4 ms·

Aren’t electronic logbooks for truckers used in Europe since 2006? And no one whines about here?

Stranger43 3y ago
speed and driving times have been recorded mechanically for drivers in Europe since at least the 90ies so going electronic was maybe not as radical a change for European drivers when they went electronic in 2006. It's also worth noting that a lot of the culture around the labor market is different as the European regulators tend to be a bit more of an aggressive stance on companies creating pressures on employees and then try to shift all blame when those pressure's lead to rule breaking and accidents.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
Indeed. I hitchhiked into the tens of thousands of km in Europe in the 2000s, much of it by the kindness of truck drivers, and I never heard a single complaint about the tachograph. What I did hear complaints about were GPS tracking systems, but in that case it was the employer and their quirks keeping a tight leash on the driver, not the state and its road-safety aims. Fun fact: it was helpful for a hitchhiker to ask the driver for one of the blank paper discs for the tachograph. Later, when standing beside the road and waiting for another lift, you could hold that up whenever a truck approached, and truck drivers would take it as a sign that you were relatively trustworthy.
- orwin 3y ago
  Truck drivers insurers don't allow them to take hitchhikers (or anyone, really) nowadays.
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    Depends where. In the USA (and perhaps Canada) this has long been a concern -- dating at least back to Kerouac's time -- and a hitchhiker there relies e.g. on drivers who are owner-operators. In the rest of the world, including the EU, hitchhikers still easily move via trucks.
    - orwin 3y ago
      Riding as passenger in a French long haul truck should be almost impossible. Although most trucks accross France aren't immatriculated in France, so it might still be possible.
      - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
        My direct experience is a few years old now, because I moved on to slightly more bourgeois means of travel (but I remain active in travel communities where the younger, less bourgeois members hitchhike), but I don't remember seeing many French trucks whenever I was jumping from one motorway service station to another. The trucking industry in Europe very quickly moved eastward, and already Polish drivers were the stereotypical long-distance lift across Western Europe, with Hungarians and (after 2006) Romanians also being common.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    The insurer simply does not cover costs for certain events or entities. For example, if the truck driver picked someone up, got into an accident, then the passenger’s injuries would not be covered by the insurance. In which case, the passenger might sue the driver, and the driver might not want that, so the driver chooses to not pick up hitchhikers. One might say this is a consequence of not having taxpayer funded healthcare for everyone, since exorbitant healthcare costs + needing to find someone to milk mean everyone ends up looking out for their own ass. Another scenario is the passenger steals the truck or its contents , in which case the insurer would say not our problem. You were covered for random acts of weather/other drivers/machine failure/thieves breaking and entering. But not if you willingly let them into the truck. Seems like a reasonable caveat.

speed and driving times have been recorded mechanically for drivers in Europe since at least the 90ies so going electronic was maybe not as radical a change for European drivers when they went electronic in 2006. It's also worth noting that a lot of the culture around the labor market is different as the European regulators tend to be a bit more of an aggressive stance on companies creating pressures on employees and then try to shift all blame when those pressure's lead to rule breaking and accidents.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

Indeed. I hitchhiked into the tens of thousands of km in Europe in the 2000s, much of it by the kindness of truck drivers, and I never heard a single complaint about the tachograph. What I did hear complaints about were GPS tracking systems, but in that case it was the employer and their quirks keeping a tight leash on the driver, not the state and its road-safety aims. Fun fact: it was helpful for a hitchhiker to ask the driver for one of the blank paper discs for the tachograph. Later, when standing beside the road and waiting for another lift, you could hold that up whenever a truck approached, and truck drivers would take it as a sign that you were relatively trustworthy.

orwin 3y ago
Truck drivers insurers don't allow them to take hitchhikers (or anyone, really) nowadays.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  Depends where. In the USA (and perhaps Canada) this has long been a concern -- dating at least back to Kerouac's time -- and a hitchhiker there relies e.g. on drivers who are owner-operators. In the rest of the world, including the EU, hitchhikers still easily move via trucks.
  - orwin 3y ago
    Riding as passenger in a French long haul truck should be almost impossible. Although most trucks accross France aren't immatriculated in France, so it might still be possible.
    - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
      My direct experience is a few years old now, because I moved on to slightly more bourgeois means of travel (but I remain active in travel communities where the younger, less bourgeois members hitchhike), but I don't remember seeing many French trucks whenever I was jumping from one motorway service station to another. The trucking industry in Europe very quickly moved eastward, and already Polish drivers were the stereotypical long-distance lift across Western Europe, with Hungarians and (after 2006) Romanians also being common.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  The insurer simply does not cover costs for certain events or entities. For example, if the truck driver picked someone up, got into an accident, then the passenger’s injuries would not be covered by the insurance. In which case, the passenger might sue the driver, and the driver might not want that, so the driver chooses to not pick up hitchhikers. One might say this is a consequence of not having taxpayer funded healthcare for everyone, since exorbitant healthcare costs + needing to find someone to milk mean everyone ends up looking out for their own ass. Another scenario is the passenger steals the truck or its contents , in which case the insurer would say not our problem. You were covered for random acts of weather/other drivers/machine failure/thieves breaking and entering. But not if you willingly let them into the truck. Seems like a reasonable caveat.