks to make, all I can say is your ignorance is showing.
I took a drive out of town a few weeks ago and when I pitted at a truck stop passed time with a couple of truckers, for a minute. Both of them seemed wiped-out and kind of groggy. When I read the article this morning, it rang a bell.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone here's replied without reading the article. I don't think you're breaking any rules.
I don't mean to get all excited, but this really hits me in a sore spot. If it were not for us, this country would come to a stand still. But we are treated like second hand garabage. Figure that one out.
Am I the only person who thinks that the 10/8 rule is absurd [for every 10 hours driven, you need to log eight consecutive hours of rest; any r&r during the day which is not part of continuous eight-hour stretch counts for naught]? The way the rule is set up, the only way to drive more than 10 hours every 24 is to have a 'rotating' schedule where you drive different hours every day. It would seem much more reasonable to work a daily routine with two 6-hour shifts with one or two hours in-between and 8 or more hours of rest after two such shifts. This would allow 12 hours per 24 without having to live 20-hour "days".
And yes, he'd love to get out of driving. We're working on that now.
What a pantload.. I have a buddy who drove a concrete truck.. Locally.. about 7 months a year and he made like 40 grand.
OTR drivers make (or can make) considerably more. So stop whining already.
Sure they do..
Many of them are paid by the mile, so they: Take stimulants to stay awake, falsify their log books, drive heavy (especially construction trucks) and drive entirely too fast.
Alot of these guy's are nothing but a menace (and I know a bunch of them) fortunately the CDL weeded a bunch of them out.
If they aren't offering more money, then poorman might like you to believe there is a shortage of drivers, but there isn't, really, if the real wages are stagnant or going down.
The laws of economics and supply and demand are not suspended because of what people "think" to be the case.
The driver MUST deliver the goods or face an economic penalty.
It is not a good situation. I (and probably you) do not want the govt to step in and dictate salaries. Having said that, the govt will NOT allow airline pilots to fly more than about 80 hours/month. They know the pilots have to prepare, plan, etc, more than that.
There needs to be a similar oversight that works for you guys - a mandated 200 hour/month driving/loading limit or some such.
When the industry is wanting to hire ex-cons and eighteen year olds to truck an eighty-thousand pound rig at 70mph on a crowded interstate with only three hours sleep in the last 36 hours it may impact on MY life.
Best wishes and I appreciate what you do.
The trucking industry is reaching into the pre-adult ranks and parolee work force, to help keep the trucks rolling and the price paid per-mile low, and they're still short of drivers. It's not inconceivable to think that someday soon, it might be all Central and South Americans driving those trucks, and the per-mile rate might be lower than it was in the 70's.
The only real problem is that the industry has been regulated so heavily that the independent operator is about to go the way of the DoDo bird.
Speaking solely for myself, I say your attitude sounds kind of selfish. If I find a convoy of trucks all going 70 to 80 MPH on the interstate I'm over-joyed. That's the speed range that the overwhelming majority of drivers in this country find most comfortable, for safe weather conditions. All those tight-sphinctered types ("can't get the pin out with a D-9 Cat") who insist on slowing everyone else down are just as dangerous, in their own way, as the speeders who impede other drivers by going too fast. When it comes to traffic, I say, "go with the flow". Wide variations in speeds driven are dangerous, not a few extra mph. (Within reason, I mean, the up-to-10-miles an hour over that most jurisdictions allow.)
Most truckers must drive long and hard to make money because they're paid by the mile - not by the hour. And unlike almost all other industries, trucking is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the law that established a 40-hour workweek. That means truckers don't have to be paid minimum wage - $5.15 an hour - or overtime unless they're in a union. Union drivers often are paid by the hour, but fewer than one-fourth of truckers belong. As a result, truckers routinely work more than the 60 hours a week and 10 hours at a stretch that federal law allows.
I find it absurd to think that the Federal government believes it has the ability to tell me how many hours I can work.
I agree with this statement.
My husband is a (local) driver. I don't think it is absurd to limit the hours someone can drive. As mentioned above, it is done with pilots, so why not drivers? Fatigue does have an effect on your work. I am not thrilled when my husband drives if he is sick or has worked long hours. It makes it more likely he could cause an accident. My dad was a military pilot and was grounded if in less than excellent physical condition for any reason (even mild illness.) When it's a safety issue that can impact me- heck yeah I want some govt. regulation. I don't think surgeons should work extremely long hours (under normal circumstances,) either.
So what. It's not the government's responsibility to decide when I'm fatiqued. I'm perfectly capable of doing that for myself. The government is not your mommy.
That's the excuse given yes. But it doesn't make anyone any safer and a man has the right to decide for himself when he is or isn't fatigued. The government is not your mommy.
So, if that is the excuse given, then what is the REAL agenda?
But it doesn't make anyone any safer and a man has the right to decide for himself when he is or isn't fatigued. The government is not your mommy.
By this argument, then the government would never pass any laws for public safety.
I could give a rip what someone does when they are tired as long as it doesn't endanger me.
The problem with fatigue is that it's a pretty subjective thing and you may not notice it creeping up on you. One reason I am against gun-cotrol is because I trust most humans to not shoot me. Shooting a gun is a conscious choice. Most people aren't going to pull that trigger unless they have a good reason to do so. However, despite best intentions, we are all prone to fatigue. Can we control it (without drugs masking it)? No. Are we always aware of it? No. Are we more dangerous on the road because of it? Yes.
As much as I dislike this argument, driving really is a priviledge, not a right. That's why there are laws regarding turn signals, brake lights, headlights, speed limits, etc. I have seen more than a few fatal accidents caused by semi-trucks in my commuting time. Only one of those actually killed the driver at fault. All the others were in other vehicles.
They shouldn't. The governement isn't your mommy. It is not their job to make you feel safe. It is to protect your rights.
"He that would give up essential liberty to obtain a little bit of personal safety, deserves neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
The agenda of the control freaks is to benefit their donors. Big trucking concerns who succumb to the temptation of a quick buck in the short term. If a law will help them make more profit and squeeze the little guy, then they'll flood their congressman with dough.
This article actually has the audacity to claim that the trucking industry was deregulated.
Gotta love the loopholes built in for the big donors.
I have talked to alot of truckers in my life and it hasn't gotten any better from the 70's. It keeps getting more and more regulated rather than less. Glad you found something more amenable to your health.
Whether or not the government is your mommy, your schoolmarm, or the personification by an avuncular cartoon symbol of complex interactions between interchangeable, revolving business and governmental elites, there are still only so many hours in the day. There are so many miles that need to be driven, so many hours that need to be devoted to maintenance, to rest, to loading/unloading, delays... It's not rocket science. It's not even calculus. Somebody really good at arithmetic should be perfectly capable of making really worthwhile contributions to the debate. But it looks like keeping up the accounting ledgers of the little guy -- helping the average trucker stay in the black -- doesn't count for a lot, when it comes to reckoning costs and sorting out benefits and penalties. I don't necessarily think "unions", "government", or "self-regulated industry councils" are the people best qualified to find a solution. But it does look like a serious national problem that's only going to get worse until a solution can be found that's acceptable to everyone's best interests.
What they are implying is that the problem would get better if only "enough" drivers were in the union.
And you're right, there are only so many hours in the day. Thus the government should stop taking up so many of our hours controling our behavior.
Somebody said, "a perfect democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner".
You seem to be implying the two wolves are the unions and government, devouring the truckers.
Based on what I've heard here, I'm leaning towards a scenario that has the truckers squeezed in between indifferent Big government on the one hand (on the federal level, with the collusion and complicity of big donors and industry lobbyists helping to make sure that the truckers will always be liable for the big Catch-22 "you-must-wait-for-unloading/but-pay-always-for-late-delivery"), and then on the other hand, truckers are dogged by ceaselessly vigilant Small government (on the local municipality and state level) and a milliion petty tyrants. The day-to-day obstacle course of state patrol highwaymen laying ambush from behind bridges. Global positioning monitors making sure There-Are-NO-Deviations. All the logsheets, dispatchers, regulations, etc., the quotidian manifestation of the Big Government/Business partnership, always banging on the side of the truck, showing up cherry in the rear-view mirror, or otherwise imposing penalties and inconveniences on the working stiff.
And in the end, maybe, the biggest squeeze is between the voters and government. We all get our low dollar inventories delivered to Wal-Mart and K-Mart at the lowest possible cost, so who's got a bitch about that?
And the coffee at most of the truck stops really sucks.
Be thankfull he didn't or your stomach would be empty, your cars gas tank empty, the department store shelves empty. Every thing you eat or use likely has been brought to you by a truck. It's not BJ and the Bear or Smokey and the Bandit. I drove back in 84-85 and it wasn't no picnic then. Try driving a 76,000 pound rig from Buffalo, NY to Knoxville overnight. Spend three weeks onnthe road and come home to a $50 check because the layovers ate your profits. If the truck doesn't move you don't get paid. But you very well still have to eat.
The article isn't talking about Roadway, Everett, or UPS. It's talking about companies who pay nothing and run the drivers the hardest. One of the worst Kodak moments is to pull over in a rest area dead tired for an hour or two sleep. You know not to climb in the sleeper or you'll be out for at least 8 hours so you sleep in the seat. Then you wake up to the sound of a truck pulling off and you see it. In a dead panic your foot goes on the brake before you realize it's the truck beside you moving and you remembered you pulled over. Does that scare you? It should!
An OTR driver is at the mercy of the company dispatcher. They make the promises you can't keep and don't keep the promises they made you for driving all night for a load headed in the general direction of home just to see it go off the lot on another tractor then tell you it's Friday afternoon call me Monday morning and we'll start getting you a load going in the opposite direction. Fine in the mean time you are 1500 miles from family and likely in an area with no truck facilities. Texas used to be the worst for that one I dreaded a load going there.
Think truckers know all the good places to eat? Think again! You eat where there's a place to park and eat what is cheap. The only decent meal I had at a truckstop in nearly 8 months driving was in Kingdom City, Missouri at Adkins Truck Stop.
Or here's a better idea ride with a driver who can't read. It's a riot. Ever try riding in a car with someone else driving? Most persons can't do it. How do they expect such an arrangement in an 18 wheeler? Just about the time you get some trust in your partners abilities he wakes you up and says grab your log book & update I ran off the road. You ask where? He says outside Nachodoshas {sp} Texas. You look out the sleeper and ask where's the road? He says up there. You asked what happened. He says I tried to make a U turn and the wheels went off the road. Then you remember the hi-way is a two lane not a four lane.
So the state patrol shows up lucky for both of you it's a Rookie who doesn't understand what just happened. The wrecker shows up and the driver looks and says who was driving? Your partner admits as much then the wrecker driver says in my 25 years as a wrecker driver I have yet to see such a stupid stunt as this. You sleep lightly if at all from then on. For the responsibilities and required skills needed to do the job it is the lowest paying job in the nation bar none. How many jobs you know of require sworn statements under penalty of perjury each time you come on duty? A trucker is required as much to certify the saftey of the truck.
Granted some drivers do not need to be on the road. As long as the payscale remains at the bottom and working conditions do not drastically improve it will not get better. As a matter of fact when the Mexican trucks get released for OTR on our interstates it will be a blood bath. But hey the delivered product will be cheap right? Think about what I just posted the next time you get behind a truck to avoid getting a speeding ticket. I got out because it just wasn't worth it. I was lucky I had other skills to fall back on.
I also see you think the government should not limit the duty hours of a driver. I challange you to drive for 6 months and say that. Weird things happen after so long behind the wheel. You can either try to stay awake with coffee and smokes or you can be the babbling idiot spewing out trash 90 miles a minute on the CB. Wired I think it's called. Some standards of reasonable saftey must apply. The companies I guarantee you will not volunteer to police themselves. Loosen the hours restriction and the pay will go down & hour worked will increase. These are not local drivers most locals are exempt from OTR regulations. A local driver means you get to stop and move around every hour or less. OTR means you stop to fuel and eat once or twice a day.
Right now we are stopped and checked at scales, rest areas, and along roads. Our logs and paperwork are reviewed constantly. We are constantly monitered by satilite positioning systems, computers and every branch of the police force. We can be searched withour probable cause, we can be stopped just for the hell of it. If we stop to take a nap, the cops will bang on our trucks and demand to see our logbooks or inspect our trucks.
If the average driver were subjected to all the laws, regulations, and hassles truck drivers have to put up with, there would be a rebellion in this country.
After the 1995 FAA reauthorization Act was passed, I, in my wrecker business, was subjected to a lot of this crap, and I will tell you that you have no idea how bad it is. Next time you see a professional driver of any kind, shake his hand and thank him for "being a part of what keeps America rolling...."
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