Why The Hours Of Service Exemptions Keep Coming

Why the exemptions keep coming

This just in: All drivers who have the middle name Leroy are exempt of the 30 minute break. Also, On Tuesdays and Saturdays in May, June and July, anyone hauling bacon products are exempt. Oh yeah, let’s not forget, during the summer solstice, under the light of a blue moon, when there are unicorns present, anyone who has brown eyes is also exempt. This could all possibly be a filthy lie, but who knows? The exemptions keep on coming, folks.

Puh-leeeeeez.

You know why the FMCSA is granting all these exemptions? Because the 30 minute break rule is stupid. Also, they failed to take into consideration the other regs they’ve put into place, before piling more on top. How safe does it seem to have a bunch of knuckleheads who can’t remember what regulation says what before they put another one in place?

Let’s not forget that they will likely exempt the hours of service altogether for the fireworks haulers during the last week of June and the first week of July. Because we all know how fireworks are completely safe and there’s probably no reason at all for the drivers to be well rested and within their HOS.

The trucking industry is a mountain, and the FMCSA is mining this mountain to create revenue and justify their jobs. Good miners know the mountain will only take so many holes before it falls on them and crushes them to death. Trolls couldn’t care less and destroy the mountain in spite of themselves. Because they’re trolls.

Rules and regulations are absolutely necessary. There’s not a professional driver on the road who wouldn’t agree with that wholeheartedly. Common sense dictates if you give the people who are actually doing the job the right to do it to their best ability, the job will be done well.

Oh, wait. I said common sense. Therein lies the problem. Even if there is a trace of common sense in Washington, you’d need three coon dogs and a Geiger counter to find it. I still believe in Bigfoot, but I’m confounded by the complete lack of experience regarding the profession being regulated. I never understood why the surgeon general has to be a doctor, the attorney general has to be an attorney, but the head of the FMCSA doesn’t even have to hold a driver’s license. How does that make sense?

I never understood why the surgeon general has to be a doctor, the attorney general has to be an attorney, but the head of the FMCSA doesn’t even have to hold a driver’s license. How does that make sense?

Here's something to ponder: there is no requirement that Supreme Court justices have to be lawyers. All of them have been, but something like 40% of them had never been judges before they were appointed - including many of the better ones.

And let's not talk about the qualifications and experience of U.S. ambassadors. It's too embarrassing. Let's just say that you'll get a lot more scrutiny if you want a CDL.

A petition to require FMSCA lawmakers to do a month of OTR anyone? Lol. I wonder how many would make it through.

One of the biggest sources of conflict in trucking has always been the fact that nobody other than truck drivers have ever driven trucks. The overwhelming majority of lawmakers and decision-makers at trucking companies have never even driven a truck in a parking lot, let alone for a living. And yet these are the people telling us how and when we should sleep, what rules we should be governed by, and even what features should be built into the trucks.

I mean, it's 2015. Why are the majority of trucks still built with 12 volt wiring? In '93 when I got my first truck the first thing I bought was a power inverter to run my TV. Twenty two years later and nothing changed.

And what about things like the collision avoidance systems that beep every time they detect anything in front of you, including guard rails, bridges, and light poles? They sound off false alarms literally hundreds of times per day to the point that they're completely ignored and useless. But what a driver can't ignore is the fact that piles of snow and ice accumulate on windshield wipers in the winter because they won't install heated wipers on trucks. If you're so worried about us having a collision then why don't you install heated wipers so I can see what I'm about to hit instead of having to drive down the road while I'm reaching out the driver's window plucking ice of the wipers?

And the 14 hour rule. Brilliant. Over the past 100 years or so the countless studies done on human performance show that there's a gigantic decline in productivity and alertness after 8 hours. So instead of building a flexible system that allows us to take a nap once in a while they build a "safer" system where we're forced to work for 14 hours straight. Brilliant.

Dispatchers, load planners, and operations managers generally have never lived one day in the life of a truck driver and yet they dictate everything we do. One winter I had a dispatcher try to send me with an empty trailer directly into the heart of the biggest blizzard of the year. Why? To allow them to offload the product from a fully loaded truck that had gone off the road in the storm and tipped over. Ok, so a fully loaded truck couldn't navigate the blizzard but I'm supposed to try to take an empty truck dead into the heart of it? Are you kidding??? No, they weren't kidding. And no, I didn't do it. I'm from Buffalo, NY. I've driven in heavy snow my entire life. I'm not going to get myself killed doing something like that but our dispatchers and load planners, who had never driven a truck and were located in Georgia and probably never saw snow, decided that's what should be done.

It's always been that way in trucking. None of the decisions ever make sense from a driver's perspective. They always say they're getting advice from drivers but in the end it's painfully obvious that advice is rarely ever heeded.

I feel lucky in that my dispatcher was a driver for 35 years. He knows exactly what its like out here.

As a new driver I know I get the bottom of the barrel loads. He occasionally throws me some sweet ones to make up for it too. Cuss him one day, man crushing on him the next.

Anchorman, I get a kick out of your " articles". Keep them coming. Also you have the most appropriate name I've seen on this or any other forum.

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As a new driver I know I get the bottom of the barrel loads. He occasionally throws me some sweet ones to make up for it too. Cuss him one day, man crushing on him the next.

That's exactly what it's like and that never changes. Every load is a new adventure. Some are fantastic, some you loathe. It's a roller coaster running OTR. The weather, traffic, schedules, terrain, and population density change continuously. Then to add to it you're paid by the mile. That's great because the more work you do the more money you make, but when your truck breaks down or you sit at a customer for seven hours it can be super frustrating. You know it's best to keep your emotions on an even keel for your long term health and sanity but it's not easy sometimes.

Anchorman, I get a kick out of your " articles". Keep them coming. Also you have the most appropriate name I've seen on this or any other forum.

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I take full credit for that!

Ya know, his name wasn't always Anchorman. He's always been posting articles and news so I told him he should change his name to Anchorman. And so then he was born!

As a new driver I know I get the bottom of the barrel loads. He occasionally throws me some sweet ones to make up for it too. Cuss him one day, man crushing on him the next.

That's exactly what it's like and that never changes. Every load is a new adventure. Some are fantastic, some you loathe. It's a roller coaster running OTR. The weather, traffic, schedules, terrain, and population density change continuously. Then to add to it you're paid by the mile. That's great because the more work you do the more money you make, but when your truck breaks down or you sit at a customer for seven hours it can be super frustrating. You know it's best to keep your emotions on an even keel for your long term health and sanity but it's not easy sometimes.

Man, that 7 hours thing was my day yesterday. Putting a tarp back on a multiple stop load in high winds. :( I finally got it on "good enough," and busted tail to the 2nd stop. But do you know what it would take to make me a happy trucker right now? A new load and a shower! That's all I want!!! ;)

I never understood why the surgeon general has to be a doctor, the attorney general has to be an attorney, but the head of the FMCSA doesn’t even have to hold a driver’s license. How does that make sense?

Here's something to ponder: there is no requirement that Supreme Court justices have to be lawyers. All of them have been, but something like 40% of them had never been judges before they were appointed - including many of the better ones.

And let's not talk about the qualifications and experience of U.S. ambassadors. It's too embarrassing. Let's just say that you'll get a lot more scrutiny if you want a CDL.

Kind of explains why our once great country is turning into the socialist hell of today.