Free of charge! Here are my solutions to fix the hours of service debacle, a unique black box solution and even the solution to the driver shortage.
Hours of Service: No fourteen hour rule
Split sleeper, teams can drive however they choose. More sleep time and last week’s work doesn’t affect today’s. Trying to bend or get around the fourteen hour rule gets in the way of driver productivity and sometimes their sleep.
Screen for Sleep Apnea
Plus, instead of a small percentage that are drowsy and need a nap and ruin it for the rest of us, screen for sleep apnea: If 28% of drivers have some degree of sleep apnea and if PATT was really about tired truckers, they would be concerned about sleep disorders instead of some other agenda. It should be a rule, if you’re a big driver, you get tested. Free of charge or a small fee because it would be subsidized by the government, thanks to legislation pushed through by PATT, because they really care about the tired drivers. No fear of repercussions. After getting treated with a CPAP machine you will feel like a new person and your productivity and driving will skyrocket. Companies should be able to appreciate that.
Better than a Black Box
Time stamp fuel receipts. Right now, receipts only have the date. Companies get a report of the time of day the fuel was purchased if they use the Comdata fuel network. Most of those companies require fuel receipts to be within two hours of logged fuel time. That’s great, unless you’re the trooper that is checking the drivers logbook, they can’t tell what time the fuel was purchased only what date. Then there’s EFS. Only reports the date. Companies that use EFS only require your log and fuel to match on the same day. Lots of room for creativity there! Plus if you’re an owner operator and paying for your own fuel they may not get any report, just the receipts.
Since most of us fuel either every day or at least once every other day and if fuel receipts had a time stamp and had to be kept with the logbook at all times, the trooper could easily check when and where a driver was. Even if you pay cash for fuel you still get a receipt. If you don’t have a receipt, your truck better have 6,000 gallon tanks on it. No receipt, and you’re in trouble. Fine, out of service, jail, gas chamber, whatever. Simple to implement, simple to enforce. SIMPLE.
Besides, that’s all the black box fiasco is going to fix anyway. There still won’t be any proof or way to tell if a driver is sleeping or working off the clock, unless the black box has a heart rate monitor to be able to tell if you’re in the sleeper or outside working, it’s WORTHLESS.
Driver Shortage
There isn’t one!!! Companies need to stop whining about it!! Straighten up their act and strive for retention and not intentional churn (forcing more experienced/paid drivers to quit while they hire cheap new drivers to replace them). Good drivers are supposed to be in demand and able to command decent wages. Good experienced drivers will have lower insurance costs and will be on time because they won’t get as lost and can manage their time better. Better customer service, fewer dents on their equipment.
Instead companies are on the lookout for any new source of cheap labor. Because in the long run, the good drivers are the ones that are going to make them the most money and not people that drive until they’re burned out in six months. If drivers and owner / operators job hop a little, there’s probably a reason.
What else can we fix today? Keep it simple and easy enough to understand so even a Congressman can get it!
That’s excellent, lets hope the right people see it and take notes or better yet
CHANGE the current system!!! yeah, that would be too easy.
Uh, yeah, Right! Time stamps on the fuel receipts. Let’s give LE something else to get anal about and enhance their revenue collections. It has long since ceased being about safety and is now almost totally about “revenue enhancement”!
How about trashing the 14 hour clock and letting us “old guys” have our afternoon naps without having to be creative. Circadian Rhythms and other suspect science aside, I think all of us, as individuals, now what our sleep needs are and what our bodies requires. If you really want to make inroads into people running legal, Let us log it as we actually do it, within parameters of course.
Common sense and logic would fix a lot of problems
If all of us individuals were responsible that would be great, but you know there’s always going to be some other individual that messes it up for the rest of us and I’d do almost anything NOT to get a black box.
You know, even without a black box the engine computer logs can be downloaded; and if the company uses something like Qualcommm these records can be subpoenaed as well. All this in case of a serious accident, of course, but litigation is one of the reasons for the rules.
I’ve often thought that it was so very odd that doctors, nurses and police officers, to name a few, often work double shifts as a matter of course and these are people who very literally hold life and death in their hands.
None of these issues will go away until trucking companies start charging realistic detention fees to both shippers and consignees, passing through the owner/drivers share of that income, and insisting that delivery appointments be adjusted accordingly. Will that happen? I’m certainly not holding my breath.
Shippers, consignees, trucking company executives and middle-management employees endeavor to create policies that shield them from litigation while hoping against hope that their drivers get away with skirting them. When they don’t, the drivers bear the burden.
I know a bunch of commercial fishermen. When the price of fish drops they just fish longer and harder; creating even more supply and further driving down prices. The same thing happens in trucking. When we’re all paid only by the mile we strive to drive more miles, hauling more freight in a shorter time, resulting in a greater supply of trucks and reducing prices and wages.
And on it goes.
Groups like PATT and Public Citizen want black boxes so when a truck goes behind the weigh station they can hook-up the truck and see how fast and how long it’s been driving before an accident happens.
But like most of us already know, it’s not usually the driving that’s the problem it’s the waiting around at a dock and no black box is going to be able to tell that.
For those of you who might be interested in knowing, Battery Geek Inc. just launched a brand new 50 Hour Per Charge External CPAP Battery Pack the C-444. The benefit is obviously lightweight portable power for your CPAP machine without having to drain the battery on your Rig. They are also great for camping, hunting and plane travels. For more info visit: http://www.batterygeek.net/cpap
I own a flooring business and I rely on the trucking industry to bring my inventory from coast to coast. I couldn’t do it without you! Our exerience in the last 18 years has been very positive.
I began asking drivers how they stay awake and alert. Many use energy drinks like coffee and caffeine loaded sodas. Many also use sugar and caffeine loaded RedBull, Monster etc…
These products provide instant energy with a physical crash within 30 minutes to and hour. The unhealthy effects are taking their toll. I quit drinking energy drinks of any kind and switched to DrinkAct. A healthy alternative without the junk and the crash. (pardon the pun) 7 out of 10 people feel this drink in minutes, it lasts 4 - 6 hours without jitters and low blood sugar crashes. Go to the website. Its FREE to be a part and they will ship it to your door for cheaper than what yo can by at your local store or Truck Stops on the road. They come in grab-and-go cans or on the go pouches that you mix in a bottle of cold water. YOU ALL WILL LOVE IT, I KNOW I DO!!