In from Manuelita Ybarra, Womens Bureau, Department of Labor. Re: New regulations relaxing hours allowed to drive... Thoughts, Ideas, experiences? Six Days on Fumes: A Truckers Search for Starbucks and Sleep Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Bloombergs Jennifer Oldham reports on her six-day ride along with Michigan trucker Tracy Livingston, who battles constant fatigue as she moves goods all over the nation. (Source: Bloomberg) At 3:30 a.m. in a Kentucky truck stop on the sixth day of a five-state journey hauling auto parts, Tracy Livingston struggled to wake up. Worry over how she would pay a $2,000 ticket for an improperly loaded trailer had meant a restless night. Now she had to get out of the bunk in her Freightliner Cascadia tractor, get diesel and hook up a trailer. All this in pouring rain without benefit of coffee. “We should be home by now,” she told me, a reporter along for all 2,520 miles. “We won’t hit an open Starbucks for five hours.” Livingston is among the nation’s 2 million truckers, who endure back-to-back 14-hour days to deliver everything from aluminum cans to clothing to Christmas cookies. They practice an occupation that kills more of its practitioners than any other, with 525 dying on the road last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truckers pushed to their physical limits contribute to accidents in which almost 4,000 Americans die each year. Truckers like Livingston say regulations that have let them work 70 hours a week leave them constantly fatigued. They soon may be driving more. Last week, Congress suspended year-old rules requiring two nights of sleep before a work week at the behest of Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. Lawmakers ignored Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and consumer advocates in allowing drivers to work as many as 82 hours over eight days. bloomberg/news/2014-12-18/six-days-on-fumes-a-trucker-s-search-for-starbucks-and-sleep.html
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 19:38:25 +0000
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