I Shut Down And Ruined My Service Record Due To Fatigue!

If you didn't feel you could drive safely, then you shouldn't drive. But if it happens for no good reason (like an illness) then you should just give up driving. I doubt any employer's going to put up with it anyway.

Maybe this account has been hijacked?

What is this "sleep" which you speak of? I don't think I experience that until I take a couple days at home.

Werner sound like he dont have a WHY in he life. To change your life .you have to change yourself .to change yourself .you have to change your mindset .

They aren't going to fire you because you used that magic s word. However, don't be surprised if they make sure your runs have plenty of time on them.

That's why some get four days to go from L.A. to Phoenix and others get two days to go from L.A. to Dallas.

Reading this thread made me tired, even though I got almost 8 hours of sleep, coffee, a muffin, and did my stretching exercises. Oh yeah, I drove 600 miles yesterday, and I have 633 miles to do today. And it's 0300. And it's chilly out this morning. And it's my birthday.

So, Werner, should I say screw this load and take some more time off? Nope, I'm going to get my butt in gear now that my 10 hour break is up.

By the way, I get paid by the hour, and only go off duty for the mandatory 30 minute break. A lot of guys applied for this cake job, but I'm the one that got it. I wonder why?

Hey Brett, any chance a rookie like me can ask a favor? Can we maybe get a popcorn eating emoji? but I've a decent driver I swear, running my clock, driving the hours, hell I even went I to the Bronx, which to be fair wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but yeah I've yet to pull the I'm too tired to drive crap, If you're tired you're tired but after 8 hours of sleep you may want to get checked for sleep apnea OP

No offense, Warner, but I would be too embarrassed to have started this read. By all means I think you should do what you feel is right but I don't think you will get any support from your dispatcher or anybody. You gotta take your lumps in life like the rest of us! Sorry man, I can't support you either.

Has anyone confirmed that when OP says he "got his eight hours" that that actually meant he actually slept for eight hours, or does it just mean he logged eight hours sleeper berth? Not defending in the least his idiotic trolling, buuuuut there's been many times I've been in the sleeper long enough but damn sure didn't get much (or any) sleep.

Has anyone confirmed that when OP says he "got his eight hours" that that actually meant he actually slept for eight hours, or does it just mean he logged eight hours sleeper berth?

Vendingdude, all we have to go by is what the OP stated. He said plenty of other things to support our conclusions, and he never backed down from his original statement. That is a pretty good indication that he meant he slept during that time. Unfortunately he didn't do a very good job of defending himself - he chose to go on the attack accusing us of not being professional drivers, even indicating that we should have our CDL taken away for conducting ourselves in a way that gets things accomplished legally and safely!

The only reason I jumped on this wagon was because it was such a bad example for someone to drop in here for new drivers and future folks who want to learn how to do things in this industry to use as a basis for how to operate successfully in this career. It is an age old trick to not do your job properly and then start throwing the safety card around as if your actions are superior to other drivers who are getting things accomplished every day out here. We just decided to call him on it. He would have done a much better job of defending himself if he were not guilty, but he chose rather to keep digging a deeper hole. He pretty much confirmed everything we already knew was going on.

I think it speaks to the level of professionalism and expectations that we have here at TruckingTruth that so many people thought he was just here trolling us. He wasn't trolling us. He actually thought we would defend his actions. He was looking for support and confirmation that his tactics were clever and acceptable.

This is nothing new. Look at Abe's famous video. He drove one hour out of the past twenty and claimed he was too tired to drive. Knowing his dispatchers were going to be unhappy with him he recorded his conversation hoping to make them look bad. And if you read through the comments for that video, a ton of drivers and would-be drivers did indeed support him. They fell for it hook, line, and sinker because a lot of drivers do take that approach. To someone who doesn't know this industry his gripe sounded legit.

There's no shortage of drivers that do believe dispatchers are purely manipulative and don't care about their drivers. There's no shortage that believe that drivers should do whatever they like whenever they like because we don't get enough respect and consideration. They believe it's "us against the world", and that includes their own companies.

I expect Werner was genuinely surprised by the reaction he got from us. You'll hear drivers touting those typical sayings, "No load is worth your life" or "a hot load will cool off in the ditch" and all that stuff. He just took those ideas, which are intended as a safety reminder, and used them to play the safety card, hoping he could get out of work anytime he felt like it without looking bad or getting in trouble.

And we all know where this is going to lead. His miles will likely drop for a while so he'll run to the driver's lounges and the terminals complaining, trying to drum up support. Unfortunately he'll find some. Rats like living in packs, and that includes Terminal Rats. They'll feed off of each other's negativity.

Anyone who does their job with pride and has a strong work ethic would be embarrassed anytime they couldn't get the job done. They don't turn it around into something to be proud of, pretending it's because they care so much about safety, and then try to drum up support for their shortcomings. And they certainly wouldn't go on the attack trying to accuse proven Top Tier Professionals of being unsafe or unworthy of their position when those professionals the ones who are truly getting the job done safely and reliably at the highest level.

This isn't just about once incident. This is about someone who has a poisonous attitude and is taking a failing approach to his job. The drivers who know this industry well have seen these types many times. They're not uncommon.

If you're the type to say, "Screw work. I know how to get out of doing this" then you're simply going to have a miserable career in trucking anyhow. You're going to get lousy miles, you're not going to get any special favors or make any friends in the offices, and the high expectations are just going to wear you out over time. You're better off finding a 9 to 5 job that pays $9 an hour and settling in at the level you belong. You clearly don't belong in an industry with the high demands and expectations that trucking has.

I think it's incredibly important for us to point out to new drivers the difference between being safe, and being lazy. We need to point out how important it is to have high expectations of yourself because trucking is no ordinary job for ordinary people. New drivers will come across these types and they need to be able to recognize when someone is taking the wrong approach so they don't follow the wrong path themselves.