Cameras guard drivers from exhausted truckers

 

 

 

As a driver for over 16 years and a member of the OOIDA, I can say that every CDL holder needs to join the OOIDA because they are the only organization fighting for our rights. With 3 million CDL holders having their livelihoods taken away from them by nonsensical regulations which do nothing to promote safety now is an essential time to join. With media outlets like this one which further the propaganda against truckers while at the same time alerting truckers to this operation that is going on in the state of Washington, it is important to understand the implications. Without a voice in Washington, truckers would be left defenseless as it is illegal for us to strike (interfering with interstate commerce is a felony).

Ironically the state of Washington just passed a law making recreational marijuana a legal enterprise and this has far reaching implications for us truckers beyond the issue of these safety cameras. For a drug dog to find marijuana on my vehicle will cost me my license and my livelihood for the rest of my life. If you can drive around the state while under the influence of marijuana, you are an incredible hazard to everyone you come into contact with.

Truck drivers are constantly being bombarded by these safety groups which shamelessly use the images of victims in truck accidents to further their desires to sell our industry monitoring devices which will cost the already struggling small business owners collectively billions of dollars with millions more in yearly fees. The surveillance state that we are entering into is going to be on the front page of the news for the next decade. Cameras are practically free now and they have the ability to record for months at a time. They can be linked into networks and used by the free public to track anyone anywhere and all the time. The question that should be focused on as a result of this story is this: Do we want to live in a surveillance state that monitors our every move and from every angle including aerial drones over our own airspace?

Lastly, truckers in my experience will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money and put their own lives on the line to get freight delivered because this is their profession and they are very good at it. They pay thousands a year in income tax, highway tax, fuel tax, and heavy vehicle use tax only to be targeted by the very people they work for. They are the safest people on the highway and in their ability to maneuver their vehicles effectively, save more lives every day than all of the doctors in the United States.  Every little infraction on their license will cost them work and possibly their future, yet they are not considered skilled workers.  It is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and these people do it every day and night, yet they are still the safest vehicles on the road. 

Stop demonizing these people and try to put yourself in their shoes and in the driver’s seat for once.  If you have a CDL, you need to join OOIDA.  They need all the help they can get.

When did our government "of the people, by the people, for the people" become government intrusions against the people? I am sick and tired of some ignorant bureaucrats in Washington trying to legislate when I am too tired to drive and telling me that I don't know my own limits. Every time they tweak the HOS regulations they make them worse. I have wasted more time and energy during the course of the day doing the logistical mathematics to ensure I haven't driven 11 hours and one minute. I'm OK at 10 hours and 59 minutes but two minutes later I've become a hazard? Human life is more important than satisfying some unreasonable Just-In-Time demands by a dysfunctional procurement department which failed to order their material in a more timely fashion. I will do my a job but I will not jeopardize my safety or anyone else's to meet ridiculous demands. FMCSA should get on the shippers and receivers who enjoy banker's hours and get off trying to regulate every minute of a driver's life.

I believe in safety all the way, but each individual is diffrent, each person can run and operate a vehicle in either a safe or dangerous way out here. We all know our limitations on what we can do and cannot do. I would put my life in most truck drivers out here compared to someone who works 8 to 10 hrs a day and says ther tired and has to take 2 to 3 naps a day to get throught the day. Goverment has no concept of actual common sense in this industry at all, they do not have a clue the actual hours a driver puts in a day. If they really want to make this industry safe they need to look at what time pickups and deliveries are set and all the wierd times they are at. most truckers have to work the day shift, evening shift and the grave yard shift, compared to everyone else having set hours in there jobs. So to anyone who thinks safety is a must out here in this industry, really needs to look at why drivers are actually tired and why they work so hard to fullfill there commitments. There is no other industry out here that works the hours that a truck driver works in a 24 hr period.

Absolutely ridiculous.. Just like texting and driving Ive got video of TN highway patrol and other states playing on their laptops while going 70+ MPH down the highway this is safe, yet force CDL drivers to use a handset? Most accidents involving a big truck majority of time is the cars fault.. The media will fill the air with lies look at Bhenghazi for instance.. The meida not only lies but only tells one side of the story. The media and idiots like the one who invented this so called camera need to look at the real problem. These people make me sick, they think they know it all yet never been in a big truck. Stay safe drivers were dealing with more idiots

70% of all accidents around trucks are caused by Cars.Try reporting THAT to be fair and balanced.http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/outreach/Unsafe-Driving-Acts.aspx 

If you want to stop tired truckers, tell legislators how stupid of an idea it was to remove the split sleeper-birth rule. Truckers were allowed to drive five, take four hour nap when roads were congested, then drive another six (5+6) to complete there eleven hour duty.

I can drive 11 hours consecutively, but I can drive 14 hours per day. After 11 hours of driving, I need to take a 10 hour break. After the ten hours, I can drive again (10+11=21) which leaves three hours left in a day.

The scariest thing about this article has nothing to do with safety on the roads.  Rather, it’s how easily society can be seduced into believing, even embracing, technology that invades every aspect of our public and private lives. 

 

We willingly allow our tax dollars to be used to monitor and track the most mundane of our daily activities with scarcely a thought as to whether the do-gooders’ claims of protecting us from others- and even ourselves- have any merit at all.

 

Motorists have little to fear from truckers and the implications that most or all are tired is just plain nonsense. 

 

Real data from the US DOT bears this out.  Their most recent data shows fatigue on the part of truck drivers is a factor in a miniscule 1.3% of fatal crashes that involved a truck.  And compared to all fatal crashes  the number is 13 out of a thousand - and les than half of thesedrivers had been behind the wheel for more than 11 hours!  A threat that nowhere compares to drinking drivers or those texting or just flat out not paying attention.  When it comes to tweaking permissible hours worked for truck drivers, you reach a point of diminishing returns.  A majority of big rig, over-the-road drivers believe the most recent changes that discourage drivers from taking breaks undermines safety.  Even more changes expected to go into effect in 2013 go even further in the wrong direction. 

 

While most truck drivers are true professionals that will do almost anything including risking their own lives to avoid a crash, they aren’t all perfect.  

 

Truck drivers are the most regulated of any workers, amazingly, there are no requirements that they actually be trained for the tasks and responsibilities they shoulder. 

 

Big companies like that.  It helps to hold down their costs, but it may not be the best public policy for safety or anything else.

 

Americans are great at many things, not the least of which is marketing.  What better example can we have than recent elections where reality is tortured beyond all recognition.  Reality is that truckers ain’t the boogeyman.  In this holiday season of plenty for most, everything we have, everything we wear and eat came to us because there are men and women that are willing to climb behind the wheel of a big rig and navigate the traffic, inclement weather with winds strong enough to blow them over to make certain our shelves are full and our needs and desires are met. 

 

We owe them thanks, not scorn and incessant scrutiny. 

 

Those camera's are usually up to catch people speeding not for fatigue. My truck can be legally running most of 24hrs a day, because I run team with my wife not because I'm running over my hrs.

you have 14 hrs a day to do your job of that 14 you can drive 11 which is correct, but you can only drive 70 hrs in 8 days so 11 hrs a days for 2 weeks straight  is incorrect.

Just like any job there are outlaws that don't abide by the rule's.

If you want to talk about fatigue look at these people that work double shifts or come home after work them party all night then get up in a few hrs to go to work how rested do you think they are?

Most driver's are professional and do their best to run legally, because they want to get their job done safely

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/truck/driver/hos/fmcsa-guide-to-hos.PDF

I am totally for safety, but the pace of regulation is so fast the industry is not keeping up

 

-autohauler

www.ectts.com

Truck drivers can NOT work 11 hours a day for 2 weeks straight as this article says. They are limited to 70 hours total in 8 consecutive days.