My two cents..... I am an owner operator with 27 years out here and to date, over 2.5 million accident free miles. This job has always been about freedom and independence and along with those things comes accountability and personal responsibility. We, as an industry together, have seen many changes over the years. One of the biggest challenges we face today is the large number of companies and drivers who are from foreign countries that do not speak or understand English. The number of companies popping up out of California is staggering. We have many drivers on the roads today that cant read highway signs. Ie: record number of bridge strikes around the country. So many drivers punch an address into a GPS and hope for the best and they cant read the signs to warn them of problems. We have aggressive drivers who have no regard for other drivers or the safety of the motoring public and if you pay close attention, you will notice that when you witness this behavior, there is a similarity in the type of driver and where the company is based out of. Meanwhile, we have groups like Road Safe America who have their hands up the back of the FMCSA and the ATA with well paid lobbyists who have a personal agenda and will stop at nothing to see their wishes come true. They see electronic logs as an answer and I can prove that that solves nothing. The companies in question that had the accidents already had red flags for HOS violations yet the FMCSA did nothing to intervene with their operation. The same goes with the bus companies, there were red flags yet the FMCSA did not do their jobs and stop these companies before innocent people were killed. Daily, I see drivers speeding through construction zones and urban areas because they are against the clock of that EOBR and have to make the destination so the answer that our leaders have for that is speed limiters, because they say that many accidents are speed related. What they fail to mention is that its not just speed but more accurately, speed too fast for conditions. So unless they plan on governing trucks to 30 mph, once again we a see a setup for failure. RSA announced not long ago that they were dead set against raising the weight limits on trucks, unless of course the speed limiters were implemented on trucks. Its easy to see what their real agenda is because we in the industry know that the bridges and highways are falling apart beneath us so in no way is heavier trucks a good idea. As all these regulations and fix alls pile up on us, older experienced drivers are getting fed up with no longer having the freedom and independence of running their business and leaving the industry or retiring. They are being replaced with all the new drivers who are being trained by guys who are trainers with six months experience. Another result from this is more freight opportunities opening up which encourages more of these fly by night foreign companies opening up in California, many government funded because of their immigration status. Regardless of what these safety advocates say, you cant put all drivers in the same box and expect a good result. They seem to believe that if a driver has a ten hour break then by golly, when those ten hours are up that said driver should be ready to run a full shift without the flexibility to take a nap or get off the road for a little bit and you can bet that dispatchers will use it and use it hard. Here are a few scenarios that an EOBR does not consider, a driver lays down for their break and the wind is blowing 45 mph so the truck is taking a beating and the driver does not sleep well, right before the driver lays down, the wife calls and says little Johnny got in a fight at school and got suspended, driver lays down for their break and their dad calls and says his cancer is back and options are not good. I can go on and on but we all know that these are things that are a part of being a trucker. You are away from home but day to day events keep happening so you have to deal with the stress the best way you can. Without a doubt these events will definitely affect that sleep you are supposed to be getting on your required break but with that EOBR the options of sleep are stripped away because that little black box tells dispatch that you have hours to run and the freight needs to move. The fourteen hour rule makes things hard enough but imagine what it will be like when things are monitored by big brother and they get to tell you whether you are tired or not. All these super plans on how to improve safety are going to work in quite the opposite direction and the carnage on the highways will increase and they will scramble to implement even more regulations as they scratch their heads in wonder. Meanwhile, our lives are put more at risk by these mindless idiots who only have our best interest and safety in mind. God help us all!
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 19:08:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015