What do you guys think?
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/03/27/critic.htm
Excerpts below:
"Most drivers are only paid while driving, not for time spent cleaning the trailers or other required chores. That hour that you spent trying to get five miles through the traffic jam this morning? The truck driver next to you made a little over a dollar -- before taxes -- for an hour's work. And to get there, he was up and on the road before your alarm went off. He will probably be driving when you sit down to dinner, and if the traffic stayed bad (road construction, accidents, detours) or he spent a lot of time going through weigh stations, being inspected or sitting on loading docks, he may have made less than the taxes that YOU paid today."
"The whole system is based on the drivers ignoring The Book. After all, the only one who can get in any kind of trouble is the driver, and there are always plenty of people willing to take over his truck when his license is revoked for one violation or another."
" Why, you might ask, don't they do anything about it? Well, many of them are about to do just that.
The major organization for truck drivers, OOIDA (the Owner/Operators-Independent Drivers Association) has come up with a plan to show America and the transportation industry just how important drivers really are, and they have a unique way to do it -- they want truckers to drive By The Book through the month of June.
That's it. No protests, boycotts, highway blocks, slowdowns, sabotage, nothing except living by the arbitrary and often absurd regulations which the system currently uses only as the means to shake down drivers.
This means that a driver who spends five hours waiting to be loaded will only carry that load for five hours that day, no matter how much the shipper expects it to be several states away at six the next morning. He will drive at the posted speed limit, denying "Smokey" the chance to write a speeding ticket for 59-in-a-55, and it won't matter how many cars stack up behind him, nor how loudly the drivers rant about not being able to drive at their much higher "split" speed limit. He will buy less fuel, because he's burning less, but spend more time at truck stops.
About the third week of June, there will be a lot of freight stacking up, and a lot of warehouses with a really good echo. That means that some of the things that you expect on your store shelves may still be in Duluth, because the trucks which make up the backbone of American transportation will have run about half as many miles as the system expects, and all because a few hundred thousand drivers are driving By The Book.
As on driver put it, "It's their book, but we're going to throw it at them!"
OOIDA announced this coordinated push to run in strict compliance last November, which some might think would be too much warning. After all, won't everyone just stock up ahead of time?
Unfortunately, the system is built on the idea that a high percentage of what will be on the shelf tomorrow is in a truck today, and they don't have either the production or storage capabilities to correct for an effective drop of 50% of "rolling warehouse" space.
What is the goal of this action? There are several. To the driver, the goal is to be recognized and treated as the professional that he really is, rather than a slave, to be pushed around at will. Perhaps shippers will be more realistic in setting pickup times, if they know that the driver won't run all night to get that load of fish tanks to Mahwah. Maybe that last roll of carpet isn't really worth holding the rest of the load for eight hours, if that means a 400-mile difference in where that hot load will be in the morning. And a major drop in fuel sales for a whole month might make chains of truck stops look for ways to increase driver loyalty.
To the industry as a whole, a month of running strictly legal will show, once and for all, whether all of the extra laws and regulations, the split speed limits and archaic pay and hours of service regulations enhance safety or are they (as drivers say) simply a bad idea on top of a stupid idea?
Last, but maybe most, if OOIDA organizers can get a high level of cooperation with this experiment, they will have a big enough club to wave in Congress, state legislatures and city council meetings, when it's time to fight against absurd and pointless regulations, still more taxes, or enhanced restrictions against the truck drivers who keep America moving."
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/03/27/critic.htm
Excerpts below:
"Most drivers are only paid while driving, not for time spent cleaning the trailers or other required chores. That hour that you spent trying to get five miles through the traffic jam this morning? The truck driver next to you made a little over a dollar -- before taxes -- for an hour's work. And to get there, he was up and on the road before your alarm went off. He will probably be driving when you sit down to dinner, and if the traffic stayed bad (road construction, accidents, detours) or he spent a lot of time going through weigh stations, being inspected or sitting on loading docks, he may have made less than the taxes that YOU paid today."
"The whole system is based on the drivers ignoring The Book. After all, the only one who can get in any kind of trouble is the driver, and there are always plenty of people willing to take over his truck when his license is revoked for one violation or another."
" Why, you might ask, don't they do anything about it? Well, many of them are about to do just that.
The major organization for truck drivers, OOIDA (the Owner/Operators-Independent Drivers Association) has come up with a plan to show America and the transportation industry just how important drivers really are, and they have a unique way to do it -- they want truckers to drive By The Book through the month of June.
That's it. No protests, boycotts, highway blocks, slowdowns, sabotage, nothing except living by the arbitrary and often absurd regulations which the system currently uses only as the means to shake down drivers.
This means that a driver who spends five hours waiting to be loaded will only carry that load for five hours that day, no matter how much the shipper expects it to be several states away at six the next morning. He will drive at the posted speed limit, denying "Smokey" the chance to write a speeding ticket for 59-in-a-55, and it won't matter how many cars stack up behind him, nor how loudly the drivers rant about not being able to drive at their much higher "split" speed limit. He will buy less fuel, because he's burning less, but spend more time at truck stops.
About the third week of June, there will be a lot of freight stacking up, and a lot of warehouses with a really good echo. That means that some of the things that you expect on your store shelves may still be in Duluth, because the trucks which make up the backbone of American transportation will have run about half as many miles as the system expects, and all because a few hundred thousand drivers are driving By The Book.
As on driver put it, "It's their book, but we're going to throw it at them!"
OOIDA announced this coordinated push to run in strict compliance last November, which some might think would be too much warning. After all, won't everyone just stock up ahead of time?
Unfortunately, the system is built on the idea that a high percentage of what will be on the shelf tomorrow is in a truck today, and they don't have either the production or storage capabilities to correct for an effective drop of 50% of "rolling warehouse" space.
What is the goal of this action? There are several. To the driver, the goal is to be recognized and treated as the professional that he really is, rather than a slave, to be pushed around at will. Perhaps shippers will be more realistic in setting pickup times, if they know that the driver won't run all night to get that load of fish tanks to Mahwah. Maybe that last roll of carpet isn't really worth holding the rest of the load for eight hours, if that means a 400-mile difference in where that hot load will be in the morning. And a major drop in fuel sales for a whole month might make chains of truck stops look for ways to increase driver loyalty.
To the industry as a whole, a month of running strictly legal will show, once and for all, whether all of the extra laws and regulations, the split speed limits and archaic pay and hours of service regulations enhance safety or are they (as drivers say) simply a bad idea on top of a stupid idea?
Last, but maybe most, if OOIDA organizers can get a high level of cooperation with this experiment, they will have a big enough club to wave in Congress, state legislatures and city council meetings, when it's time to fight against absurd and pointless regulations, still more taxes, or enhanced restrictions against the truck drivers who keep America moving."