Comments on: Could DOT Airline Rules Be A Model For New Trucking Laws?

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:31:27 +0000

The detention time(usually 2 hours) paid is a joke for those who do pay it and most never gets to the driver. Shippers and recievers need to be fined big bucks like the airlines will be. In today's paper it says UP TO $27,500 PER PASSANGER IF PLANES ARE DELAYED 3 HOURS AND PASSENGERS CAN'T GET OFF.

Huge fines to the shippers/recievers after 2 hours would be a big part of stopping this problem. I know more people are involved with airplanes, but trucking needs the same respect to keep the trucks moving. And get rid of the lumper fee. You wanted the product, its your problem to get it off the trailer without the driver paying for it with a com check.

By: baquila

baquila — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:41:47 +0000

Thanks Mrs B! You're exactly right, and you've also touched on the other biggest problem in trucking – finding parking.

Somehow in our society truck drivers have been looked down upon for quite some time now. It didn't used to be that way, but it has been for a long time. Truckers rarely get much consideration from anyone – the DOT, the customers – even your own company often times will treat you with very little consideration. I can understand that most people have never done it so they don't know what we go through. But you don't have to live it to understand that we have places to go and a job to do and having us sit for endless hours in parking lots doing nothing is unacceptable. Even if they don't care enough to take the time to understand what the job must entail for us, it should be basic human decency to have a little respect for someone and don't treat drivers like dogs you can just chain up outside and ignore them for hours at a time.

But when basic human decency and respect fail, laws must be made. Such are the ways of society. It's time they make some laws to curtail this treatment. Thanks Mrs B!

By: Mrs B.

Mrs B. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:51:31 +0000

My Husband has been driving a long time, I also rode for a few years. I really wish there was a way to make the customer understand that we do not get paid to sit. At present my husband runs for .32 a mile and runs a dedicated route so he also does his own unloading at .10 a box with an average of 2200 boxes a week.When he gets to his drop half the time they are late or they are slow as they want to sort it as is comes off the truck some of the customers refuse to buy rollers and now my husbands company is using the paperless logs and a little black box with a iratateing voice telling him just how much time he has left to drive, if that is while searching for a parking place in sunny Cali then he is in deep yogurt , so than he has that issue to deal with. I feel as though the folks who make the DOT rules have been truckers. maybe that should be a requirement of the job

By: baquila

baquila — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:05:45 +0000

I absolutely agree – it is the biggest problem in trucking. I don't understand why everyone focuses on the damn logbook rules all the time – they're fine. I guess it's because it's a topic that the general public gets all worked up over so it's easy for Senators and Congressmen to persuade the general public that they're working hard to look out for their safety – and thus get re-elected.

If the general public understood how much money they would save and how many fewer trucks would be needed on the road they would get behind this in an instant.

By: baquila

baquila — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:01:35 +0000

You're right – I don't think this type of law will be enacted real soon simply because there isn't enough awareness of the problem outside of trucking, and I'm not sure if there's even enough concern or clout to begin such a process with the trucking industry itself. The airline laws went into effect pretty swiftly because it's something that could effect almost every American at some point so the general public was quite interested in getting it done. But not enough people understand the problem to really push for a solution right now. This is the type of thing the ATA would have to get behind to get anyone's attention.

And I totally agree – a lot of things are made far more difficult than they have to be for truckers simply because nobody really cares enough about truckers to bother – quite sad but true.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:57:39 +0000

This is the number 1 problem in trucking as far as I am concerned. If we can get this to change it will help the trucking industry out and even the shippers/recievers too. But will this ever happen as there are 3 million trucks on the road and a whole lot more people boarding planes daily. Airline industry gets more attention due to the number of people using it daily. Now we need to get the same respect and rules applied to stop the wasted time.

By: TruckerMike

TruckerMike — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:55:11 +0000

Great article Brett. While I'm not real confident a law such as this will be put in place anytime in the near future, it sure would be nice. Let's not forget the customers who say "turn to channel 3 on your CB and we'll call you when your load is ready." It's 2am, and you're dead tired. Can you sleep? Sure, at the risk of missing your truck number being called and the customer marking you as "late" with your own company giving you a service failure! Sometimes, it's simple things that these customers don't understand. In the age of cell phones, why can't they call me? That way I don't have to tune out the CB, but still pay enough attention to if they call my truck number, and the ringer on my cell phone would wake me up.

A lot of things in trucking are made much more difficult than they have to be…mostly because people just don't care enough to think of a simple solution.

By: Brett Aquila

Brett Aquila — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:12:32 +0000

Test reply.

By: Brett Aquila

Brett Aquila — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:39:32 +0000

Thank you Phil.

I absolutely believe a workable solution could be reached – no question. The govt is always trying to tweak the hours of service, truck size and weight limits, analyze restricted truck routes, and all kinds of stuff to try to make the system safer and more efficient, but they're ignoring the 800 pound elephant in the room – the fact that trucks are needlessly sitting idly for hours on end on a regular basis – disrupting sleep patterns, forcing more trucks to be on the highways, and causing massive inefficiencies in the system.

For many years I've felt this situation being ignored has been a glaring oversight that must be addressed.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:37:26 +0000

This is really well thought out. I'm sure there would be a number of issues involved with the attempt to write regulations of the type you're promoting but, with a lot of work and input from drivers, carriers and shippers, I do believe a workable solution could be reached. Anyway, interesting and well written piece.