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@#$%@#!!!!!!

by Priest22

Our beloved company has decided to interrupt our 34 hour reset to grab an 'emergency pickup'.

We are almost out of hours we can legally drive due to this...stupidity...already. They are going to end up having us on a load and getting us stranded with no hours to drive.

Put simply (for people who don't know how trucking works) - we have a certain number of hours we are allowed to drive. When we run out, we cannot move. We are almost out. We were in the process of getting them back when the company made the boneheaded decision to interrupt our reset.

This not only screws up our hours, it fucks up all the plans I had to finish what I was drawing.

Very...upset about this.

Viewed:	94 times
Added:	12 years, 6 months ago 04 Oct 2011 17:55 CEST

23 Comments on this Journal

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Coop

12 years, 6 months ago

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Its kinda a similar story here in the UK, truckers need to rest for 45 mins afer 4hrs of driving. or is that not what you talking about

Priest22

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Coop

Very close actually - we have a limit of 70 hours we can run over the course of 8 days. My wife and I are both down to less than 15 each.

In the USA you may drive 11 hours in a 14 hour period, but you must have a 10 hour break after that.

Coop

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Priest22

to stop exhausted drivers falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into the central reservation?

KimiKins

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Coop

Essentially yes, but the sad fact in American driving is that at least half of all trucking industry accidents are caused by people in automobiles, people who can't get off the !@#$^ phone, drunk drivers etc, but if you're 1 minute out of your logging, or over the time limit, or any other number of factors, it doesn't matter if a drunk driver who's texting in one hand and masturbating with the other rear ends you while you're legally stopped at a railroad crossing they'll still blame the truck driver because "If he/she hadn't violated their log book, the truck wouldn't have been at that crossing for the dork in the car to rear end :/" Loophole BS like that really makes me angry.

Coop

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ KimiKins

sake

Nareimooncatt

12 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 12 years, 6 months ago by Owner

@ KimiKins

Actually, the accepted statistic varies around 70-75% of all accidents between trucks and cars are caused by the other vehicle. I believe that number is based off of California crash statistics, not a national number since Cali is about the only agency that tracks those kinds of numbers.

Here's another interesting statistic for you. Most truckers know that all the public advocacy groups and the feds want to reduce our drive time to help lessen accidents. Problem is, it's not the 11th hour of driving that the most accidents happen in. (Most drivers only use that for finding "emergency" parking if they can't find a spot sooner). It's not in the 10th, or even 9th hour of driving. Most accidents invovling trucks happen within the 1st hour of driving. So I guess if we want to shorten our hours, let's get rid of the 1st hour, not the 11th. :P

Infinityplus1

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Coop

I think the rules are different because the US is a lot bigger. The impression I get is that you can pretty much traverse the UK in a single day given the right transportation. I went on vacation a while ago, and it took a day to cross just 3 states.

Coop

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Infinityplus1

from Lands end to John O' Groats is 800miles

Infinityplus1

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Coop

Is John O'Groats an actual place, or is that some kind of colloquialism? And I traveled about 900 miles in less than a day when I went on that vacation. It maybe took 15 hours and we weren't driving constantly.

Coop

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Infinityplus1

most northern place in the UK

KimiKins

12 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 12 years, 6 months ago by Owner

Sadly I know about this all too well, I'm a close bystander to the trucking industry for now, and most likely will end up becoming a driver if something happens to my current job. Many of the companies out there are just a pain in the butt, Swift, Werner, JB Hunt, Schneider, OMG I hate Schneider soooo much! They can take their pumpkin trucks and stick em up their asses >:O Be safe on the road, I don't like hearing about tragedy :<

Infinityplus1

12 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 12 years, 6 months ago by Owner

It looks like if this were such a major issue the trucking companies would have way stations with fresh truckers on standby in every state. Sort of like the pony express, but with drivers instead of vehicles. And the replacements wouldn't be physically AT the station 24 hours a day, but rather called in anticipation of when they would be needed. But I guess that's not really feasible in this economy. The drivers would pretty much be on call for long hours without any substantial pay, like minute men, and I don't know many people who would want to work like that. Though I suppose with unemployment the way it is, that would be a welcome break for some.

KimiKins

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Infinityplus1

Most drivers live their lives in their trucks, Slip-seating as it's called isn't really a good idea when you consider someone then has to remove all their possessions from their truck, television, clothing, food for the week etc and find a place to keep it until they have the hours to drive again and another truck becomes available.

Infinityplus1

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ KimiKins

I see your point. The drivers would have to switch vehicles after their break in order for this to be feasible, and sometimes a new shipment isn't convenient.

Though I suppose with stuff like Ipads and 4g phones those things are becoming a lot more portable. Maybe it will be more feasible in the future for some. If all they have is one bag of clothes, a phone, and a laptop, they can pretty much switch that to any new vehicle they drive. But there would still be the problem that they might have to stay at a hotel for a while between shipments, which gets expensive. It can be a very unpredictable line of work to begin with, so I doubt they'll come up with an effective solution any time soon.

RallyFox

12 years, 6 months ago

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@ Infinityplus1

Some companies have a system where one driver will take a load and swap it with another driver half way along a route and then return to his home every night. It kinda works like the pony express thing I guess but it's mostly companies that do less than a load shipments like UPS or FedEx. It doesn't often work like that when the whole load is going to one place.

Infinityplus1

12 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 12 years, 6 months ago by Owner

@ RallyFox

That makes sense.

SockBunny

12 years, 6 months ago

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Yea things like that are what dont make me want to be a driver =C
*hugs* sorry man

SenGrisane

12 years, 6 months ago

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Nooooooooo. I wanted to stalk you while you draw x.x

CJzzz

12 years, 6 months ago

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Sorry to hear.., good luck.

Illum

12 years, 6 months ago

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Not sure why there's so much debating and stuff going on in here. Love ya Priest, hate your bosses, come back soon.

LabrnMystic

12 years, 6 months ago

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Did trucking for the military, so I feel ya. One day we could only drive 150 miles cause the next day we were driving 460? It was due to a planned rest stop, but foolish to not have it half and half. Sorry to hear you're under an Idiocracy. :p

RallyFox

12 years, 6 months ago

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What company do you drive for? Also, what area do you run in?
Also, *bunnycuddles*

Arle

12 years, 6 months ago

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My brother used to be a truck driver for a sign company, so yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about even though I couldn't have told you what the exact hour limits were. To do that to you makes absolutely no sense. Do they not want their delivery to go anywhere?

*snuggles comfortingly*

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