more on trucking

Jill, to answer your questions, unfortunately there’s nothing that can be done without a nation-wide strike and we all know how fun those are.

The average consumer doesn’t think about how the items they purchase arrive on the store shelf.  They’re just there.  Chances are, on their way to the store, the consumer complained about a semi.  How many times do you have to sit and wait an extra 5 minutes at a red light because it took the semi that long to get across the street?  How many times have you heard people complain that a trucker “cut them off” in traffic?  Chances are the trucker was sitting there with a signal light on for several minutes but traffic would not break to let him in so he has to ease his way into traffic or miss his turn.  Do you know how easy it is to do a U-turn in a semi?

Last night at 2:30am we finally found a spot for Patrick to pull over and sleep.  Granted he doesn’t have to wake up to an alarm this morning, he can sleep as late as he wants.  The problem is, his load has a scheduled appointment time (as do most loads) and 95% of the time if you miss an appointment time, you wait until they can schedule you in again.  If your wheels aren’t rolling, you aren’t getting paid.  So, similar to the situation in Columbus when they couldn’t find him a trailer, sometimes the driver has to sit on a load and not get paid.  Your average trucking company doesn’t pay “layover pay” until you’ve been sitting at least 24 hours.  And the majority of the time, the trucker isn’t even allowed to stay in the shipper/consignee’s parking lot, even to sleep over night and deliver the next morning.  Sometimes however, the consignee or shipper will be more than hospitable and let drivers sleep in their parking lot, even if they’ve just delivered and have nothing else to do with the company.

The last poll I saw said there were 10,000 truckers per night who can’t find a spot to park and sleep when their hours of duty are complete.  That’s no typo.  Ten-thousand sleepy drivers.  Patrick even pulled off at a few exit/entrance ramps last night, only to find “no parking” signs.  He parked in a “no parking” zone one time (years ago) near the exit of a rest area because there was absolutely no other place to park.  So what happened?  A cop comes along, wakes him up, gives him a ticket and tells him to find another spot to sleep.  So there you have a pissed off sleepy driver who’s been awakened in the middle of his 10-hour required break, because he has to find a different spot to sleep.  Legally he’s not allowed to move that truck until his 10-hours is up, but because there are no parking spots, he now has a ticket, has been awakened early, and has to run illegally to the next truck stop and hope there’s a spot to park to continue his sleep.  Log books (required by the DOT) have a standard and are almost identical from company to company.  They’re required to be done in ink and are not allowed to be missing pages.  There’s very little you can do to change what the log book says, and it’s supposed to be updated from your last change-of-duty.  Sometimes the driver has to fib in his log book to make his drive look legal.  If he or she were to be caught the minimum fine is $1500.  For doing your job.  And do you think the company is going to pay it?

So with so many accidents and trucking being one of the top two most dangerous jobs in America, why do companies with huge parking lots have “no truck parking” signs in their parking lots?  Because unfortunately, trucks are loud, smelly and often bring litter and “lot lizards” in their wake.  If you’re not familiar with the term “lot lizard”, it’s a prostitute that truckers say “slithers” from truck to truck.

For anyone out there looking to start a business that will rake in loads of money – more truck stops are needed in every state along every interstate.