4 ms·

I think the truckers often want to drive longer than they’re legally allowed.

mikeyouse 4y ago
Yep. Every time a truck is parked, that trucker is away from home and also not making money. They almost universally hate the limits. Of course it's also in the collective best interest to not have massive trucks with tens of thousands of lbs of cargo driven by exhausted drivers.
- gonehome 4y ago
  Yeah, the restrictions make sense for society but the truckers (annd trucking companies) aren’t the ones that want them.
  - version_five 4y ago
    I agree there have to be restrictions, the idea of speed popping truckers driving for days without sleep is not good for anyone. My guess though, call me cynical, is that bigger companies pushed for these rules. They help push our smaller players who are more burdened by paperwork and compliance. The source of most industry regulation like this is a desired barrier to entry.
markstos 4y ago
Aren’t truckers often paid by the mile and not the hour, incentivizing minimal rest?
- weinzierl 4y ago
  Exactly, saying truckers often want to drive longer than they’re legally allowed is technically correct but not the whole truth. Interestingly the trucker situation seems to exist quite universally.
- post_break 4y ago
  They aren't paid when waiting for loads though, and that eats into hours. So you can be stuck at a terminal burning drive hours while technically not driving.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    And it drives them up the wall that they can't get to the shipper/receiver, clock out and then load/unload, drive 10-30min to where they can park and then turn the truck off for the night. Meanwhile some CDL bus driver or day cab driver clocks out at the end of his shift, commutes an hour home, has dinner, gets woken up for 10min at 3am by his infant and then clocks back into work at 4am and the government is fine with it. Same number of waking hours. Same number of driving hours. But the white collar bureaucrats give the latter a pass. Back in the day they just cooked the books but now with ELD they can't anymore.
    - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
      It seems to me the dynamics of the failures are different - cab drivers drive smaller vehicles at slower speeds in more engaging traffic. When a semi truck crashes it makes a highly visible spectacle, and if there are other people involved, with fatalities. If a cab driver takes a micronap in rush hour traffic they bounce off someone's bumper.
      - 29083011397778 4y ago
        Note parent also mentioned bus driver. 20 tonnes does not merely "bounce off someone's bumper"; 20 tonnes plus 70 passengers even less so, and all that's assuming it's only a 40-foot bus. Articulated buses are 60' here, with some articulated trolley-buses having such outrageous torque they had to be de-tuned to avoid destroying themselves. A zero-to-sixty (kilometer) on par with a Miata, no loudly revving diesel engine or exhaust, and approximately 40 tonnes between coach and passenger weight should not be so quickly dismissed.
        SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
- iAmAPencilYo 4y ago
  Depends but in general yes. I have a relative who owns his own truck and finds his own loads. He gets paid when he delivers his load, so he's still incentivesed to go as fast as possible. Thankfully he's not as tech savvy to cheat the ELD
  - livelielife 4y ago
    [flagged]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

Yep. Every time a truck is parked, that trucker is away from home and also not making money. They almost universally hate the limits. Of course it's also in the collective best interest to not have massive trucks with tens of thousands of lbs of cargo driven by exhausted drivers.

gonehome 4y ago
Yeah, the restrictions make sense for society but the truckers (annd trucking companies) aren’t the ones that want them.
- version_five 4y ago
  I agree there have to be restrictions, the idea of speed popping truckers driving for days without sleep is not good for anyone. My guess though, call me cynical, is that bigger companies pushed for these rules. They help push our smaller players who are more burdened by paperwork and compliance. The source of most industry regulation like this is a desired barrier to entry.

markstos 4y ago

Aren’t truckers often paid by the mile and not the hour, incentivizing minimal rest?

weinzierl 4y ago
Exactly, saying truckers often want to drive longer than they’re legally allowed is technically correct but not the whole truth. Interestingly the trucker situation seems to exist quite universally.
post_break 4y ago
They aren't paid when waiting for loads though, and that eats into hours. So you can be stuck at a terminal burning drive hours while technically not driving.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  And it drives them up the wall that they can't get to the shipper/receiver, clock out and then load/unload, drive 10-30min to where they can park and then turn the truck off for the night. Meanwhile some CDL bus driver or day cab driver clocks out at the end of his shift, commutes an hour home, has dinner, gets woken up for 10min at 3am by his infant and then clocks back into work at 4am and the government is fine with it. Same number of waking hours. Same number of driving hours. But the white collar bureaucrats give the latter a pass. Back in the day they just cooked the books but now with ELD they can't anymore.
  - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
    It seems to me the dynamics of the failures are different - cab drivers drive smaller vehicles at slower speeds in more engaging traffic. When a semi truck crashes it makes a highly visible spectacle, and if there are other people involved, with fatalities. If a cab driver takes a micronap in rush hour traffic they bounce off someone's bumper.
    - 29083011397778 4y ago
      Note parent also mentioned bus driver. 20 tonnes does not merely "bounce off someone's bumper"; 20 tonnes plus 70 passengers even less so, and all that's assuming it's only a 40-foot bus. Articulated buses are 60' here, with some articulated trolley-buses having such outrageous torque they had to be de-tuned to avoid destroying themselves. A zero-to-sixty (kilometer) on par with a Miata, no loudly revving diesel engine or exhaust, and approximately 40 tonnes between coach and passenger weight should not be so quickly dismissed.
      - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
iAmAPencilYo 4y ago
Depends but in general yes. I have a relative who owns his own truck and finds his own loads. He gets paid when he delivers his load, so he's still incentivesed to go as fast as possible. Thankfully he's not as tech savvy to cheat the ELD
- livelielife 4y ago
  [flagged]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]