Posted on 05/15/2018 7:15:31 AM PDT by jonascord
Outside of nation’s cosmopolitan centers are thousands of miles of American farmland, road, nature, and small communities, ranging from even the outskirts of the Washington, D.C. area to the Heartland itself.
Every day, thousands of trucks, trains, ships, and planes traverse our nation transporting food, industrial materials consumer goods, and more, to our stores and then our homes.
However recently there has been an Obama-era transportation rule that seems to be causing a lot of disruption, and even injuries and deaths, in this process.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in 2015 implemented a rule which requires most truck drivers in the United States to use an Electronic Logging Device (ELD), which require truck drivers to adhere to specific 14-hour cycle requirements in the loading, driving, and unloading process.
The origin behind the rule was in the desire to prevent truck drivers from being made to drive long hours, thereby reducing fatigue and thus potentially accidents or worker abuse. However it was the implementation of that sentiment, in the form of an amendment to the 2012 “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,” that faced little discussion that was misplaced.
As a result, the ELD’s rigid cycle requirement results in truck drivers having to stick to arbitrary scheduling that often does not mesh with the realities of their actual driving. If they are stuck in traffic, the clock keeps running. Often in order to meet their deadlines truck drivers will then rush to their destination, potentially creating accidents. This cumulative time tracking, rather than consecutive or mileage based, thereby distorts trucker activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
‘the 2012 “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,”’
I have a thesis that the point when acts ceased to be named for their sponsors and started having these meaningless jingoist names was when America went into permanent decline.
As long as people are killed off in accidents, or destroyed later by 0-care if they survive the accidents, and evil internal combustion engines are out of service, the wun’s dreams are achieved.
I HAVE otoh, been guilty of running two log books and my friend at one time ran three.
Long hours has always been, as far as I have ever known, the driver's decision.
Certainly there was a complicit dispatcher, but the driver was in it to make money and you don't make money sitting idly, wide awake, just because a peice of paper says so.
The prettier the name, the more pernicious the law.
The specter of this is terrifying. Imagine a state like California that decides to send you a bill at the end of each month for all the moving violations you committed, as detected by YOUR OWN FREAKING VEHICLE.
And if you turn it off or remove it from your vehicle, watch the lefty nazis descend on you.
I had no idea they had implemented this rule. Overturn it immediately.
Aren’t there companies that put pressue (perhaps financial pressure) on trucker to work many hrs at time to keep schedule?
Helps to explain why truckers are tearing down the highway, even in construction zones at times.
I worked for one that did not care if you have working on site for 12 or 14 hours by yourself for several days and ordered a drove home across two states that night.
Mandated rest periods...in particular the 10 hour rest period.
Only Townhall would print this garbage by some type of Big Trucking lobbyist because they dont get to cheat on log books like they used to. Now they cant claim they rested as the law requires when really they kept driving for greed and profit. This dirtbag representing dirtbag truck drivers should be held personally responsible for every 18 wheeler accident, of which there is one daily, and for all the death and injury caused by these slimeball trucks.
AAh.... no.
“I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”.......................
The big outfits in the trucking industry actually support the ELD mandate. They already use these types of devices for their own scheduling, dispatching and fleet management purposes. It’s the small independent operators who have been opposed to this from the start.
A haiku:
I am from the government
I am here to help
Now give me all your money
:)
Some of this is garbage. Every company has GPS on their trucks so the boss knows if you are speeding....ie it is a no no. I am driving through a hilly portion of PA and trucks are breaking going down a hill. This never happened before....they would be flying....to get a runny up the next hill.
It is one reason there are trucking hubs showing up everywhere. Folks do four hours one way, turn around an haul something else back to their starting point.
I knew of two drivers for one company that complained this and they said there were others.
I never had a problem ... legitimate nor with two books.
The two book think didn't last long ... maybe two or three months ... and I was glad to be rid of the experiment.
It was my friend that talked me into trying it.
Sure, I made money ... but I was getting older and that kind of driving is for younger guys.
After a certain age, we can't WAIT to go to sleep!
The 11/14 rule is nothing new. The ELD prevents truck drivers from redoing their paper logs to squeeze out more time. I’ve done both. Much preferred the ELD.
The real evil of government is that one size MUST FIT ALL. In all areas of life this evil smothers all life.
Good info. Not sure independents have gps since they own the truck. They are also among the more reckless.
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