Rush Hour Traffic?

Why is it that I see so many trucks on the road sitting in rush hour traffic? I would think a driver would plan around big city rush hour traffic. I often come home from work opposite rush hour traffic and I never fails, hundreds of trucks heading into Atlanta at rush hour. I don't get it. Why would you be on the road trying to get into or through a major city at rush hour? Is this poor planning or is there something I don't know?

Could be many reasons...heres a couple: I have to be here at 5:00PM... I just left the yard and have 2 hours left to drive for the day and walmart is 20 miles up the road so Im headed there for the night... the driver can make some decisions but not all.

There are so many reasons why trucks run the hours they do and freight never stops. First may be that your pick up or delivery may be scheduled in that time frame. You may say to yourself why do they schedule it then? Well these places run 24 hours a day and never have enough dock space for all the trailers they receive hence someone has to be scheduled then. This is one of 1000s of examples. Let me say this though, I guarantee there isn't a trucker in the world who would drive into Downtown Atlanta in rush hour on purpose. I don't even like it at 3 in the morning!

If I pick up a load in another state heading to Atlanta (or any other city for that matter) that has barely enough time on it to get it there, I may not have any choice but to drive into the city with rush hour traffic. I very much prefer picking up and delivering in towns that are smaller than 100,000 population, and always try to avoid major cities or drive through them outside of rush hour. The problem is the freight goes where the consumers live, so more people = more freight.

My question is, why don't all the people in four wheelers take public transportation or work different shifts or move closer to work so those of us driving trucks can bring them the stuff they need more easily? We're on the road all the time, while most commuters only spend an hour or two a day on the road...and all at the same damn times.

It's all a matter of perspective, I reckon.

One of the biggest problems right now is that stupid 14 hour logbook rule. Once that clock starts ticking it doesn't stop. So if you have 3 hours left on your clock, two hours left to drive, and a major city in between there's no chance you can stop for a break to let rush hour pass. I was always on paper logs so I could write down anything I wanted to. I regularly would stop and take a nap or go do something else like laundry, shower, or getting maintence done while waiting for traffic to die down a bit.

I would also do a lot of my running at night. I'd start between 2:00 am - 3:00 am and get several hours in before anyone else was up. But I wouldn't have been able to do that consistently if I had to abide by the 14 hour rule because you can't count on being able to shut down for the night at 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm every night.

I've said from the first time I read the 14 hour rule that is was a catastrophic blunder to put a rule in place that essentially forces everyone to keep driving no matter how little sense it may make at the time. You could be sick, tired, in need of repair, wanting to wait out some rush hour traffic, or wait for a strong thunderstorm to pass by but there's no stopping that stupid 14 hour clock. Somehow they feel it makes more sense to force people to work 14 consecutive hours with a 30 minute break instead of breaking up the work day any way a driver sees fit. Apparently the millions of studies they've done over the years showing how far performance drops off after 8 hours of work doesn't figure into it. They're obsessed with people trying to get a full 8 hours of consecutive sleep. Well someone is going to have to tell me how that works out for you because I don't think I've slept 8 straight hours in years, nor do I ever split up my day to work 14 hours straight and do nothing for the other 10. I'll sleep 4 or 5 hours at night and I'll break up my workday with a short nap during the day, maybe even two if I feel so inclined.

I'd say 3,000-3,200 miles per week is a great week and anything more than that is really pushing it a bit too hard to be sustainable over the long term. So I see no need to rewrite the rules to allow for more driving than you can do today. I just want them to put the flexibility back into the rules so we can run when it makes sense to run, not because some artificial deadline says we have to. I mentioned in another thread recently that I'd like to see some sort of "bonus time" where you can run for maybe two hours between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am without worrying about the 14 hour clock. That would put a lot more trucks on the road during off-peak hours and lighten the load a bit during rush hour. But I would be stunned if they allowed anything like that. They don't want people breaking up that precious 8 consecutive hours of sleep. They'd rather force you to work 14 hours straight on a 30 minute break, probably because none of the people making these rules or doing these studies have put in a 14 hour day in their life. So they're working banker's hours in a lab or at a desk trying to determine how truck drivers should do their job. To them, this rule package makes sense. To anyone who's actually driven a truck it makes no sense. But I've been in this industry for 22 years and I've yet to come across anyone that gives a cr*p what a truck driver thinks.

Ever try So. Calif. freeways, east & west, ANY time of day? trucking central! I-10, I-60, the 91, I-15 I ran those a lot doing forklift service. My gawd! anywhere between the Inland Empire and LA County was 2 solid lanes of trucks! I-10 east and west, and Pomona freeway being thee worst! I don't miss just 4 wheeling those highways anytime of day! lol Lot's of customer warehouses in and around Fontana/Ontario I used to think my god, how do these guys deal with this day in, day out! lol

A lot of places have specific hours of operation. So you can't deliver or pick up unless it's sometime from 11:00-17:00 for example. They also have to schedule you because they're expecting a bunch of trucks and many places don't even have no room for 2 trucks at a time.

Also account for how Atlanta may have a lot of semis returning to headquarters there. There's a lot of truckers that work regular/normal daytime hours and have to punch a clock that's the same as their warehouse guys.

Why is it that I see so many trucks on the road sitting in rush hour traffic? I would think a driver would plan around big city rush hour traffic. I often come home from work opposite rush hour traffic and I never fails, hundreds of trucks heading into Atlanta at rush hour. I don't get it. Why would you be on the road trying to get into or through a major city at rush hour? Is this poor planning or is there something I don't know?

Hey dude, there are lanes where no trucks are allowed. Do you wonder why there are so many damn cars in it? Didn't think so.

FYI, the interstate COMMERCE system was set up for... Well, commercial use by commercial and military vehicles.

I know it is easy to blame truckers for all the worlds woes, but, I wish ppl would research a subject before posting. The answer can always be found.

Why is it that I see so many trucks on the road sitting in rush hour traffic? I would think a driver would plan around big city rush hour traffic. I often come home from work opposite rush hour traffic and I never fails, hundreds of trucks heading into Atlanta at rush hour. I don't get it. Why would you be on the road trying to get into or through a major city at rush hour? Is this poor planning or is there something I don't know?

Hey dude, there are lanes where no trucks are allowed. Do you wonder why there are so many damn cars in it? Didn't think so.

FYI, the interstate COMMERCE system was set up for... Well, commercial use by commercial and military vehicles.

I know it is easy to blame truckers for all the worlds woes, but, I wish ppl would research a subject before posting. The answer can always be found.

I'm not or was not blaming trucks at all. I just wanted to know why. Thanks for all the replies. I'm in school and about to hit the road so I'm trying to learn all I can. :) I didn't mean anything negative.