Posted on Dec 27, 2007 - 1:15am by Wayne Weisser in Hours of Service
PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers) probably have their hearts in the right place, trying to protect the ultra safe four wheeler drivers from the big, bad killer truckers.
Founder of P.A.T.T. issues scathing testimony against FMCSA over HOS
The Trucker Staff 12/19/2007
WASHINGTON — Attempting to address fatigue on the highways by allowing truckers to drive more hours is like allowing motorists to consume more alcohol in order to alleviate drunk driving, the founder of Parents against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T.), told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Hours of Service today.
It goes on with a lot of statistics. They’ve got their stats and we’ve got our stats to counter their stats. The problem with driving 11 hours isn’t driving, it’s working or even waiting without being able to sleep, then driving for 11 hours.
If they really wanted to help tired truckers, instead of cutting back on our hours and pay, they need to go after the carriers and shippers that continuously abuse and force their drivers to work off the clock.
Another problem PATT should address is the truck drivers with sleep disorders. Sleep Apnea is very common in truckers. If you think you’re sleeping 8 or more hours a night and you can’t drive and stay awake for 10 or 11 hours without taking a four or five hour nap during the day, maybe there’s another problem that needs to be looked into.
In my opinion the HOS rules could use a little tweaking, if you want to take that four or five hour nap in the middle of the day, you should be able to. If I’m out here, I want to be working, not sitting in a truck stop.
Izer added that current HOS rules push truckers “beyond the limits of human endurance. … Truck drivers should be afforded the same respect as other workers, work reasonable hours and be permitted to have sleep patterns that are in accord with normal human needs.”
“…normal human needs.” That seems to be the big problem everyone keeps fighting over. Hopefully no one in their right mind would agree with PATT about how HOS should be, things like no driving past midnight and before 6am, work 8 hours, off 16, among other incredibly insane ideas like those.
“Truckers should be afforded the same respect as other workers“, other workers are allowed to work. If PATT had their way, not a single truck would be on the road. What happened to that guys son was a tragedy, but he can’t be allowed to take his revenge out on every single trucker on the road.
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“If they really wanted to help tired truckers, instead of cutting back on our hours and pay, they need to go after the carriers and shippers that continuously abuse and force their drivers to work off the clock.”
That is certainly A problem (or group of problems), but I do npt believe it is THE problem.
THE problem in my humble opinion is the compensation model.
Drivers get paid for driving. The more they drive, the more they get paid. If a driver wants to get paid more or needs to be paid more, there is precisely one way for the driver to be paid more, and that is to drive more. (Yes, pay for holding time and such would be nice, and humane treatment should be mandated regardless of anything else, but in the final analysis, the part the driver has some control over is the number of miles driven per pay period.)
Until there is a compensation incentive to take the pressure off of distance-per-day, the situation is not going to improve.
We can dink with HOS until we are blue in the face–what every is done short of connecting each driver to a biometric leash WILL result in a workaround.
Or a massive of parking of tractors is going to occur, it we do in fact find a way of impacting the driver’s income with no possibility of a “workaround”.
Drivers are willing to put up with Neely’s Landing. TA and other filthy truck stops, truck-hostile states like OH and CA (just to name a couple) and other such abuse, but we can’t put up with not being able to pay the bills.
I’ve seen one company go to the pay per day model. I’m not sure how it’s working for them. Most of the time it’s more of a frame of mind. I get paid a lump sum per trip. Any fuel surcharges, labor, detention or anything else isn’t itemized, it’s one price. Things are still negotiable, but the end result is the LineHaul. Whether it’s per mile or per day, at the end of the trip and I turn the bills in, it’s the same amount of money.
There’s nothing wrong with having an incentive to work hard. You can’t make everyone drive the same. There’s a driver in my company, the dispatchers just know not to give him anything that needs to be there in a hurry and not even illegal in a hurry, I’m talking a week to go 1500 miles.
Why dumb everyone down to the lowest common denominator?
Anyone who has been in this business any appreciable length of time knows how to tell dispatchers and shippers/receivers when their stuff will arrive. We know how to run our own lives and businesses. Therein lies one of the reasons I have never believed carriers mind churning drivers: keep them young and dumb and you can run all over them. The older they get, the more they understand the business, the harder it is to pull those shenanigans.
I can understand how any pay model other than per mile can cause some problems for the carriers. For years we had HHG miles even though they were woefully inaccurate at times. You have to have a way to charge your customers for the service provided, and a way to measure that charge. Until the advent of GPS and other high-tech systems the HHG was the only “universal” method available. It alwos allowed all the carriers and shippers to compare apples to apples when determining freight rates.
The same kind of problems rear their ugly little heads when it comes to alternative pay methods. How do you come up with a standard way to apply it across the board?
Most of us older drivers understand PATT and CRASH won’t be satisfied until the trucking industry is a 7-5 5 day a week job. No more than 40 hrs per week. No OT. yadda yadda yadda. No matter what FMCSA comes up with, lawsuits will fly and we will be left hanging in the wind wondering what kind of rules we’ll have to drive under next year.
Actually a Professional Driver should have to only work about 11 hours in a 24 hour period and if paid accordingly and paid right with a “DECENT-WAGE” and proper Benefits, there wouldn’t be a Problem !!! Rather local or Long Haul !! But when we have drivers who absolutely will NOT stand up for themselves and say “NO” or “ENOUGH is ENOUGH” I refuse to “DONATE” or “WORK for FREE”, then thats where the problems really begin !! It affects the whole Industry. I heard many a drivers say, well but I need a Job, I can’t afford to say that,, well let me ask you something, if your working damn near for FREE, with little or NO benefits, or so cheap, it mize well be considered FREE, what kind of Job do you really have, that your so Worried about ?????????? ** 2-Things happening here, either that driver is to LAZY to actually work, or to LAZY to go out and seek a better paying job, than the one he’s got, for which he is working for FREE, time to wake up, your hurting yourself and the others as well . Again, find me an Electrician, Plumber, Auto-Mechanic or an Airline Pilot who’ll work for FREE and DONATE tons of FREE time, Good Luck !!!!!