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That is true with an important exception; teams who do security loads where the customer is paying to have one team member awake with the freight at all times. Diane and I do not often run out of hours in a week but it does happen from time to time when we are on security loads. Time logged as...

Safety advocates would suggest that a restart time extended to 44 hours would benefit everybody by providing a better rested driver pool. A cynical observer might suggest that it would benefit union advocates who have a voice in the current administration and Congress (before the election) by...

These are all good questions but the FMCSA is staying mum until the official announcement is made. The announcement is expected soon but the date is unknown. What will be announced is a proposed new rule, not a new rule. The proposal will be kicked around in public discussion for months before...

The talk I hear is of cutting drive time to 10 hours per day from the currently allowed 11, and of extending the reset time to 44 hours from the currently allowed 34. This is scuttlebutt, not a known fact, but these numbers seem to be filling in the blank that the facts will replace when FMCSA...

Give TeamCaffee credit. She was the one who posted the reg itself. That is one interpretation, the advantage of which is you can run the multi-diode (or multi-bulb) lamp a while longer until all the diodes fail. However, on a required lamp, I would not force the issue. An officer could just as...

The talk is not of a cut to the restart time. It is of extending the restart time by cutting driving hours.

Deborah Lockridge (Editor, Heavy Duty Trucking), recently quoted a freight transportation forecaster who said that the expected changes in HOS would create overnight the need for an additional 150,000 trucks and drivers. I don't know if the HOS changes would have that effect or not. I do...

The regulation is quoted below. Note that there is a difference between chicken lights (auxilary lamps, additional lamps, lamps not required by the regulation) and "all lamps required by this subpart." In other words, chicken lights do not have to work. I am open to correction on this since we...

Complaints are common here in the Open Forum about fleet owners that harmed drivers by failing to maintain equipment, holding back pay, improperly keeping escrow money, violating contract provisions, etc. Yet no one ever names a fleet owner publicly to warn off other potential victims. The...

I believe the new CSA 2010 point system for scoring violations will improve the quality of enforcement over time. Because it is no longer a good idea to accept a ticket for a minor violation and move on (actually, it never was a good idea), many more tickets will be fought after they are written...

Leo, your page-turning point is a good one and a feature I have come to fully appreciate as I read my Kindle. It really is easier to hold and read a Kindle than a book. But note the somewhat different purposes readers have. Many have voiced objections about the Kindle precisely because it is...

It is amazing how willing people are to stay stuck in a bad situation because they are unwilling to take a loss. "Cut my losses and move on" are some of the most powerful words in business.

Ahh yes; the book. That thing that does not need batteries, never has to be booted up, does not break when you drop it, can be shared with or gifted to a friend without permission from the person who sold it to you, and stores information for a thousand years in a format that is as good...

A valid point of view you have. It illustrates well the fundamentally different approaches. In our truck, our movie viewing (lectures), GPS, phone calling, music listening, e-reading, etc. tend to be done on single-purpose devices dedicated to these specific tasks. The other approach is to...

Audacity? How about helpfulness? How about skill? My wife is an attorney and knows a thing or two about contracts. Many fleet owners don't have a clue. We chose expediting and later became owner operators. I can think of numerous scenarios where the legal skills we bring to the table could be...

There is no score card per say but you can view your CSA points through the FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program. You can view them quickly by paying the $10. I belive there is a way to view them for free but it takes more work and time. If you believe there are errors on your report, they...

When a six year old tries something and fails, a parent will often comfort the frustrated child by saying the kid did his or her best and that makes the parent proud. When a high school football team plays its heart out but finishes the season with a pathetic record at the bottom of the...

The freight took us to Florida today. Out of service for a few days to get our Florida vacation home ready for our January stay.

It does not matter how much you know about maintaining a truck, there is always more you can learn. You will never learn it all so start with the things that fail most frequently that you can work on yourself. Your truck lamps are such a thing. If you don't know about them, learn. Learn by...

Don't forget the cost of required things like DOT inspections and reefer maintenance if have one. These are not carrier fees per se, but you might do them differently if the carrier was not there to say otherwise.