Told To Drive When It's Obvious You're Too Tired.

Guyjax,

I agree with you. In the end, the dispatcher did do the right thing!

@Anchorman - priceless pic!!!! Love it!

I thought we were in one of those truck stop chapels for a minute. It is Sunday ya know...

This video is certainly a lightening rod, galvanizing the opinions of drivers, would-be drivers, and other concerned folks. I took the time to watch it, twice. And I've read all the comments here. I also read a lot of the comments on his YouTube video - not surprisingly, he's garnered a lot of support.

Brett, I'm surprised by your reaction, although I understand it. You displayed a very admirable quality - the heart of a shepherd. I understand that you also have a bone to pick with the Modern American Worker - I share your sentiments. I deeply admire your passion to guide would-be truckers and protect the integrity of the industry. I realize you have dedicated a large part of your life to the industry, and you're still passionate about it. That's clear. I believe your motives are pure.

Some important observations. Nobody walks in that driver's shoes but that driver. Nobody knows how tired he was - all anybody else can do is speculate. Regardless if one believes he should or shouldn't be tired after the period of rest or downtime that he described, if he really was too tired to drive, nobody knows that besides him. Everybody agrees that you should never drive tired.

What I do not think he should have done was record that conversation without consent - that is actually illegal in some contexts of law. I don't know if what he did was illegal or not. It's arguably unethical. It also begs the questions that have already been asked:

How could he not drive and yet have the energy to concentrate on a recording? How much of this did he plan? What was his true motive on recording the conversation?

Just like the question on whether he was really too tired to drive safely, those other questions I posted above can only have answers based on speculation. This video is great for bringing awareness to an extremely important issue - driving while tired, and that it can be deadly. This video also puts this driver in the cross hairs, possibly could have legal ramifications for more than one party, and is an example of how it's not always a good thing to 'publish yourself' in this information age of ours. Contrary to the age old adage, not all press is good press.

Nobody walks in that driver's shoes but that driver. Nobody knows how tired he was - all anybody else can do is speculate. Regardless if one believes he should or shouldn't be tired after the period of rest or downtime that he described, if he really was too tired to drive, nobody knows that besides him.

Not true. Ya know how I know? I lived it for two decades. I know all the tricks. I know the tricks you use to keep running when you want to run and I know the tricks you use to sit if you want to sit. He has been a driver for long enough that he was a trainer at Werner. He knows there are a thousand ways he could have gotten out of driving without anyone questioning him, but that isn't what he chose to do. Nope. He purposely picked an excuse where he knew dispatch would be upset and would try to get him to keep running. That's why he said what he said. So he was looking for attention (congratulations - you sure have mine!) and setting them up for a fall. He wanted to strong-arm them or take them down.

He also wanted to get paid for doing nothing and thought he could manipulate the system. As long as he was available for dispatch and wasn't late with any loads he would get paid for 2500 miles whether he ran them or not. So he tried getting out of doing the work but still stay within the rules to collect the money. By the time they told him he was being given a service failure and would lose his guarantee (like one minute before the video ended) it was too late. He had played his hand and told several people it was impossible for him to drive when he was that tired.

Ya know how else I know? Because he was choosing his words carefully. He used words like "microsleep" and said things like, "I'm not safe to drive" and "I don't want to hurt anyone out here". Everything he said was calculated to get a response from dispatch and he knew full well there is no response to those other than to give him his way. So either they immediately give him his way without questioning him or he's got them on video and can use it to garner attention and strong-arm them.

Notice he has a video - "5 reasons not to work for Werner" - 98,000+ views. Notice he has another video - "5 reason to work for Werner" - 15,000+ views.

Negativity and crybabying always garners more attention. He's all about attention of course or he wouldn't be doing any of this.

Why didn't he just say he was sick and throwing up? Why didn't go under the hood and pull a wire or slash a steer tire?

There was a million other ways he could have handled it but he chose to handle it the way he did because he has an agenda. For one, he has his camera and he's friends with other drivers with much more popular YouTube channels. He's figured out how to garner attention. For two, he's working for a company that will guarantee him money whether he does the work or not. So all he has to do is find a way to get out of working and yet still get paid the guarantee. If his idea fails, oh well! He knew he would have video to use against them to strong-arm them into keeping him. At least that was his plan.

But be that as it may the Blatant disregard that the driver said over and over that he was falling to sleep while driving. While the drivers fault for not getting enough sleep dispatch should not have tried to try and make a sleepy driver go down the road.

So you're saying if you bought $150k worth of equipment and put me behind the wheel and I told you after 20 hours of sitting I was too tired to drive 160 miles you'd be like:

Hey Brett. That's totally cool man. I get it. Sometimes 20 hours isn't enough sleep for me either. And hey, ya can't just work your life away, right? Get ya some sleep and don't worry about no silly load. It's just a load. It's not important. I'm just happy to know you're happy.

You have to remember. They weren't pushing him to finish up that 11th hour of driving after running hard for 10 straight hours. They were trying to get him to drive 160 lousy miles after 20 hours of sitting. I have absolutely no problem with them trying to get him to drive. I also know that after he made it clear he wasn't going to drive they did indeed re-power the load. And they most certainly did not threaten his job like he claims. They told him it's a service failure and two service failures in a 90 day period can mean termination. That's company policy, they were totally right giving him a service failure.

I'm going to find out tomorrow if he still has a job with this company and if they know about this video. I'm also going to invite him to join this conversation and see if he would like to defend himself against drivers like myself who are willing to call him out on his tactics. If he's brave enough we'll certainly give him his day in court. Guys like that tend to get themselves in a hole and they just keep digging and digging and digging.

If I'm wrong about him I'll certainly apologize to him. But that's not a concern. I've been in this game for waaaaaaaaaay too long. I know a true professional when I see one and I know a clown when I see one. A lot of people think they're really clever. He's one of em. To me he looks like that legendary three year old child with chocolate all over his facing saying, "I didn't eat any cookies. I swear!"

Sure ya didn't.

Wow, Brett! This has really struck a cord with you. I hope he does come here and respond!

The more I think about this, the more it says this was a complete set up. I think he has had this conversation with management a few times in the past. I think he has a ax to grind because "they did it to me again." Once his company is made aware of this video, he will be lucky to have a job. Most companies have social media policies in place. I think he has probably had the same conversation with dispatchers in the past and he knew they would encourage him to drive. I am not so sure if he has ever pressed the issue to this point before. Now, he did take the service failure and still refused to drive. That is the only thing that gives him some credibility. Had he backed off after realizing he was taking a service failure and losing his guarantee, then we could say for sure he was FOS.

As for the video and sound recording, I am pretty sure that he broke the law if the other parties were not informed that what they said was being recorded.

Brett, you have experience in the trucking industry, and a keen eye for some of the more base human flaws. I can tell you have a knack for reading between the lines and observing human behavior. You've been around the block. So have I.

I certainly didn't mean to be presumptuous and talk about things I have no experience with. I have no idea what it is like to drive a truck, or what life on the road even means. I'll find out soon enough ;) I was only trying to give the guy the 'benefit of the doubt' for the sake of an argument, and to caution against rushing into judgment. I've thrown the first stone many times, and I've also been on the receiving end. If you are confident in what you think he's doing, I respect your opinion. You make a strong argument. There's no shame in calling a spade a spade. If I need to be corrected, then I humbly stand corrected.

Wow, Brett! This has really struck a cord with you.

Absolutely! For two main reasons:

1) I truly believe that much of our society has lost the character and ambition that built this great nation and it saddens me terribly to watch us spiral downward into a pathetic mess of crybabies with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. I have pictures of my ancestors from my great grandparent's generation working the farm fields by hand in the summer heat with infants strapped to their backs. I watched my father put in 18 hard years of 50+ hour weeks at the steel mill so his wife and children could have a wonderful life. What happened to those kind of people? Where did they go? Nowadays "character" apparently means you try to take down your dispatchers, your company, and your industry if someone has the gall to expect you to drive for two hours after twenty hours of rest.

2) For 15 years I worked as hard as any driver out there and put 1.5 million safe miles behind me with tremendous pride and dedication. And yet I was treated like scum of the Earth most of the time by people outside the industry simply because I drove a truck for a living. And all along I knew exactly why that was....because of guys like this. I'd love to see that change. I'd love to see the "Knights Of The Road" make a comeback. I'd love to see drivers do their job with pride, dedication, and integrity so we can earn back the respect of the American public, a respect truck drivers deserve for the risks and sacrifices they make and the critical role they play in our society.

Everyone comes here considering a career in trucking but most people are scared to death of the garbage they hear out there seven days a week from guys like this. They come here saying, "Man, I always wanted to drive a truck but the industry seems to be one big scam. It's nothing but a cesspool of slave labor and dirty scoundrels."

Well thank God I didn't shy away from trucking because those years on the road were absolutely priceless to me. And I know for the right person there's no career like it. But guys like this have to be called out if we're ever going to clean up the image of the trucking industry. We can't let clowns like this represent us. We have to let the world know that there are plenty of hard working, intelligent, dedicated truck driving professionals out there who go to great lengths to do their job with pride and integrity. We have to let people know that you can have a wonderful career in this industry if you're the type that can handle it. But make no mistake about it....it takes a real man or a real woman to handle the life of an American big rigger and make it look easy like a true professional.

Although there's plenty of room for improvement, the trucking industry itself is not the problem we face. The problem we face is that there's a lot of people out there who have no business being in the trucking industry and they're making the rest of us look bad.

If someone walked up to you guys and said, "Hey, I heard truckers are nothing but a bunch of fat, ignorant, lazy, smelly complainers who will do anything to get out of an honest day's work" you'd want to let them know that you're exactly the opposite of that now wouldn't ya? Well that's how I feel about this situation. When thousands of people flock to Youtube to watch videos like this, someone has to counter that message and let the world know they don't represent the "true trucking professionals" out there.

We do!

I was only trying to give the guy the 'benefit of the doubt' for the sake of an argument, and to caution against rushing into judgment

Oh I have no problem with that at all. You're totally fine. And 99.999% of the time I take the same approach as you. I try to treat everyone with kindness, respect, and consideration. I normally will give people the benefit of the doubt. In fact, this is probably the most harsh I've ever been toward anyone in all my years of running this website. But I believe this time I have to say something.

This website had 1.085 million unique visitors last year and it's on pace for close to 1.5 million this year. We're averaging 1,500 registrations a month and growing. We're huge now. We have a lot of pull and a lot of responsibility and I take that very seriously. So now I feel like we've finally grown to the point that we can make real change in this industry and we're in an awesome position to do it. We get to work with people before they even get started in the industry. We can teach people how to be true professionals and help them understand the challenges they're going to face in this industry. We can teach them about all the things we've done wrong in the past and what it's going to take to change our image. We can do a ton of good for everyone in the industry - from company CEO's to dispatchers to drivers.

But we're going to have to have the courage to stand up and point fingers once in a while. We're going to have to call some people out. To this point nobody has been calling out the drivers themselves. They get to blast every company, every dispatcher , every industry policy without being held accountable by anyone. They're all over TheTruckersReport, YouTube, GlassCeiling, RipoffReport, and everywhere else they can tout their garbage. Well who better to hold a driver accountable than another driver, specifically a proven professional. We have plenty of true professionals here at TruckingTruth and it's time we stand together and say, "Listen, that junk might have been the way trucking was done in the past, but we're not doin it that way any longer. It's time for a new generation of drivers to lead the way and right the ship and we're going to teach them how to do it right."

Then it's up to you guys - the new generation - to make it happen out there.

I am completely new to the trucking business but Im not new to the people business. My first impression after watching this is this guy was mad because they didnt have a load waiting for him after he made his drop and he was going to show them. The working world is full of guys like this. They always think they know better than the people running the show.

Brett is right when he says this guy knows the exact terms to use to "show" them how poorly they are managing his time. He got what he wanted, attention. He will be the first to cry foul when they take his money, wait for him to screw up in the next 90 days and fire him. He will screw up, they always do. If you are going to manipulate one rule to suit you, you better be certain you are following ALL the rules because the management will use them to get rid of the dead wood. He will take a shortcut, he will violate some small rule and they will fire him for it and then he will take his case to youtube and rant about how he was wronged and this is a horrible company for what they have done to him. These people are a cancer in any organization, not just trucking. When he is run out of this business he will just spread the infection to another one.