Entering the trucking industry presents many problems in adapting to the lifestyle and the difficulty of the job itself. These problems are compounded by there being no clear-cut training regulations in place in the FMCSA, the attitude of many training companies towards their students, the lack of real training done by many so-called trucking schools and the lack of quality trainers or trainers who abuse their positions.

The only current FMCSA training regulations for semi-truck drivers are that one passes the cdl test and for entry-level drivers: § 380.503 Entry-level driver-training requirements.
Entry-level driver training must include instruction addressing the following four areas:
(a) Driver qualification requirements. The Federal rules on medical certification, medical examination procedures, general qualifications, responsibilities, and disqualifications based on various offenses, orders, and loss of driving privileges (part 391, subparts B and E of this subchapter).
(b) Hours of service of drivers. The limitations on driving hours, the requirement to be off-duty for certain periods of time, record of duty status preparation, and exceptions (part 395 of this subchapter). Fatigue countermeasures as a means to avoid crashes.
(c) Driver wellness. Basic health maintenance including diet and exercise. The importance of avoiding excessive use of alcohol.
(d) Whistleblower protection. The right of an employee to question the safety practices of an employer without the employee's risk of losing a job or being subject to reprisals simply for stating a safety concern (29 CFR part 1978).
[69 FR 29404, May 21, 2004]

So technically, if you can pass a road test, you can go to work driving a tractor trailer. The rub comes in where insurance companies have requirements, though minimal, for training to be provided for entry-level drivers. Without regulations from the FMCSA, these training periods may be with another student without an on-board trainer or be with an on-board trainer for 2-8 weeks at times with another student along too. Some companies with team operations will put two people just out of training together in a team situation, kind of a blind leading the blind situation.

Two organizations are pushing for enhanced training regulations. The Women In Trucking Association is addressing the issue of women who are coerced into having intimate relations by their male trainers, being discriminated against, or intimidated out of the trucking industry by their trainers or even the companies that have initially hired them.

Student WIT members are reporting this type of alleged behavior repeatedly. One woman was allegedly physically attacked last summer by her trainer who had become convinced that he was in love with her. Another woman was allegedly propositioned on the second day of training by her trainer being told she would have to submit to him to continue training. Still another woman had a female trainer who was allegedly taking excessive over the counter drugs and was out of it most of the time, got off of the trainer’s truck early only to allegedly find problems with the company due to her objection to running with a stoned trainer. Many women are subjected to lewd jokes and behavior by their male trainers. Unfortunately, there are not enough women trainers to go around and we have seen above that even women trainers are not at times, the quality they should be.

Women are not the only ones affected by bad trainers and training schools. A young man from Wyoming went all the way through school and was taking his tests before finding out there were such things as log books and then when he asked, the school refused to teach him the HOS regulations. Another man’s trainer had such a bad attitude that the student feared for his safety. The trainer yelled and cussed at him and then took a swing at the student…just because the student scraped a gear on his first day.

OOIDA is pushing Washington D. C. to increase training regulations. Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President of OOIDA had this to say about the regulations and why they need to be addressed. “Training is something we have been working on for a long time and believe it will have significant impact on the value of drivers’ time, and more importantly, on safety for all highway users. It is a matter of raising the level of professionalism of our industry and seeing the correlation between that and highway safety…Drivers are held responsible for almost everything that can go wrong. It only makes sense that the training required should correspond with the responsibilities of the job. Obviously, the qualifications of the trainer are crucial to quality training. FMCSA says they will be releasing a driver training proposal by mid-January. I’m sure it will be an improvement over the non-existent requirement we have now, but I’m also sure we and others will need to point out areas that need improvement.”

It makes no sense to regulate trucking into the ground on the issue of safety while leaving the basics of trucking safety, that of the training of drivers, to remain inadequate or not addressed at all. One would think that companies, who pay tremendous amounts for insurance would want to train their entry-level drivers adequately, instead they push them through their system quickly for the most part to keep the trucks moving. The companies seem to be working on the percentage idea of training, if they hire ten students and only two kill themselves due to inadequate training, then the other eight are still making money for the company. The only way to get companies to adequately train is by getting the FMCSA to put in place comprehensive training requirements for schools and for the companies and their trainers, and then enforce those regulations rigorously. Let us hope it happens sooner than later!

Ya’ll be safe!

A man had been out of work for a time due to the economic crisis in Michigan where he lived. He had looked and applied for many jobs but there were just too many people for every available job and he was not hired for any of them. He had always loved looking at trucks as they passed by and dreamed of becoming a trucker some day. Not being able to find work provided the nudge he needed to look into becoming a truck driver.

Looking online, the man found my yahoo group where we work exclusively with educating new and prospective drivers about trucking; the business, lifestyle and the job and was involved in other trucking groups online. He asked questions, did his homework and built his dream.

Because of being out of work for so long, the man did not have the money to pay his own tuition, so opted for company paid training. Checking through all of the companies that offered paid tuition, there are not many left due to the harsh economy, he chose a company, filled out the pre-hire application and was pre-hired by the company who promised they would pay for his tuition, and then hire him upon completion of the course and his getting his cdl.

The man found a company approved school, scraped up enough money to live on for the couple of weeks of courses and for gas money to get there and then back home. He set off to fulfill his long time dream.

Checking into the school’s contracted motel, he was glad he brought his own sheets, he said, “it isn’t much, but it is only for three weeks.”

He was excited his first day, the next day, part of the next…then disaster struck. The man relates, “Well. . .five days after it started. .. It’s over. . . .I started training on Monday, passed my CDL permits with flying colors on Wednesday and then I was told that the company who had pre-hired me had changed their minds and would not hire me or pay for my tuition. Now it is Friday and I've been told today that no company would hire me, even after I qualified thru the third party driver source with the school, and have a clean background, great physical, clean drug test, solid work history, and solid references. No reason was given when I asked. . .they said they don’t have to tell me.

A week wasted, money that I didn't have to spend on food for a week, wasted…gas to get here from home wasted. . . thoughts of finally being on the right track wasted. . . hopes dashed. I've heard of this happening to people. . .going thru the screening and training only to be sent home a week or so later with no explanation. The man said, “What’s important to note here is that companies can't continue to treat people like this.”

To say that he is devastated is an understatement. He thought he had done all the right things, chosen the right path. He had passed his written tests and physical with flying colors; what happened? He did do everything right. He did his homework, made educated decisions so he could support his family and himself. He was honest and studied hard.

I cannot fault the man for anything in this. I do find a great deal of fault with the three companies involved though. First, the trucking company should have honored their word to hire him upon completion of hiss training if he achieved getting his cdl as they promised. He would have been a good driver for them in my opinion, their loss. The third party company affiliated with the school should of worked harder to find him another company to fund him the rest of the way through the training and then to hire him. At the very least, they should have given him an explanation as to why they could not find another company to do so. Third, the school should have made sure of the funding BEFORE letting him come all the way there to start training.

I can surmise what happened as far as the trucking company goes. They looked at their bottom-line and decided that they could not afford to pay any more tuitions at this time. I can understand that with the economy the way it is, everyone is hurting. They should have continued with the funding for the students that had already started school though in my opinion, not just leave these people hang out there to dry.

The man’s comment that companies cannot keep treating people like this is profound. No, they cannot, but probably will, it is nothing new. The company that truly cares about their drivers is getting harder and harder to find now days, most are only concerned with surviving the current economic mess and their bottom-lines. Not many care that a hard-working man’s dreams have been shattered.

I do not know what the man will do now; we have given him some suggestions to try at my group. I do know though that he is a little less trusting of trucking companies and schools and his dream is shattered for now. I hope that he eventually rebuilds his dream and finds a company to work with though…he will make one hell of a driver if he does.

Ya’ll be safe!

Once again, it is time to address courtesy on the road, truck stops, warehouses and rest areas; obviously, the word is not getting out.  Things I have seen this week:

On the road:

 Drivers, if you are running any closer than a truck length behind the vehicle in front of you, you are tailgating and are not only jeopardizing yourself and the vehicle you are following, but also every vehicle around you.  If you are trying to save fuel, the savings are not worth the safety issue.  For any other reason forget it, it will not wash; you are a bully and trying to use the size of your truck to intimidate the driver of the vehicle you are following…stop it!

When you come back in front of another vehicle, what are you thinking when you come back over so closely that all the other driver sees is your door handles?  Don’t you know that you could misjudge the distance by that amount in your mirrors or the blast from the wind shear could kill someone?  At minimum, you should leave a truck length of distance between you and any vehicle you pass.

It is not nice to fool with construction workers.  If you think that it is fun to make a construction worker jump back by bobbling your truck towards them, you are one sick puppy and need help.  Don’t you know that if that construction worker slips on a rock and falls, you could kill them?  Slow that truck down and show some respect for those workers; while construction zones may be a pain in the arse, without those workers out patching the roads, what few brains you have would be butter.

Truck stops:

You might be a billy bigrigger who never has to work at backing into a parking space, but give others not so lucky a break.  Turn off your headlights if at night or cock the truck to where the lights are not shining in the backing driver’s eyes.  Wait patiently for them to do what they need to do; do not go so close that they have no room to maneuver or dart behind them while they are still backing up….or step out and watch their blind side for them if they are having trouble, oh wait, that would be thinking about someone else rather than just yourself, God forbid!

That waitress in the café at the truck stop is there to serve you food, not to service other needs or to be an object of sarcasm.  Do you think that working 8 hours on ones feet, carrying heavy trays and dealing with all the BS that they do is easy?  What does her looks have to do with your being served your food and drink quickly and courteously, you most likely do not look like a Greek god either  so do not make stupid comments about how ugly or fat she is.  Take your food business to the We Bare All or Hooters restaurants if the waitress’s looks are more important to you than good food and good service.

Warehouses:

If you are going to a certain set of docks in a plant and there is a line of trucks sitting along the road next to the docks, how does it not compute in your mind that those drivers are most likely waiting for those docks they are near?  That is a staging line and you are supposed to line up at the end…yes John boy, I said end… of the line not barge up to the front.  If you are stupid enough to think you are more special than those waiting drivers and go to the head of the line, do not park on the other side of the driveway then not move when asked to so drivers at the docks can come out around the corner you are sitting on.  You might find a lady driver with an attitude that decides you are an idiot and need a lesson taught that forces you to back up out of her way.  Really, it is not nice to flip off said lady driver because you yourself are an idiot.

When you are driving through a busy factory’s drop and staging yard, where there is heavy truck traffic, you really have to remember that it is not a racetrack and there is no prize for making it to the gate first.  Look around and if there is a slower truck moving or someone trying to get set up to back in one of the tight drop lines, slow down and allow people to do what they have to do.  Everyone has someplace else to be just like you.

I do not have to repeat the backing situation from the truck stop section do I?

Rest Areas:

People and pets are moving around rest areas at all hours.  There is absolutely no need for you to take off out of a parking spot like you are shot from a sling shot.  Ease out slowly and watch for people and their pets.  That cup of coffee will still be at the truck stop when you get there.

If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please wipe the seat!  Wipe the sink too or rinse it down if you have excessively dirty hands when you are through washing them.  Oh yes, do please wash your hands, I do not want your germs thank you very much.

Parking on the shoulder of rest areas are at times a necessity, have to park there some times myself.  Please pull off of the shoulder as far as you can so the tail of your trailer is not out in the roadway; if the shoulder is not wide enough to do so, keep going to somewhere else.  People coming through while you sleep should not have to go to the other shoulder to get by your rig.  Pull up in the parking spaces as far as the line ending too, no one should have to thread the needle going through the parking area to avoid hitting your trailer; their eyesight might be a little weak too and threading a needle is difficult.

Miscellaneous:

We all have to do what we have to do when nature calls…dispose of those bags and bottles in dumpsters please…no one wants to look at that mess.

If there is somewhere that is nice enough to allow us to park, do not dispose of your trash, blown tires, bent wheels or pallets there.  You think they are going to keep allowing us to park there?  NOT!  You are not so special that you have the right to trash up someone’s property.

If you hear a woman on the cb radio, quit with the sexist crap will you!  If you have not seen hooters before, or think you need someone to flip their shirt or skirt up to make your day, buy a Playboy and give us lady drivers a break…we have some respect for ourselves, you should too.   Oh, and by the way, you think that you are helping anyone including yourself with having those signs handprinted in your window or written in the dust on your trailer about hooters or flipping someone’s skirt?  You are not, you are engaging in juvenile behavior that destroys truck driver’s images and need to grow up.

Of course, the above is just my opinion!

Though there are thousands of stories in the trucking industry about terrible dispatchers, the truth of the matter is that company drivers and leased on owner operators would be lost without the dispatchers they work with. Dispatchers are a driver’s lifeline when things go wrong, get the driver home, give them their loads and make sure they get adequate miles to satisfy both the driver and the company. Along with that, most try to ask how the driver is doing that day if they do not use satellite dispatch systems.

Dispatchers do all of the above with a phone at their ear, a pen in one hand while typing away at the computer with the other for 8 to 10 hours a day. Small company dispatchers may do other jobs along with dispatching trucks and drivers. These small company dispatchers also find the loads, schedule repairs and maintenance on the trucks, and do orientation of new hires along with often working after hours and weekend phone duty.

Dispatchers come from many areas to become dispatchers. Some start out in other areas of trucking company offices and get promoted thru the ranks into the position, some start out as drivers and then enter the office as a dispatcher, while a few are just hired cold to become a dispatcher. Brokers switch over to dispatching for a company and visa versa sometimes because the jobs are similar.

At the company where I am working now, we have two dispatchers. Jen came from another trucking company where she worked as a broker after immigrating to the USA from Canada. Scot was in my employer’s words, “The best driver this company ever had. I knew he would be a bang up dispatcher so I talked him into coming into the office.”

Jen and Scot both have very different personalities and strengths but mesh well in dispatch. Jen brought along her contacts when she came to work as a dispatcher, which helps the company, and she is the peacemaker if there is a problem with a load or a broker. Scot has the mechanical knowledge gained from his years of driving and along with his dispatching duties, handles routine maintenance and on the road repair scheduling. Both share a deep respect for the drivers under them and the work truck driving entails.

One thing both will tell you though is paramount to everything a dispatcher does and that is communication from the driver along with being on time for pick-ups and deliveries. If they do not know where you are and you will be on time, then they cannot find another load for you until they hear from you. If you are late on delivery or pick up and have not called to explain the delay, it puts dispatch into the position of having nothing to tell a customer or broker about where their freight is.

Family owned businesses find their dispatchers from within the family at times. I have only had one bad dispatcher in all of my years of driving and it was not that he was a bad person. He just was very inexperienced though he thought he knew everything. Getting directions for the drivers was impossible for him because he did not understand how the interstates ran or where the states were. He would however always ask how you were that day and would listen if you had a complaint or problem, not that he would do anything about it. He got into dispatching because he was the company owner’s son-in-law and had needed a job.

On the other hand, one of the best dispatchers I have had was the daughter of a company owner. She was only 21 years old when I hired on to drive for her dad and she was just learning about trucking and dispatching. Though she had a prior job as a server in a family friend’s café, she did not know how to work with male drivers and at first allowed them to intimidate her. Knowing that I had worked in trucking company offices, whenever I would come into the yard, she would ask me questions for hours on how to handle things. After she gained experience and confidence, she learned the delicate balance of working with male drivers and how to be taken seriously. She was and is a tiger in defense of her drivers and will take up for them, as long as they are in the right, against anyone.

To keep a good relationship with your dispatcher is easy. Do your check calls on time and keep them in the loop in how you are running. Make them your first call if something is wrong with the truck or if you are delayed on your run for any reason. Remember that dispatchers have off days too or may be ill but still at work. So just like you do not like to be rubbed the wrong way when you are not at your best, do not give your dispatcher a hard time if it appears they are having a bad day. If you have a problem that cannot be resolved over the phone in a calm fashion, do not yell at and/or cuss your dispatcher. Either wait until you get into the yard to get it resolved or get in touch with the supervisor and talk to them.

Most of all a driver must remember that at 3 am in the middle of an icy night when the truck breaks down, that dispatcher may just be your only lifeline to help; and the dispatchers have to remember that without a truck driver, a dispatcher has no paycheck. We all have to work together in our symbiotic trucking relationship to be successful, without either one of us, the rig’s wheels stop.

We hear a lot about rude cashiers and attendants at truck stops; about rude shipping and receiving clerks, and about the rudeness shown to us by the public numerous times.  We scratch our heads and wonder why in the world we are so disrespected.  Some of you need to look in the mirror!

I stopped at my favorite Pilot truck stop, the location does not matter, and as I walked up to the counter to get my scale ticket I quipped as usual, “hey ya’ll, how are my favorite people at my favorite Pilot?” 

To my amazement, the older lady behind the counter said, “I hate truck drivers!”

This was so counter to how I knew that lady that I took a step back and I think my jaw dropped.  “She softened what she had said by saying, “present company excluded, but those last three drivers took the cake.”

I asked her what had happened.  She told me that the first of the three had come up to the check out and demanded a shower right away; when she told him he would be next up for a shower, he cussed her and stormed out.  The second one was just as rude about wanting something in the store that they did not carry. 

The third was the worst though she said.  There were two cashiers working behind the counter and there was a line with people alternating between the two cashiers as they became available.  The next person in line was an elderly man.  A driver came charging up, literally shoved the old man out of the way to barge his way into the line in front of the other cashier to pay for his soda pop.  When the lady told him he should wait his turn, he told her it was a truck stop and he was a trucker and used bad language while doing so.  The cashier lady is a nice lady and I have been dealing with her for over two years.  She was really shook up over those driver’s actions and I have to ask what in the world were those drivers thinking? 

Now, I get ticked off too sometimes at a truck stop who disrespects the truckers who shop there; I have even had words with a fuel desk manager at a J one time but it was because she told me she ‘would rather deal with busloads of tourists than truckers any day’ first…and I still did not cuss her.  99% of the drivers I know would never shove anyone much less an elderly person out of the way for any reason other than if they were in danger.

So what gives with that other 1%; perhaps their mommas and daddies should have spanked that arse for them when they were young and taught them manners!  When a trucker acts like that in public, do they think they are invisible or something?  They are not invisible and people see them act like that and tar every one of us with their dislike.  Is it any wonder we are being regulated up to our ears and banned from places; no it is not. 

Let us do some practicing for that 1%. 

When there is a line, stand at the end of it and wait your turn. 

If you have to wait for a shower, then either wait or say “No, thank you ma’am, I’ll get one later” and leave. 

When a cashier hands you your change and receipt or the wait person delivers your meal, say, “thank you sir or ma’am” even if they are younger than you.

When you check in at a shipper or receivers, even if the clerk is grumpy, kill them with kindness and say, “hello, I am John or Jane Doe, driver for XYX trucking and I am here to pick up or deliver a load” and say “thank you ma’am or sir” when they give you dock assignment or your bills.

You want respect from your peers and the general public, then you 1% who lack civility need to learn to give some respect to others first.  While I might agree that truckers are special folk, it does not mean that truckers cannot say please and thank you to other truckers and the general public, especially those who work with and for us.  You 1% think you are some sort of legends, well it is only in your minds, true legends in trucking know civility.

 http://www.mexicomanufacturingnews.com/

Wonder why companies are moving south?

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35749.htm

Note the economic part

http://supplychain.tamu.edu/pdf/North_American_Regional_Manufacturing.pdf

Read the whole report...

http://4wheeldrive.about.com/b/2010/05/23/polaris-to-take-mfg-jobs-to-mexico.htm

Note on this one the reference to logistics issues...

You can throw numbers around anyway ya'll want to, but use some logic instead of statistics...if a company that is headquartered here, yet has manufacturering plants in Mexico(or further south) can ship parts brought in from elsewhere here (or in the slim chance the parts are made here) directly to their Mexican concerns and then bring those manufactured items directly back up here to their DC centers, they cut out the middle men and time lost ie: transfers at the border. (The carriers have seen this writing on the wall for the last several years and is one of the reasons why many are going to a more regional and intermodal operation) This of course increases their bottom lines. Right now, American truckers are bringing the things to and from the border...who is going to be cut out?

Then too, lets not forget the mega ports being planned for Mexico and which I think are under construction now if I remember right

http://www.mexidata.info/id1278.html

http://seaport.homestead.com/files/colonet.html

...lots of freight will be coming here from there and then there is the Chinese who own/control the Panama canal and who've deepened it for container ships...the reasons behind TX superhighway, the plan for Mexican customs control of American freight along it and the new intermodel center in KC.

http://www.warriorsfortruth.com/mexican-customs-on-us-soil.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_SmartPort

You think that Americans will be hauling those containers from the border to the intermodel center and back? Nope.

 Anyone who does not think this will eventually cost American driving jobs is not looking behind the propoganda IMO.

It is amazing that the United States of America bows down to economic pressures from a third world country to allow hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign trucks and their drivers into the country to take freight out of US driver’s trailers. This after the American people, and congress, spoke and stopped the initial Mexican Border Pilot Program the first time. Mexico responded by placing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports. Under the new agreement, half the tariffs will be lifted as soon as the deal is signed, and the remainder once the first Mexican truck is allowed to enter the US. Some may call this tough politics, but it sure sounds like blackmail to me.

This new so called pilot program has a couple of new twists though. First off, companies who participated in the first pilot program will be allowed to add the time credited to them during that program to this program and can be give full authority to run in the US quickly under their own authority even if the pilot program is stopped once again.

While I do not necessarily agree that Mexican trucks or their drivers would be less safe than American trucks or truckers, I do think that by bringing Mexicans into the US to haul freight directly to and from shippers and receivers, American truckers will lose their jobs. With the current tight economy and freight situation, any addition of equipment to the supply and demand equation will tip the balance to the ones able to haul cheapest.

Part of the NAFTA agreement was that American truckers would have access to run in Mexico just like the Mexicans could run here; this is the same deal the US has with Canada. While thousands of American drivers and Canadian drivers cross the Canadian border, few if any want to cross the border into Mexico with their high crime rate, theft of equipment and drug wars not to mention their lousy infrastructure.

Another twist is that all Mexican trucks would be required to be equipped with EOBRs. Those are coming to the truck nearest and dearest to you too soon, but guess who is paying for the Mexican EOBRs; yep, the USA. The money will be taken out of the highway trust fund that US trucking companies and owner operators routinely pay into. The way I read it, the US will be paying for other things under the agreement so the Mexicans can come here and haul freight. Our government is paying someone to come in and take our jobs.

The ATA and the US Chamber of Commerce, and I am sure many corporations with operations in Mexico, are all for this latest border program. The ATA, made up of many large trucking companies with sister companies in Mexico are thinking that it will open up more freight and put more money in the company pockets due to the Mexicans hauling for cheaper rates. The US Chamber of Commerce thinks opening the border will increase commerce between the two countries. While they have not said, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what the large corporations are thinking. If they can cut out the middle drivers along the borders and the transfer warehouse costs; and get the Mexicans to haul the freight back and to from their factories south of the border into the US and back again at substantially reduced rates, their bottom-lines increase. Win win for everyone but the American trucker.

Makes one wonder what Mexico has that influences our government so greatly. Drugs? White slaves? Black market goods? Cheap labor force? Perhaps all of those things are a factor when one realizes the money the government pays itself for the trying to control those illegal things at least. There is something there though for our own government to go against so many people who don’t want the Mexican trucks here.

I am adding my voice to OOIDA’s and the Teamster’s voices; get out your ink pens, fire up those laptops and buy extra minutes on your cells and write, email and call your representatives once again about this border issue. Raise hell, tell them you won’t stand still for this. Do make sure to tell your representative that you will not be an accessory to a criminal act; the blackmailing of America. Speak out loudly and proudly as American truckers and let us put this down once and for all…again.

The other day while waiting to get loaded, I struck up a conversation with a husband wife team from Canada.  We ended up talking about the state of the trucking union of course, both in the US and in Canada.  These folks had owned 5 trucks 2 years ago but had sold 2, had the other 2 for sale and sitting still and were only running the truck they drove.  They cited more government regulations, high fuel costs, low rates and not being able to find good drivers who would take care of the equipment as reasons for their cut backs.  Sound familiar?

They were nice folk.  When they started saying things like, “we cannot find well trained drivers, we may have to park this truck if fuel prices keep going up and the government on both sides of the border are tying our hands to make a living”, I had to ask if they were writing to their representatives and if they belonged to OOIDA or any Canadian trucking association.  Not surprisingly, their answer was no.  They said that when they were home and had time to do any of that, they just did not want to think about trucking in any way.

We are all a little that way, we eat, sleep and think about trucking when we are on the road and when we are home or are on our long breaks, we are pushed for time to do what we have to do in the short time available.  Sometimes we are so stressed that all we want to do is doze in our chairs or get so far away from the thought of trucking we just play text twist all day.  It is understandable, but how long does it take to write a short letter or email, or make a phone call to a government representative, not very long at all.

We truckers are being slammed on all sides with more regulations that aren’t going to change safety a one iota, higher fuel costs based on some Wall Street investors buying futures in oil, less and less safe parking or parking at all in some areas, lower rates as more of our manufacturing is sent overseas and as our country wants to ship everything by rail and/or bring in foreign drivers to take our jobs.  We stand around wringing our hands and saying woe is me and let circumstances take their course without speaking out proactively.

Case in point, Jason’s Law; this bill would assist truckers to be able to find safe and more adequate parking.  The amount of money asked for is miniscule compared to what we give to foreign countries to help them do everything from arming themselves to fighting drugs in their countries.  Has Jason’s Law garnered the trucking industry’s full and total support?  No, it has not; this is obvious because if the 3-5 million commercial license holders in the US, and more from Canada, would have all contacted their representatives and spoken out in support of this law, this law would of passed immediately.

Another case is training regulations.  We older drivers see daily the results of the poor training regulations on the roads.  Many trucking schools are little less than legalized scam artists who take a student’s money and just teach them the bare necessities to obtain their CDLs if the student passes at all.  Then the student is shoved through a too short training time with a trainer who may or may not have enough experience to save their own lives much less anyone else’s.  From the time the student starts school to being solo in their own truck is as little as 4-6 weeks.  The government yells about trucking safety yet does nothing to fix this problem which is at the root of most of the safety issues on the road concerning drivers and their actions.  Truckers stand around saying things like, “sure wish they would train those drivers better” but do not contact their government representatives to push for new training regulations.

We drivers wonder to each other and ourselves why special interest groups like PATT and CRASH have such influence in DC when they have such small numbers of members; it is because they stand up and speak out.  We have the numbers to control our industry, how we are regulated, governed and how we do our jobs, don’t you think it is time you stand up and speak out too?

Trucking is a diverse industry comprised of many different types of trucking with each type having their own problems and issues.  For instance, container haulers on both coasts are under the gun from the EPA and others over pollution and traffic congestion; some are being forced to upgrade their equipment or leave the industry.  This diversity in trucking tends to make truckers themselves isolated within their own segment of the industry, not so much as a physical isolation, but a mental one.

This mental isolation, or focused vision on only what affects their segment leads to the old saying that “you cannot get two truckers to agree on the price of a free cup of coffee” as a friends says.  He is right to a great degree.  This inability of truckers to agree on any one thing has stopped truckers from addressing issues facing them both in their own segment of the industry and for the trucking industry as a whole.  There is a lot of ‘it doesn’t matter to me so why act on it’ mindset; they do not see how it affects other drivers other than themselves; or care.

HOS and EOBRs are a good indication of this mindset.  Looking at HOS first, a driver who works for a large company who has ample equipment and drivers to relay freight might not understand, or care, how those same HOS might affect a small company who cannot compete by providing relay drivers to move the higher rate, faster moving freight.   The HOS might not affect the larger company driver, but would put say, 10 drivers at the smaller company, out of work.  While it would not matter to the larger company driver, which type of HOS rules come along, that driver should care about how they would affect the smaller company driver and stand with the smaller company driver to find a compromise rule that would not adversely hurt the smaller company driver.

EOBRs might not matter too much to a younger in experience driver who comes from a prior career where they were micromanaged.  This driver perhaps started out with a large training company who already utilizes some sort of electronic logs and does not know any other way of working.  They do not understand that the cost of installing EOBRs might put a 30-truck company out of business, or how invasive they will be to a driver’s personal privacy.  They should take a stand so that EOBRs are by choice for a company, not that they are mandatory so the small company driver can stay working.

Jason’s Law is another area where there is much divided thinking.  To a driver who works in the western 11 or in the Midwest, parking might not be such an issue while to a driver who works the eastern seaboard or California, safe and adequate parking is virtually nonexistent after a certain time of day.  Drivers should understand that parking is an issue and stand up for safe and ample parking for all drivers in all areas.

There are interlocking issues and topics that lock all truckers together; we all drive trucks that are fairly standard as to engines and mechanical similarities.  We all haul freight of some sort whether it is talking, hot, cold, dead, small, or large.  We all drive on highways made of concrete or asphalt and have to deal with the same traffic.  We all are required to hold a CDL of some sort to do our jobs and we all have to follow the same federal regulations if not state.  We all do our jobs looking at the world though a windshield sitting on a seat bumping along to make a pick up or delivery while under some sort of schedule.  When you look at it that way, there are more similarities than differences and we are more like family than strangers.

In a family, the family stands together and protects each other; one steps in when another member is threatened and the good of a family takes priority over the good of a stranger.  This is how we truckers are going to have to start thinking of each other, as brother and sister drivers who are part of a larger family outside of blood relation.  We have to start working together to protect each other both in our personal safety and our job security; we all cannot work for those huge companies.

Finally, we have to stand together and show each other the respect due us as professional drivers.  No one else is going to give us that, not even our companies to a great degree.  By showing each other respect we will learn how issues can affect our brother and sister drivers and help them by standing up with them to fight for our rights and to stop the abuse of each other by everyone from the government to the companies we work for. 

John Donne had it right when he wrote: 

 

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.  John Donne, Meditation XVII English clergyman & poet (1572 - 1631)

We truckers are interlocked in the trucking industry, it is time we understand that and remember that eventually the bell will toll for us, if not on any one current issue, eventually another will come along that affects you specifically; wouldn’t it be better if you had someone to stand with you when that time comes?  Start now by recognizing the interlocking similarities between us, the differences do not matter.

One of the most disturbing reasons to promote the use of EOBRs is that it removes ‘the human factor’ from HOS and a truck’s hourly operation. This was brought up during a satellite radio discussion about the EOBRs. The speaker said that the use of EOBRs would help the companies make the shippers and receivers pay detention time or load or unload the truck faster because the driver would be monitored every minute of his/her day and the EOBR would document his/her whereabouts such as arrival and departure times without the driver having to key in that information. Furthermore, it was stated that EOBRs would stop dispatchers and brokers from making a driver ‘cheat’ on their log books to make delivery/pick up appointments, again removing the ‘human factor‘.

The original HOS regulations were put in place to protect the driver from being pushed beyond safety limits by their companies. When the first satellite systems were talked about, it again was suggested that they would not only allow a company to track their freight and equipment, but would also stop falsification of log books and the dispatching of drivers beyond safety limits. The new HOS regulations went so far as to ‘remove the human factor’ to where a driver could not determine for themselves when it was safe to run, whether they were tired or not and once again, was supposed to stop them from being pushed beyond safety limits by their dispatchers and brokers. All of the above were supposed to make shippers and receivers stop detaining drivers at docks and warehouse staging areas and make it so the companies could more easily receive detention time payments.

Removing the human factor from the driver in the seat of the truck might be good in theory, but is it a workable proposition; who in reality benefits? Let’s look at some pros and cons.

The Pros:

The carrier’s insurance rates will go down because the insurance world thinks that truck drivers are unsafe and promote any sort of controls put on the driver.

Carriers will be able to track their drivers, loads and equipment.

Carriers will be able to cut down on office staff due to logs being recorded by computers from satellite feeds.

Carriers may be able to receive detention time payments from shippers/receivers.

Carriers will be more likely to weed out unsafe drivers.

Carriers will be able to monitor a driver’s available hours and ensure that the driver ‘maximizes’ those hours to increase productivity.

Drivers will not have to falsify log books to make pick ups and deliveries thereby avoiding prison time for that crime.

Cons: Many small carriers will not be able to afford the EOBR equipment which runs on average of $3,000.00 a unit and will have to go out of business.

Drivers will lose running time during their shifts due to unavoidable delay such as construction, accident back ups and traffic, thereby cutting their pay.

Drivers will lose any flexibility as to when to shut down due to weather or to avoid rush hour traffic, or if they are ill or tired.

Parking will become even more of a problem than it is because drivers will be forced to ‘maximize’ their hours and will not be able to stop where they can find parking; they will have to stop when the machine says to stop.

Just in time freight will not be able to be run unless relayed or hauled by team trucks, again possibly putting smaller carriers out of competition for this type of freight.

Drivers will be scrutinized for every pit stop that they make, even for stopping just long enough to use the facilities.

In my opinion, EOBRs appear to mainly benefit the larger carriers who can afford to buy them in the first place and provide enough drivers and equipment to move the freight; the driver and small companies will be the most harmed.

Removing the human factor in anything relating to trucks or the driving of them is a huge oxymoron in the trucking world. Trucks are driven by humans, dispatched by humans and repaired by humans. Removing the flexibility required to do any of those things is not the answer to any of the problems supposed to face the industry at this time. Of course, if technology gets to the point that trucks can be driven by robots, then EOBRs might be a good thing, but then you wouldn’t need truck drivers, just technicians to keep the computers running. Wait, that would still be a ’human factor’ wouldn’t it.