I was Southbound this morning on I-94 reasonably following the speed limit I could see a rig rapidly approaching out of my rear view mirror, that had been weaving in and out of the two left lanes. I wanted to get out of this guys way. There was slower traffic ahead of me and the right lane was blocked. This truck ran up to and loomed over my rear bumper. I had nowhere to go. Traffic on this section North of Chicago is notorious for “instant stops” of traffic flow.
Returning home I was thinking about this and I think its about time our freinds in Washington do two things to level the playing field between the drivers of rubber tired transportation and railroad engineers. I realized that our federally subsidized highways and the privately funded railroads regulated by the feds are on a unequal playing field when it comes to enforcement.
Make manditory, the event recorders used in locomotive engines being placed in trucks. This makes enforcement of rule violations or in this case traffic violations easy to enforce-ie- speed violations-hours of operation etc
2.Impose the same federal standards of operation on truck drivers that railroad engineers face. A loss of driving privileges for thirty days as railroaders face= loss of income.
as a long time rail industry watcher and the holder of a teamster union
withdrawl card and familar with the chicago milwaukee area i can relate
to the need for technology to help safety. with computers in cars and
radio chips on all the wal mart pallets, a combination of better computer
storage and radio chips in highways, on signs and all vehicles would
provide a recoverable source of a vehicles operation in relation to speed
limits, no passing zones, use of turn signals, other vehicles ect. cost of insurance
or even traffic enforcement could be directed to those drivers in
need of supervision regardless of commercial or personal use.
there are current rules on commercial licenses and many are multiples
of 30 days.
The laws are fine, the enforcement side of the equation here is not. (You can verify this by observing what happens around the truck scales at any state border)
And it’s not just truck drivers. The enforcement of any highway laws on any drivers is sufficiently weak as to be funny – or it would be funny, if the results weren’t so often tragic.
Karldotcom, define truck drivers as you are refering to them. In my years of MVO California scrutinized me the hardest of anywhere I operated. Fines were the highest,enforcement the most stringent. I cannot imagine that has all changed. I agree with the other posts here and just reasonable enforcement of the laws already in existantance. I see just as much dangerous driving done by operators of all types of vehicles.
Do away with the “officer’s discretion” business. Write 'em all tickets or don’t write any at all.
I have a couple female friends who’ve said they got away with a ticket by using their lady parts to their advantage. Cops see me as a punk dude in his mid-20’s. I should sue for discrimination!
I got rolling in a huge rant after reading this. I am disappointed in the trucker who chooses to be 4 feet from the rear of the car in front. I witnessed several drivers today in driving rain on the way to Little Rock doing the exact same thing. Only the car they were tailgating is buried in spray from the 3 lanes of traffic in front of IT.
I think that drivers are pushed to the max by draconian schedules that will get someone killed. I’ll be very upset if a driver is to be so stupid as to race to the destination with a load of toilet paper and kill someone trying to make it “Just in Time” often not having had time for adequate sleep, meals or laundry.
I had a meal recently in the truck stop. The entire place had a atmosphere of a chinese fire house drill as drivers yammered on the cellphone, shoveled food as quickly they can and gulped the splashing drinks on the way out the door barely standing still long enough to pay the tab. All of this in maybe 20 minutes flat. Stress, worry and literally killing fatique was everywhere.
GASP!!! It is all routine, we all do it every day as long no one got hurt we will continue to do it.
15 years ago, that same truck stop would be a place of light, laughter and some story telling as drivers got ready for the day’s work with a good meal, clean up and lots of preparation as to the weather, family issues and things that need solving before a wheel is turned.
Back then you did not drive until you were mentally, physically and spiritually ready to do the work safely without placing anyone in danger.
Dont get me started with Inspection areas that have the sign that is rusted to the padlock that has not been “OPEN” in 10 years or more. THAT I lay at the State’s door.
But try to do that today with the horsewhipping, pistol beating dispatch who place fancy satellite systems onboard the rigs to squeeze the last drop of profit in a already emaciated business. Sit for more than 8 hours that is requ
Saftey valve you hit it right on the head. 6 years ago when I was forced out I was about ready to quit anyway. I was tired of having 60 hours mnidwest to west coast reload and have 48 hours to get back to the midwest. I was so burnt out at teh end I was ready to drop.
The hardest thing about the lax enforcement is the feds give the states the money to inspect the trucks yet the only state I knew that did that was CA. Everyone else normally waved you thru.
Yep, let’s make engineers and truck drivers conform to the same hours of service rule. If it’s 11 hours on 8 hours off for truckers then make it 11 hours on 8 hours off for engineers. If it’s 12 hours on 8 hours off for engineers, then make it 12 hours on 8 hours off for truckers.
Ya think maybe then the AAR would rescind their support for the truckers standard if it was applied equally across the board?
Wallyworld - You really gotta let go of that fallacy of “subsidized” truckers vs “private” railroads, 'cause the pay as you go financing of highways is not really a subsidy, and the amount of federal support railroads are getting (or are proposed to get) means they ain’t really “private”.
I have to say the HOS rules need to be adjusted for the driver. Some likes to run by night. Others in the morning. Forcing a rotating sleep cycle that flips every 2 days is going to totally destroy that driver’s natural sleep.
Driving tired is worse than driving drunk.
Pay the Drivers and Engineers like Airline pilots. And give them the tools to do thier jobs safely. On dedicated truck only interstates if need be.
Find out what it takes to get a load from POINT A to POINT B dock to dock. Actual miles on the ground and pay it properly. Not some obselete paperbound Household miles. Use the GPS to make this happen.
Fire the deadwood and keep the good ones. Reduce your expenses by removing the recruiting departments, set all drivers who recieve a license into a Federal Database and hire from that. Also report any problems into this database.
Companies have a hard time spending 3000 dollars to replace worn bobtail tires (At the request of the driver) but happily spend 7 Grand or more in expenses (Some of which is charged against Income Tax as a business expense) to replace em.
Put Gensets on the equiptment, provide them with safe 110 volt power. Provide the ability to live onboard the rig with full facilities and put a *** table in there so they can actually get some paperwork done by satellite instead of relying on obselete bills of lading that has to be sent by Fed Ex.
Eliminate the pay system. Create a new system where a driver is paid the instant a load is placed on that 5th wheel. Drop the comcheck system and use mandatory direct deposit.
If a driver fails to maintain his household budget and cannot feed him or herself on the road then he or she should not be responsible for up to One Million dollars or more in total value of rig and cargo.
Find and maintain Team drivers 24/7. The day of the single long haul driver is over.
Establish relay services where singles may run a trailer in a
Safety Valve:
Spoken like someone who knows the industry!
What a different transportation system we would have if some of your excellent ideas were to be implimented. Professional drivers would become the rule, rather than the exception. I would feel much safer on the road knowing that the truck driver behind me might not be so dead tired he can barely hold his head up.
I can’t even imagine the toll the over-the-road lifestyle would take on a person’s health. I remember how tired I was when I was working the extra board on call 24/7; if I had had to actually steer my vehicle, I would have been in the ditch more often than on concrete.
Alas, you are dreaming. Which is good: the world needs more dreamers.
As a person who currently works for one of the largest national trucking companies ( I know you all have seen the orange trucks). I think that Safety Valves Ideasare very good ones. My job along with the other 7 people in my department is to check every single driver log for all 20,000 employed drivers, and every log odes get checked every day. Whenever a truck goes through an inspection or a toll we check to make sure that the driver has on his log the place where he is suposed to be. Some drivers come up more than 400 miles off, and many go through tolls when their log states they are off duty or in the sleeper. Unfortunatley all that we can do is cite them and report them to their direct supervisor. which really accomplishes nothing but that if they get cited to many times they don’t get there per mile pay raise. As for states doing Inspections there are several states that inspect trucks including the brakes and the tires and all lights in only 2 minutes. Now I know I don’t personaly deal with inspecting trucks nor do I know anything about it but it seems to me like it would take longer than 2 minutes just to inspect the brakes. I agree that there need to be large scale nation wide changes to our trucking industry. However many, including using the GPS systems already installed in our trucks for more that just sending messages to the drivers and tracking down the trucks and trailers when they are stolen will require national DOT law changes. Which unfortunatley won’t come before they increase trailer lenghts to 60+ feet and and increase the loaded weights by another 30,000 pounds.
I got rolling in a huge rant after reading this. I am disappointed in the trucker who chooses to be 4 feet from the rear of the car in front. I witnessed several drivers today in driving rain on the way to Little Rock doing the exact same thing. Only the car they were tailgating is buried in spray from the 3 lanes of traffic in front of IT.
I think that drivers are pushed to the max by draconian schedules that will get someone killed. I’ll be very upset if a driver is to be so stupid as to race to the destination with a load of toilet paper and kill someone trying to make it “Just in Time” often not having had time for adequate sleep, meals or laundry.
I had a meal recently in the truck stop. The entire place had a atmosphere of a chinese fire house drill as drivers yammered on the cellphone, shoveled food as quickly they can and gulped the splashing drinks on the way out the door barely standing still long enough to pay the tab. All of this in maybe 20 minutes flat. Stress, worry and literally killing fatique was everywhere.
GASP!!! It is all routine, we all do it every day as long no one got hurt we will continue to do it.
15 years ago, that same truck stop would be a place of light, laughter and some story telling as drivers got ready for the day’s work with a good meal, clean up and lots of preparation as to the weather, family issues and things that need solving before a wheel is turned.
Back then you did not drive until you were mentally, physically and spiritually ready to do the work safely without placing anyone in danger.
Dont get me started with Inspection areas that have the sign that is rusted to the padlock that has not been “OPEN” in 10 years or more. THAT I lay at the State’s door.
But try to do that today with the horsewhipping, pistol beating dispatch who place fancy satellite systems onboard the rigs to squeeze the last drop of profit in a
Also remember that it is not just the Truck drivers that tailgate and drive recklessly. I have seen many people in cars and SUV’s pass a truck just to cut in front and slam on the brakes to take the next exit off the highway. And many drivers drive up to Trucks and then stay in their blind spots for several miles. I have even seen a Driver in Ford Expedition Drive next to a Truck for 30 minutes and then signal and change lanes into the side of the trailer. If we are going to discuss the enequal enforcement of laws and regulations we should also keep in mind that MANY if not most drivers of passenger cars are much more dangerous then truck drivers, and we should stop this from turning into an argument about bad driving skills and habits.
The worst accident I ever saw was a car that rear ended a truck in CA the truck was doing 55 the car they estimated around 90. The car hit a 57 foot trailer with the tandems all the way forward to carry the load and needless to say the car was ALL the way under the trailer. The fire department just called for the Medical Examiner and he gagged. I was one of the witnesses to this accident. What makes me so mad is 5 miles earlier there was a CHP in the median and he could have prevented this if CA was not so intent on getting semis for speeding. I know that people think trucks are nothing but a hindrence. I drove for years and so did my father and between us we have 4.5 Million accident free miles. I hit 1mil right before I was forced off the road
I had a person zip by me westbound into Eagle Mountain there at TN and GA borders. It was driving rain and he was driving a tiny convertable. Shore enough halfway up the mountain he was crumpled against the hammer side where the rocks are after he rode up on the water pooling along that side.
Regarding the people who cut off trucks and then throw on the brakes… that is the same as holding the gun to thier own heads and pulling the trigger. I have absolutely no feelings of panic or fear for these idiots that do that. If I have “enough” brake or traction to do something about it fine. If they bury themselves under the engine and get crushed to death, would not bother me one bit. That is one of the reasons im not on the road anymore, Ive lost the compassion for those who know better but refuse to be safe around the trucks. Im not going to deal with it.
Regarding one poster’s description about checking logs against tolls etc. That is another department that can be tossed out the window along with the recruiting. Why waste hundereds of man hours chasing after logbook violations in the name of DOT regulations?
Ask yourself, it is going to be worth the effort trying to find problems in the logs that I turn in? I know I dont show the good logs to either DOT or to my own company unless I can reconcile them legally. There is a reason those things are called comic books.
I propose this: Instead of wasting manhours and office resources chasing after doctored logs that are mostly legal anyhow within the eyes of the law (If a tree fell in the forest and no one heard it did it make a sound??)
Use the GPS data in real time electronically backed up offsite and also uploaded to DOT in Washington daily. It should only take a few key strokes on a computer to discover anything you want to know about that rig’s activities at any time.
Why do I ask that we toss the office staff and recruiting? Because only 4 things matter.
If the paper logs are declared obselete and are taken out of the system, drivers will not have a reason to place themselves, travelers and thier company at risk for the sake of a few extra hours.
What if a CDL Driver’s license is embedded with a biometric and a Dish Network type chip that identifies it to any Federal or State Authority on demand via wireless or a Tablet PC either on the field or in a office (Scales? Company?) etc. This will facilitate recruiting as that specific license is so married to the main data base good for all of the USA and shared by all in the industry.
What if we adapt European Technology and literally plug that driver’s license into a small black box atop the dash board while we go about our work? To have the physical act of placing our hard earned ( Err. sorta I wont get into that here) CDL’s into the live real time system based on the Satellite and Cab Signals (Similar to cab signals on the railroads?) that can and will communicate with ANY Scalehouse, Shipper and reciever (More on that in a moment) Patrol Car that is manned by Properly trained and authorized DOT enforcement personel from the Local, State and Federal Level.
Further, the Fire Departments can use the data to monitor loads passing thru thier towns and assigned sectors in real time. Possibly truck