I know the folks that write and review the Hours of Service (HOS) mean well. I know they think we as truck drivers should get eight to ten hours of sleep a night. In principle, I agree with them. But, when they changed the rules for team drivers, they blew it.
Imagine that you are part of a team of truck drivers, and the load you are assigned has to be across the country in two and a half days. Not doing the math, but let's just say the transit has to equal 50 miles per hour. It's a just-in-time load, needed at the other end quickly and on time or it'll mess something up - like stop a factory production line that, like most of them, do not store parts until they need them, but rely on deliveries - just in time.
Now, that average 50 miles per hour takes into account that there will be bathroom and fuel breaks, but no long stops to to take a shower or eat a leisurely meal. Each time you stop, so does the speedometer, and even though you were going 70 miles per hour, that 30 minute break brings you down to 48 miles per hour - you get the drift.
So - you start out, one driver at the wheel, one in the sleeper berth. All is well until 4 A.M., when your partner, who has been driving, gets sleepy. He's been driving for 7 hours, and before that was up making sure that the load was properly secured, and the tractor and trailer had good rubber all around. He doesn't feel well today in the first place - maybe something he ate. He's rubbing his eyes and even coffee doesn't help anymore.
You, on the other hand, have been asleep, and are pretty well "slept out." It's hard to sleep in a bouncing truck, but you usually manage about seven or eight hours.
Now, the average person who is not a truck driver would, at this point, suggest that you, the driver who had been sleeping, replace the driver who was getting sleepy at the wheel. But, team drivers know that this can't legally be done.
Why? Because you have not been in the sleep for ten hours, that's why. Yep. Ten hours, no less.
Someone decided that this is the magic number. When you been ten hours in the sleeper, or eight hours in the sleeper and two hours off duty for a total of ten, you can drive. If your sleepy partner hasn't run off the road.
No, he wouldn't do that. He'd stop and take a short nap before he'd put everyone in danger by driving tired.
Except, he can't stop for long enough to let your sleeper hours total ten, or even long enough to get a good nap, providing he could find a place to park (that's another story.).
He can't stop because this load has to get there by a certain time or the receiver will quite possibly find another carrier who can get it there on time. Then, you might be without a job, if this happens enough.
Okay, so you can't drive for him, he can't stop - what can you do legally and safely that will get the load there on time?
The answer: NOTHING
The Powers That Be, it seems, have decided that truck drivers must sleep for eight hours, to get our proper rest. It used to be that teams could switch drivers every six hours.
That was changed in 2005. I'll let you do the research.
It would be so nice if we were trusted to be grown-ups who could make our own decisions on simple safety issues like this. Then, legally, and safely, we could get the load there, just in time.
Till then, we will opt for safety. Of course, none of us would EVER drive on our partner's logbook while he got some rest................that would be illegal. But safe.
Imagine that you are part of a team of truck drivers, and the load you are assigned has to be across the country in two and a half days. Not doing the math, but let's just say the transit has to equal 50 miles per hour. It's a just-in-time load, needed at the other end quickly and on time or it'll mess something up - like stop a factory production line that, like most of them, do not store parts until they need them, but rely on deliveries - just in time.
Now, that average 50 miles per hour takes into account that there will be bathroom and fuel breaks, but no long stops to to take a shower or eat a leisurely meal. Each time you stop, so does the speedometer, and even though you were going 70 miles per hour, that 30 minute break brings you down to 48 miles per hour - you get the drift.
So - you start out, one driver at the wheel, one in the sleeper berth. All is well until 4 A.M., when your partner, who has been driving, gets sleepy. He's been driving for 7 hours, and before that was up making sure that the load was properly secured, and the tractor and trailer had good rubber all around. He doesn't feel well today in the first place - maybe something he ate. He's rubbing his eyes and even coffee doesn't help anymore.
You, on the other hand, have been asleep, and are pretty well "slept out." It's hard to sleep in a bouncing truck, but you usually manage about seven or eight hours.
Now, the average person who is not a truck driver would, at this point, suggest that you, the driver who had been sleeping, replace the driver who was getting sleepy at the wheel. But, team drivers know that this can't legally be done.
Why? Because you have not been in the sleep for ten hours, that's why. Yep. Ten hours, no less.
Someone decided that this is the magic number. When you been ten hours in the sleeper, or eight hours in the sleeper and two hours off duty for a total of ten, you can drive. If your sleepy partner hasn't run off the road.
No, he wouldn't do that. He'd stop and take a short nap before he'd put everyone in danger by driving tired.
Except, he can't stop for long enough to let your sleeper hours total ten, or even long enough to get a good nap, providing he could find a place to park (that's another story.).
He can't stop because this load has to get there by a certain time or the receiver will quite possibly find another carrier who can get it there on time. Then, you might be without a job, if this happens enough.
Okay, so you can't drive for him, he can't stop - what can you do legally and safely that will get the load there on time?
The answer: NOTHING
The Powers That Be, it seems, have decided that truck drivers must sleep for eight hours, to get our proper rest. It used to be that teams could switch drivers every six hours.
That was changed in 2005. I'll let you do the research.
It would be so nice if we were trusted to be grown-ups who could make our own decisions on simple safety issues like this. Then, legally, and safely, we could get the load there, just in time.
Till then, we will opt for safety. Of course, none of us would EVER drive on our partner's logbook while he got some rest................that would be illegal. But safe.
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