Truckers allowed to go 11plus hours

[pippin]

"The Bush administration Friday permanently relaxed rules governing how many hours a day truckers may spend behind the wheel, issuing regulations that would allow them to continue spending 11 hours each day on the road — a move denounced by consumer safety advocates.
. . . .The rules, which take effect in October, allow 11 hours of driving in a single stretch, up from the 10-hour limit that had been in effect until 2003. The new regulations would allow truckers to drive up to 77 hours per week, up from 60.

The rules shorten the overall workday from 15 hours to 14 and require truckers with sleeper berths to take longer breaks by spending at least eight continuous hours in bed. The old rules allowed rest periods to be split up.

But at the same time, the rules largely deregulate short-haul truckers, even eliminating the requirement that they keep records of how many hours they work. "

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-trucks20aug20,0,6228599.story?coll=la-home-nation

Potentially more accidents? Southern Californians already seem to encounter frequent incidents involving trucks and big rigs. Anyone have the stats about accidents involving trucks? How do you truckers out there feel about this?

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. Portland Oregon, August 18, 2005

Illinois driver of a semi tractor trailer falls asleep during rush hour, crosses 100 foot median in to oncoming traffic, kills one, for now.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Sleep? Highly overrated....

Especially when you got lots of rich chocolatey Ovalcaine. :eyes: One more reason for peak oil to hurry up and put a stop to this bullshit.

[classof56]

3. Oh, great...now we can look forward to more of this:

Portland, Oregon

A truck driver, believed to have fallen asleep behind the wheel triggering a fatal crash earlier this week on Interstate-205, was taken into custody Friday after sheriff's deputies said they found him disoriented and wandering aimlessly on foot through traffic along a suburban southeast Portland street.

Wreckage from deadly crash involving a semi and several cars is scattered across Interstate-205 southbound lanes near Johnson Creek.

A state police crash reconstruction team concluded the driver suffered from fatigue when he lost control of his semi-truck and crossed a median into on-coming traffic Wednesday evening, killing a southeast Portland man and seriously injuring a Seattle couple.

Investigators and prosecutors are in the process of trying to determine whether any criminal charges will be filed in that case.

Link: www.kgw.com

[BiggJawn]

4. That title's misleading....

"Truckers allowed to go 11plus hours"?
Should be more acurately "Wal-Mart allowed to FORCE drivers to drive 11 + hours..."

Again, damn safety, there's MONEY to be made.

[OhioChick]

5. This is a bad, bad, idea.

There have been too many accidents as it's been. I've heard of quite a few on the local news in the past several months.

[mconvente]

6. My father is a trucker

Before the US DOT changed their rules back to the old ways a while back (actually because a judge ruled them unfair), the driving hours were unfairly structured.

For those who don't know, a trucker must have 8 hours of sleeping time in order to drive 10 hours. With the new DOT rules (that were subsequently overruled), idle time counted as driving time. For example, if a freight driver docks at 10:00 AM, and it takes 2 hours until the trailer is unloaded, those two hours count as driving time, even though the driver isn't driving. Since many drivers are paid by the mile, no driving time equals less pay - those old rules are unfair because of the trucker salary system. Therefore, those DOT rules would backfire, since more drivers would "violate" the rules in order to get more driving hours in. Those rules would actually have cause more accidents as drivers tried to jump the gun and get more hours.

Those rules were overturned about a year ago (after a MAJOR outrage campaign by truckers). I think the extra hours are good. My father has driven over 2 million (yes million) safe miles so he knows what he's doing. A lot of truckers don't, but with experience they get better.

And also, a lot of truck accidents are caused by car drivers, not truckers. Think about how hard it is to suddenly stop in your sedan when a person cuts you off. Now think about how hard it is to stop a 60,000 pound 18-wheeler from that person in the same amount of time - basically, it can't stop, and you get a "trucking accident". I hope I've enlightened some of you here; not matter how great we DUers are in our progressive thinking, truckers seem to get a lot of crap pointed at them - some of this is warranted, but a lot isn't.

But you all are Democrats so that speaks well enough that you understand! :toast:

PS - my dad votes Dem always.

[Toots]

7. IMO truckers should have their own hiway system

Allow no automobiles on the truck hiways and no semis on the other hiways. That way everyone is made happier one way or another.

[tocqueville]

8. FYI : European regulation

The Road Transport Directive (2002/15/EC) should have been implemented by 23 March 2005, but eventually went live on 4 April 2005 as Statutory Instrument 2005 No 639. The legislation affects drivers and crew of vehicles subject to EU Drivers' Hours Rules and, briefly, the legislation introduces the following requirements:

Weekly work: 48 hour average over 17 weeks (or up to 26 weeks subject to a collective or workforce agreement) with no opt out

Weekly work: 60 hour maximum, subject to the average remaining 48 hours or less

Night work: max 10 hours in 24 hours (although night workers will be able to work longer, provided that a collective or workforce agreement is in place). NB Night drivers will be subject to the general limits of the directive.

Periods of Availability (PoAs) do not count towards working time.

Breaks totalling 30 minutes for 6-9 hours work or totalling 45 minutes for over 9 hours

Records of working time must be kept by employers for at least 2 years after the end of the period in question

Self-employed drivers exempt until March 2009.

These work limits apply to all work (not just driving time), and cover all work carried out (not just the driver's main employer).

[Deja Q]

15. The latest example in the effort to work us more for less money.

Have fun.

Once you're burnt out, they won't even give you the means for a nice, pailess deliverance.

[jmowreader]

9. The short-haul rules are definitely the most interesting

Everyone here's least-favorite company owns the largest trucking company in the world, and almost all of their work is short-haul--DC to store.

According to Bush's new guidelines, drivers are not required to log the number of hours they run--which means there should be no problem with a guy running from the Hope Mills DC up to Virginia, dropping his trailer and picking up an empty, dropping that back in Hope Mills and picking up a full one to go to Smithfield where he drops it and picks up an empty to take back to Hope Mills to exchange for one to take to South Carolina...all in one day.

[rucky]

13. that would be a brutal shift. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

10. There was a reason they passed the law in the first place

and forgive me for thinking realllllly bad thoughts about his family being around truckers who had been driving too long.

About 3 years ago, there was a young girl that I worked with it. She is what was known as a GN. She hadn't passed the state board yet.
She received the news on a Friday that she had passed the boards and was officially an RN. She decided to drive home on Saturday to tell her family.
Her family lived in Houston, she worked in Dallas.
It was raining. She travelled along I-45 going South. In Corsicana, if anyone is familiar, there is a curve in the interstate.
A trucker who had been driving too long and was going very fast was going North on the divided highway.
He lost control and careened over to the southbound lane.
The trucked rolled over many times and landed on top of her small compact car. It took them several hours to cut her out.
Katie was 22 and she was going to be an excellent nurse.

I hate Bush. More blood on his hands. What does he care anyway?

[mconvente]

11. Can we stop all the trucker bashing, please??

I'm so fucking sick and tired of people bashing truckers. Yes, there are sucky ones, but there are sucky people everywhere.

"A trucker who had been driving too long and was going very fast was going North on the divided highway.
He lost control and careened over to the southbound lane.
The trucked rolled over many times and landed on top of her small compact car. It took them several hours to cut her out.
Katie was 22 and she was going to be an excellent nurse.

I hate Bush. More blood on his hands. What does he care anyway?"

How is a driver going fast Bush's fault. It's Bush's fault for the bullshit war, fascism, warmongering, election fraud, etc. One thing it isn't his fault is for that jerk trucker driving fast. If you drive fast and get in an accident, is it Bush's fault??

Seriously. If all truckers stopped working, this nation would crumble faster than if gas went even higher. How are you going to get your fresh produce if there are no truckers to bring it to the grocery store??

Listen, there are bad truckers that tarnish the reputation of the majority of them who are good, like my father and his safe driving record. Stop bashing them ignorantly.

[rman]

12. Who is bashing truckers? what you point out is Bush-bashing

The anecdote about the truck accident is just a statement of fact, which is then blamed on Bush. Regardless of putting the blame on Bush being justified or not, it is not trucker bashing.

[Horse with no Name]

16. Not bashing truckers

Just pointing out the fact that there needs to be limits on how many hours they need to be driving.
That's all.
Sleepy drivers aren't any better than drunk drivers.

[Deja Q]

14. Let truckers use residential roads too to assist bypassing rush hour.

It's all about money.