FMCSA Takes A Further Look At Detention Time

Driver detention time is coming under the scrutiny of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and drivers and other interested parties are being asked to submit comments regarding this important area of the truck freight-hauling industry.

FMCSA takes a further look at detention time

Detention time complaints are nothing new and go back to the days when drivers were “driving” wagons pulled by teams of horses or mules. Detention is part of the job and always has been, and will be tomorrow, too. Do we want the government involved with “fixing” another problem? Every time we invite them, it ends up worse than before in many cases. This is a free-market, capitalism industry, so I’m all in for not having help from Big Brother. Enough with government intervention I say! This is a topic best left to the trucking companies and shippers/receivers to find an amicable solution. Unfortunately, this is obviously not going to happen overnight.

This is solely my opinion and may not reflect the judgement, thoughts, or feelings of many others in our industry.

Great, that's all we need. The feds getting into detention times / rates. What could possibly go wrong ?

Great, that's all we need. The feds getting into detention times / rates. What could possibly go wrong ?

^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^

In my best Bernie Sanders voice..........

"DETENTION PAY FOR ALL!!!"

Double edged sword here.

Congress kicked this can down the road a number of times over the last decade (or more).

What we're talking about here - as we ALL KNOW - is unpaid time WASTED waiting for a door or a load/unload.

Shipper/receivers care NOTHING FOR OUR TIME. And in many cases - carriers won't charge customers (by CONTRACT) because they want the contract - especially in light of falling rates and over-capacity in many regions now.

While FMCSA likely isn't going to determine rates or enforcement - I think it's less about .gov coming in and screwing things up, and more about wasted productivity and drivers HOS issues with regards to lost time.

FMCSA (and we) know if the wheels aren't rolling, drivers aren't earning - which may cause them to do other (potentially) "unsafe things", speeding or log screw-ery - to make of for time lost sitting waiting (at places who could CARE LESS about wasting the DRIVERS TIME).

It's not like they don't know WE are being screwed (the pickups/drops). We ALL get the feeling they just DON'T CARE.

Now - technically - we're supposed to be ON DUTY NOT DRIVING while being loaded/unloaded - for ANY TIME we are "not allowed to be away from the vehicle". As we all well know - anyone who doesn't go off duty or sleeper once they get checked in, is going to find their 14/70 going away REAL QUICK.

I'm not sure what FMCSA thinks they're going to solve - and it's not like they haven't been aware of the problem either. It would pretty much take an ACT OF CONGRESS, to get something like "mandatory detention rules/pay" across the board. Would shippers/receivers be more conscious OF OUR TIME - if they were COMPELLED TO PAY across the board?

I don't think anyone here feels they ARE NOT ENTITLED TO BE COMPENSATED for their time, if, through no fault of their own, they are unreasonably detained at a shipper/receiver.

What it comes down to is: WHAT IS REASONABLE? Most commonly, detention pay comes after 2 hours.

What this really sounds like to me - is FMCSA trying to "give the appearance" they are looking at this age old issue - when in reality, NOTHING WILL PROBABLY COME OF IT.

Rick