Comments By DaveW

In this Friday Short Haul, a trucking essay contest is announced, safest fleet finalists are named, JB Hunt joins Waymo in a pilot program, and ATA goes all in for climate change.

Friday Short Haul - Driver essay contest, safest fleets, JB Hunt's Waymo, ATA's climate change

The California Trucking Association, almost alone in its fight to preserve the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of California’s independent truckers, hopes to earn an AB5 appeal hearing in front of the entire slate of judges presiding over the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

OOIDA aids CTA in its appeal of unfavorable AB5 ruling

The United States House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has released details about its newly introduced surface transportation reauthorization bill, known as the “Invest in America Act.” And, not surprisingly, lines are being drawn within the trucking industry among the usual players on both sides of the issue.

Little for truckers to like in newest highway bill

In this Friday Short Haul, TuSimple stages a watermelon run to prove self-driving viability, Schneider earns a spot on Forbes's top companies for diversity, and a pre-settlement company expects an uptick in summer accidents.

Friday Short Haul - TuSimple watermelon run, Schneider diversity, pre-settlement claims

One highway in Florida, Interstate 4, which runs between Tampa and Daytona Beach, has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous highway in America – a distinction that the highway has earned year after year.

Latest study released: 25 most-dangerous highways in America

I very rarely comment on my own articles, but his one about home time was a particular bone of contention between me and my fleet manager.

I was recruited into GTI out of truck driving school. The recruiter told us home time was "five and two." In orientation, it was always "five and two." Any normal person would take that to mean five days of work, two days off. Right? Wheels down at the end of driving on Friday, wheels up again first thing Monday morning.

Personally, because my home was a longish drive up into the mountains from my home terminal, I opted for a "12 and two" home time schedule. Drive Monday through the next week Friday, off for the weekend. Basically off only every other weekend. My dispatcher was great, she understood, and let me do it that way. More time on the road, less time off on home time. Good for the company.

For some reason, my fleet manager got a bug up his butt about my schedule. He called me in to explain that the "five and two" everybody was telling me was really "five-and-a-half and one-and-a-half." IOW, the company didn't grant home time. They let us go home, but it had to be a 34-hour reset. I couldn't get it through his thick head that a 34-hour reset is not home time. Also, he just couldn't understand that making me take a 34-hour reset EVERY weekend, rather than a weekend of home time every other week, meant less time driving, less time hauling freight, and less time the truck was being productive.

This was the same fleet manager who I had a run-in with one time when I was down in the San Bernardino area. It was a Friday afternoon, I had just dropped a load, and they wanted me to run over to the Chino area "real quick" to get loaded. I had to be there in 30 minutes. They figured it was only 30 miles, freeway driving, piece of cake. I told the dispatcher it is impossible to go 30 miles in 30 minutes in the LA basin on Friday afternoon. She got the fleet manager on the phone. He insisted I take the load. Rand McNally says I can do it. I told him I'll get there when I can. He said to get there in 30 minutes. I said, "Look, what did you do when you were driving and you were given an impossible time frame to get somewhere?" He said, "I have never set foot in the cab of a truck." This was the fleet manager! I might or might not have said something that probably I shouldn't have. 😊

In trying to understand the dynamics of the driver-shortage, driver-recruitment, driver-retention paradigm a survey conducted by the Conversion Interactive Agency and Professional Driver Agency went right to the source -- they took a survey of commercial drivers.

Survey seeks answers to what drivers want from carriers

In this Friday Short Haul, a bill is introduced in the House to mandate speed limiters for large trucks, ATRI announces this year's research priorities, and a shortages of pallets adds to supply chain woes.

Friday Short Haul - Speed limiters, ATRI research agenda, Pallet shortage

The capacity crunch and driver shortage have got some proponents calling again for the United States Congress to revive efforts to raise the federal limit on trailer size – specifically to allow twin 33-foot trailers across the breadth of the country.

Some are asking the feds to take another look at twin-33 trailers

CargoNet, the cargo theft prevention and recovery network, is warning truckers to be aware of a “significant threat to freight transportation” over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. That threat focuses on cargo theft and hijackings, which increase measurably during this one particular holiday period.

Watch out for increased cargo theft over Memorial Day holiday