Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Happy Friday 13th LOTR followers. For those drivers that are fortunate enough to get home this weekend, have fun. For the rest of us, America’s freight rolls on. There was a 1 vehicle “accident” on I-40 westbound east of Nashville this afternoon. Traffic was backed up 5+ miles to the West and 8+ miles to the East. The TN State Police did their usual miserable job of managing the situation and what in other states, on other roads would be nothing, this “event” lasted hours longer than it should have.

Speaking of TN, I truly resent that the 55/65 and 55/70 mph speed limit “split” is still in effect there. When OODIA stops wasting their time with barbeques and giving out awards nobody cares about, maybe they’ll get down to business and get the speed limits safe for truckers in TN. Split speeds anywhere are totally unsafe. And, back to the 1 car accident, there was no reason for any backup in either direction, but it was the worst case of “Oh, let’s stop and take a look at what’s happening.” These folks are as dumb as bowling pins and the truckers trying to “control” traffic are no better. Shame on all of you.

As I was trying to make time down to Texarkana, I got a call from dispatch telling me there is a HOT load that will be at our Dallas yard tomorrow night. So forget Texarkana, head straight to Dallas, drop the trailer and wait for the other load that needs to be delivered to Wausau WI next Thursday. Next Thursday? The rationale behind all this is “we” don’t have enough drivers to “handle” this load. Well, isn’t that special. Problem is, I’m low on hours. I will have 8.5 left on my 70 tomorrow afternoon and need to shut down for 36 on Sunday. I’m about 600 miles from Dallas. Long story short, turns out someone else will handle it and I will proceed on schedule. That’s the photo I took of the 1 car accident. The driver was air lifted out hours earlier. I don’t know what his/her condition is.

Moving on, my hatred of Facebook continues. I have 57 e-mails from people who are asking to be friends. I have no idea who the heck they are. I would love to comply, but Facebook has me on “hold” from adding friends because I’m abusive and annoying. This constantly happens to me. I can’t wait to meet someone who works for Facebook. I intend to shove their head in a bucket of ice water. Facebook along with Twitter are no better than the bowling pin morons who sit on the interstate waiting to see a 1 car accident. I find the fact that Facebook allows the use of profanity, repugnant. There is some intelligent “conversation” occurring, but the rest of the nonsense is no better than childish CB chatter. I’m now hearing of some influential and popular media folks pulling out of Facebook and concentrating on building their web sites and chat rooms. The photo to the left is just after I “cleared” the 1 car accident heading west – look at the other side standing still – OMG.

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I-81 Mountain Top PA. 195 miles – 3 hours away from my final in Seymour CT. I can’t wait to get out of this part of the country. What is up with I-80? The road work is terrible. Nine miles of monotonous orange cones, down to one lane of traffic and no obvious work being done. I don’t get it. Then five more miles of cones, again one lane of traffic and you finally get to the end, or the beginning? and there is a small truck picking up the cones. That, along with slow moving Floridians and those Greenpeace supporters in their little grey Prius’s, made this day a long one.

Just after 504 miles of driving, I was exhausted. I shut down here, which is a rest area. At 10:39pm there is no more truck parking. As far as getting up to CT, there is no way I’m taking I-287 to I-95 over the GW Bridge. It’s I-81 to I-84. As I’ve said many times before, there is no way I can drive 11 hours in the Northeast even in good weather with the longer days of sunlight, which is why I want the HOS changed. I logged 9.25 hours for 504 miles. No way – and the dark has a lot to do with it – I could have gone on really truly safely for another 1 3/4 hours. The consignee stops receiving at 11am. Don’t know why.

To keeps things interesting, I spent a few hours listening to the Dave Ramsey show on satellite. I don’t recall the channel. He’s the financial advice guy with a “Christian” edge to what he recommends. That doesn’t bother me. If Christ Jesus can help me out with the IRS and those pesky student loan folks, then His help is appreciated. I was truly amazed at the amount of people who call into the show and claim to be earning in the $80-90,000 range. One guy bought a home for $600K, now it’s worth $385K and it’s been on the market for over a year. Even on a $90,000 salary, he’s having problems surviving. He lives in the Pittsburgh area. I love how Ramsey refers to the IRS as the KGB. Way to go Dave. I see his books all the time, but maybe now I’ll order one from Amazon. I should make it a point to listen to him every day. It feels good to listen to other peoples problems and not focus so much on mine. And, Howard Stern isn’t cutting it for me anymore.

Hey, did you hear the story today about the Jet Blue flight attendant? Steven Slater, 38, of Queens, NY, has been charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment, according to a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of NY & NJ, which runs the NY area airports. The case is still being investigated but will be referred to the Queens District Attorney’s office. Slater allegedly fled “his” plane via emergency chute, two beers in hand, after getting into a fight with a passenger and then cursing out the entire cabin over a loudspeaker.

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CSA2010, eLogs, anti idle laws, pollution controls, insane log rules, lack of safe parking, anything that has to do with trucking and California, etc, etc etc…What happened, how did we let ourselves get in this mess? Plain and simple, we sat back and let others make the decisions that effect our business. We let ourselves become targets for every nut-case with a cause and a phone to a politician in the country and have done little to stand-up for ourselves. We let ill-informed politicians make policy for the industry that get their information from the anti-trucking lobby and studies performed by so-called scientist who have never seen a receiving dock at a grocery warehouse in their lives.

How do we put a halt to some of this insanity that is tearing-down trucking? Some say shut-down, sure that would get the attention of the American public. I can see the CNN headlines now, “Babies starving from truck strike, public calls for Government intervention!“. The Unions figured this out many years ago, most of them look to striking as a last resort they have more effective means these days to get what they want. The Unions have a President and Congress in their pockets; Maybe we need to follow their example.

A friend of mine is running for State Representative here in Missouri, he has been going out and knocking on doors and getting his name out there. Do you know which doors he spends his time on and which ones he passes by? Simple, he has a list of all of the registered voters in his district that have voted in the last few elections. He spends his time talking too and listening to voters that actually get out there and cast their vote. Would your name appear on his list if he were in your district? Do you think that he would have time to listen to your problems if you weren’t? We are told to call our Congressman all of the time, call about this issue or that issue, but if your name doesn’t appear on that voters list you might as well be talking to the wall. But when Grandma, that just got cut-off by a big-truck, calls and her name is on that list how fast do you think it will be before there are truck restrictions put in place?

The Unions get much of what they want because they vote, they vote as a block, and there is nothing more terrifying to a fat-cat Senator than having 100,000 votes cast for his opponent. Do you think that if hundreds of thousands of truckers started voting for politicians that understood and supported the trucker we would have such non-sense as CSA2010? Everyday I hear drivers complain that their vote doesn’t count, they are right, too few of us exercise our right to choose and one vote gets drowned out by those that want to destroy our way of life. Until truckers start voting then they will never be able to control their own destiny. We need to do as the unions do, do as the special interest groups do, select candidates that reflect our views, support their campaigns and get out there and actually cast the vote. The one day that no trucks should be on the road is election day, we should all be home casting our vote, this would send a message to the powers that be to take truckers seriously. Until truckers start doing this we will have no say in what happens to us, we will just keep paying taxes to drive on substandard roads and punch that eLog that tells us when to drive, sleep, eat and..well you know.

Be Safe and watch out for the other guy
DR

Uh HUH…

Prove it.

This is a sort of short response to Wayne’s  CSA2010 post.

Like Wayne, I have struggled to catch up with everything that this is about. There are thousands and thousands of pages involved, twists and turns on already existing regulation that made little sense to begin with.

Being currently saddled with one of the atrocities that this will drop in our laps, the Electronic Log Book, I learn more every day. I stopped making any real money the first week this hideous device was installed in my tractor.

Most of the clear information I have on the whole package I have gotten through the safety department at my carrier. Not to say this is “real” clear.

Here is what I understand to this point: (objections, derision, “you’re a idiot” etc, all welcome in comments”)

This purpose of CSA2010 is stated as “safety”, yet at the same time it is directed at the safest group of drivers in the country. Pushed for, bought and paid for by special interest groups like P.A.T.T. , these have more to do with political agenda than safety. When we start to see these massive RVs and ever more dangerous, home moving “rental” trucks in scale houses and random road side inspections, I’ll consider buying into this one.

The new regs assign a “point” system to various violations, including the condition of the equipment. OK, I can get behind this one a little. Look around you at some of the trucks parked by you. No, really. GET OUT and make a walk through of your row at the truck stop. Just a quick visual glance. A quick glance today, at the truck next to me, showed me a red tag looking for a diesel cop. Who’s fault is this? The Owner’s, but ultimately the law says it’s the driver’s responsibility. I agree. It would be a chore to get me to move this tractor across the parking lot to drive it up  on an RGN and take it to the dump. Its BAD and has no business on the road. But it’s under a load and has already left the lot. (just a couple hours after sundown)

BUT: Even with the new regs, the odds of running this wreck for a long time to come are fair to middling.

The point system, last I checked, covers 86 pages. These are points that will be taken from you as a driver because of equipment violations and driver violations during what will be a flurry of road side and scale house inspections. Here are some quick examples:

(You get 100 points to be depleted before you’re out of a job)

A marker light, tractor or trailer: 6 points. So all you guys that just aren’t a man without 150 lights, take note.

A tire, tractor or trailer: 8 points. In theory this could be one of those crappy recaps the boss uses so he can buy a new boat and it just blew.  Just now, and Johnny Law doesn’t have anything better to do.

A windshield: 1 point… yeah, a windshield is ONE point, even if it is totally missing.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Well thought out…

The people that are allowed to enact this kind of crap should be VOTED for, by members of the trucking community, and voted against.

According to the a fore mentioned safety director, (a man that sits on the board at the Truckload Carriers Association) these new regs will seriously harm the one and two truck Owner Operators over the first couple of years. Harm to the possible rate of 90 to 95 percent of all single truck companies just going under, unable to cope with the changes.

Until shippers and receivers are held to the same standards under the CSA2010 that you and I and our bosses are, or there is a sudden review and rewriting of of the VERY inflexible  hours of service, specifically the idiotic  14 hour rule,  these regulations will do an incredible amount of damage to the irregular route carriers in the country.

Oddly enough, most of these regs seem like they would work REALLY well for the LTL and  union companies and their drivers. Wonder how that happened…

There has been enough protest from various state agencies and major carriers that “D DAY” for these regs has been set off a few more months (Sure, now you speak up). The 9 states involved in the “pilot” programs will continue to  follow them.

Remember that this is just the opinion of one more driver that has just about had enough. I have places and other skills I can turn to, I don’t want to, but I can.  Some drivers don’t have as many options.

Its a gun being held to our heads and when WE stop, this country stops.

t

I didn’t know where the holiday originated, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It says that the first Labor Day here in the US was celebrated back on September 5th 1882 in NYC. After workers were killed by US Army soldiers and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike – the President at the time – Grover Cleveland – put reconciliation with labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation declaring Labor Day a national holiday was spearheaded through Congress – it passed unanimously – and was signed into law six days after the end of the strike. FYI – the Pullman strike involved violent disputes between the unions and the railroads.

So now you know where Labor Day began. Fast forward to 2009. I just drove the 600 miles from wherever I was to just West of Jacksonville. I’m tired. Including myself, there was a lot of trucks on the road. Obviously “we” didn’t have the day off like the stock market, Federal government employees and of course, the sales, safety and operations people who work for the carriers. They’re home, “we’re” not.

For the record, as of today, there are 15 million people unemployed in the US. The percentage is almost at 10%, the highest level in years. Last month, the economy bled 250,000 jobs. Foreclosures – not from the ranks of adjustable mortgages or where people got homes for no money down – but from conventional mortgage holders. Somehow, we – I should say – greedy businessmen are going to have to start hiring 125,000 folks a month in order to stop that percentage from rising higher. Listening to the Labor Secretary on the radio today, telling people to go back to school – take advantage of the “many” government programs available and get “other” jobs only caused my stomach to turn. After she added that Pell Grants are easily obtainable as I try – and I’m employed – to come up with $900 to pay my son’s college tuition because we can’t get a loan – well, I thought here’s another rich Obama “official” living in liberal fantasy land.

Also, one year ago today – Labor Day – the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Combined they hold over 5 1/2 trillion dollars in mortgages. They were given a $100 billion dollar bailout. One year later, credit is extremely tight whether you run a trucking company, an airline or small manufacturing concern. While the Obama Administration continues to oversee these two entities, they have offered no strategy as to how to successfully manage them. We’ll have to wait until February, when they say they will have some sort of plan. Meanwhile companies continue to go bankrupt and eliminate jobs because they cannot obtain credit.

Today, by the way, is the biggest home improvement day of the year. Yes, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Target and the rest were open. Their employees celebrate the holiday by working. Today more people “dig-out” their Christmas lights than at any other time of the year. No I’m not kidding. And please permit me a senior moment – when I was a kid – nothing was open. Back then there was also talk of a 4 day work week someday. Computers were going to make our lives so much easier. The way things are going, I don’t think our kids will be celebrating this holiday – not so much a holiday – in future years. There is no talk of working less – just more – and for less money than you probably earned five years ago. If you lucky enough to have the day off, enjoy it.

Photo credit: http://www.oldcitypics.com/images/empire-state-workers-1930.jpg

Pay attention Virginia.

You say you have a budget crisis?  You say that closing rest stops on the interstates will free up much needed cash to help with the budget crisis?

What have you been smoking?  What ever it is stop California from smoking the same stuff, or Michigan, or.other states.

I swear.  A two year old with a bag of marbles and a handful of gumdrops knows more about finance than some states. It appears so anyway.

Listen up.  I have a suggestion that will provide an increase in state revenue AND improve safety on the highways, for the general public and truckers.

The only problem is that it’s going to seriously annoy some lobbyists.  SERIOUSLY annoy.  I don’t know for a fact but I assume there’s an association of truck stops which lobbies congress to support their best interests.  Doesn’t any business now days have such an organization?  These people are going to hate my suggestion.

The suggestion?  Open Interstate Rest Areas to Commercialization.  Furthermore.  Auction off the rights to the highest bidder. Read the rest of this entry »

Linda Sunkle-Pierucki and I have been giving you updates on the rest area closings in Virginia. Be aware that these closures occur beginning the week of July 20th. If you are a OTR truck driver, you had better take a few more minutes before you start out in the morning pre-planning where you intend to stop, if you’re going through Virginia. There are currently about 40 “real” truck stops throughout the state. But, like the Love’s off I81 at exit 84 in Max Meadows, a few are remodeling their facilities or doing work on their parking lots, and have fewer truck spaces than normal.

I want to focus this post on I81, the 324 miles of interstate heavily used by trucks 24/7 that begins in the North from the West Virginia line and ends South at the Tennessee border. The Welcome Center on I81 in Tennessee is actually the only rest area since leaving West Virginia that has ample safe truck parking day and night. And there are no restrictions, as exists in Virginia, on overnight parking. Many only allow 2 hour parking. I began my day today at the Pilot in Hampton NJ. That location, by the way, is also presently being remodeled and is frustrating as heck to get in and out of and parking is limited.

Now permit me to take a slight diversion – and let me ask you a question. You manage to graduate high school with a 2.0 GPA. You make it into the local community college. Perhaps you enter the military and have a short and undistinguished record. You get out and work in a small local golf shop – until – in better times – there is an opening at the Virginia State Police Academy. With me so far? Good.

You manage to get through the training without shooting yourself in the foot. You’re assigned one of those shiny “used” 2006 Dodge Charger patrol cars with a “HEMI.” You get one of those wide brimmed forest ranger hats and a shiny badge. And for the next 20 years you sit under a tree, in the middle of I81, waiting for some schnook to come flying down a hill at 68 miles a hour. And after you retire, you get to to work for OOIDA in Missouri sitting (once again) under a tree doing whatever OOIDA does. How does this all sound to you? Did you say idiotic?

Well as Shakespeare wrote, therein lies the rub. Because my friend, Virginia is idiotic. Never a friend to truckers, it has become the latest State to pass through and park your rig in TN or WVA or anywhere else but there. Today, every “trooper” or whatever they call themselves in Virginia, was out trying their “worst” – hiding in the bushes, under trees or behind hills, in their feeble attempt to collect revenue to help their State from going bankrupt. And judging from the constant flashing lights coming from cars going in the opposite direction, everyone knew where they were. But, these “troopers” (who should be on commission) know that after the 20th, innocent 4-wheelers and desperate truckers will be speeding down I81 just to get to the state line to pee and poop. 

And that my fellow Life On The Road readers is the pathetic state of Virginia. And I, for one, have placed them, in my book, on double secret probation and will avoid at all costs stopping or spending my money there. And be advised, slow down – the speed limit on most of I-81 is 65 mph. Don’t feed the bears!

PS/If you plan to drive through Virginia here’s some help: http://www.wikihow.com/Hold-in-Pee-when-You-Can%27t-Use-the-Bathroom

Photo credits: http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Employment_Trooper_Recruitment.shtm, www.walletpop.com/…/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_81_in_Virginia, http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Animal_House/gallery/ANIMALHOUSE033/, www.everyday-education.com/

So you say you want to start your own trucking company? Well take heed to the new safety audit, as if you do not adhere to the regulations, you might as well just forget about making your “dream” come true.

The FMSCA recently passed regulations stating that new entrants will receive an automatic failing of their safety audit should any of the following take place:

“1. Sec.382.115(a)/Sec.382.115(b)Single occurrence.Failing to implement an alcohol and/or controlled substances testing program

2. Sec.382.201-Single occurrence.-Using a driver known to have an alcohol content of 0.04 or greater

3. Sec.382.211-Single occurrence.-Using a driver who has refused to submit to an alcohol or controlled substances test required under part 382.

4. Sec.382.215-Single occurrence.-Using a driver known to have tested positive for a controlled substance.

5. Sec382.305-Single occurrence.-Failing to implement random controlled substances and/or alcohol testing program.

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Finally, HOS is finalized! Well, sort of. On November 19, 2008 the FMSCA decided on the final rule adopting the provisions of its Dec. 17, 2007, interim final rule on the HOS rules.

According to Etrucker.com: “Under the final rule, commercial motor vehicle drivers may continue to drive up to 11 hours within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the workday, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty. And motor carriers and drivers may continue to restart calculations of the weekly on-duty limits after the driver has at least 34 consecutive hours off duty. The 11-hour and 34-hour rules were at the heart of Public Citizen’s second challenge to the hours rules.

The final regulation is set to take effect in 60 days, or Jan. 19, one day before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. ”

Which means that there is always the possibility of them revisiting HOS once President-elect Obama takes office. Why can they not just say “Ok, this is it, let’s not change it for X number of years?” instead of consistently swaying back and forth between yes and no.

Sleeper berth hours were not revisited this time around. However, electronic devices were. “In a related development, FMCSA also is publishing in the Nov. 19 Federal Register a notice of policy change regarding use of motor carriers’ advanced technology for compliance purposes. FMCSA had issued a memorandum in 1997 limiting use of such technology in compliance reviews and enforcement on the grounds that the government didn’t want to stifle technologies that were just emerging.

“This policy afforded the industry the opportunity to fully integrate the technology in its operations and overall safety management system,” FMCSA says in the notice to be published Wednesday.

But now advanced technology has become widely accepted and an integral component of the industry‘s logistics and operations management systems, FMCSA says. Since the policy has achieved its purpose, FMCSA says it is now rescinding it. The decision to reverse the policy may accomplish much of what the agency intended in proposing electronic onboard recorders. ”

So something else the FMSCA cannot make their mind up about, whether or not onboard recorders are good. First they did not want them and companies went ahead and started using them, now they DO want them and companies do not want them. It’s almost like a child. You tell a child not to do something and they do it anyway, then when you tell the child it is ok to do it, the child no longer wants to do it. Amazing how that works!

Hopefully though, they will leave HOS alone for awhile, since everyone is “almost” used to it now!

Certain folks want to strike. Well they are about to get their wish.

There are two ways to interpret the word “STRIKE”. One, the way that our little buddies who could NOT understand supply and demand were advocating has to do with work stoppage. Our little buddies figured that if we stopped work then all our “demands” would miraculously be met.

What they failed to understand, what they apparently REFUSE to understand, is that we live in a global economy. Oil is traded on the global marketplace. (they shouldn’t feel TOO bad because apparently the US Congress doesn’t understand that either, sue OPEC indeed!!) Oil is a fungible commodity. If the US doesn’t buy the oil, why, Russia, China, India, Europe, or any of a whole lot of OTHER countries are in line to buy that same oil. If we don’t buy it then, on the Global Market, the demand falls. If the demand falls , and the supply is constant, THEN the price also falls.

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