DOT Hours of Service for Truck Drivers

Being a truck driver can be a great job. You drive your house around, get to see the country, and you get paid for it. The downfall is if you have a spouse and small children, you're gone from home a lot, and of course, you have to follow DOT hours of service for motor carriers. The hours of service changed a few years ago because of, what else, government bureaucracy, and of course, because of stupid people. And yes, I mean stupid people who have either wrecked with a big truck or had family who wrecked. As we have examined in past posts most accidents between four-wheelers and big trucks is because the driver of the four wheeler failed to exercise caution and good sense while driving on the road with big trucks. But I have ranted about that enough!

What does hours of service mean? There are regulations set up by the Department of Transportation that are intended to make sure truck drivers get enough rest so they aren't driving while tired. Every truck driver who operates a big truck, whether a tractor trailer, straight truck or day cab, that weighs more than 10,001 pounds and operates outside of a one hundred mile radius of their home city, must keep a log book. These can be in a tablet type book or loose leaf, but are always done in duplicate. The driver keeps one copy and turns the original in with each trip sheet. Log books must be updated before each trip and at each break, and must include mileage, date, city, state, times, length of stops including fuel stops, sleep time, pre- and post trip inspections, off duty time, and must be presented to State Troopers or DOT Officers upon request.

Basically, a truck driver's day is broken up with a fourteen hour work day and ten hours of sleeper time. Of the fourteen work hours, only eleven of those can be used for driving, the other three are "on duty not driving" hours. These hours can be used for fueling, PM (preventative maintenance), truck wash, tire shop, etc. Now that sounds like a pretty good work day and a lot of travel time. The problem with these new regulations is it doesn't take into account dock time.

Dock time is the amount of time a truck spends being loaded and unloaded. A driver can be in a dock for any amount of time, but usually several hours. Some places, like the vegetable loads in Nogales, AZ, can take as long as 8-10 hours. Sometimes longer. Unloading in places like Wal-Mart distribution centers can take five or six hours and sometimes longer. It's not unusual for a driver to use dock time to sleep.

So what's the problem? It sounds like multi-tasking doesn't it? A driver is in the dock and sleeping too, sounds like killing two birds with one stone. Ah, but that's a rational conclusion, and you have to remember the DOT is an entity of the federal government--where no rational or logical decisions have ever been made.
Even if a driver is in a dock for eleven hours and sleeps during that time he cannot log it as sleeper time. He must log it as "on duty not driving", which leaves him only three hours for actual drive time. When you have a load going across the country and a certain amount of time to get it there, three hours is no time at all.

With all the problems plaguing truck drivers from the general public to the lack of truck parking to DOT regulations it's no wonder so few new drivers are being hired. In fact, many truck driving schools have shut their doors because there simply aren't enough people learning to drive truck to keep them in business, and many companies are now offering driver training to those with no experience driving big trucks.

I don't know the answer to getting DOT to post realistic guidelines, but I do know that the public in general can be responsible drivers, follow the rules of the road for sharing the highway with big trucks and reduce the number of accidents involving big trucks.

If you're interested in learning more about the trucking industry, try the following sites:

Trucking Truth

Life On The Road

February 2, 2010

Greetings from Kansas City, Missouri!

Since my last post from Dallas, Texas, we picked up a load in Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma that unloaded in Lenexia, Kansas (a suburb of KC). We pick up a load tomorrow morning heading for Massachusetts, due there Friday, the 5th.

I have been occupying my time with book edits. Two are line edits for my upcoming releases Comes An Outlaw and One Good Man, both from XOXO Publishing. The other two are edits I'm doing on a freelance basis, so lots to keep me busy along with walking Harley and Sonya, cleaning the truck, and cooking. A wife is a wife no matter where she's living!

By the time I get to MA I should have lots of new pics from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York featuring the winter wonderland we'll be driving through. I'm also going to be posting photos of the truck, the inside and out so everyone can see how comfortable we are here.

Today I have photos from Oklahoma and Kansas. Enjoy!

North of Pryor, OK. (We live in SE OK and don't see snow very often).

This is touted as the "largest McDonald's in the world!" Located on I-44 turnpike in Oklahoma about an hour from the Missouri state line. It straddles both the east and west bound lanes with a gift shop, Will Rogers museum, and a latte shop.

The view from the observation windows.

Kansas City's finest! Horses & cops....this hit on two of my fav fantasies!

January 26, 2010

After two drops in Phoenix, Arizona we headed to Nogales and picked up a load of tomatoes going to Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Afterward, we went to the Pilot truck stop and got hemmed in because a Swift truck missed the driveway, dumped his trailer in the ditch and took out a light pole. There was no power, which meant no fuel pumps, no cash registers, and no scale. While trying to get out of the parking lot to find another scale, we were stuck behind other trucks attempting to do the same. Finally, we were able to leave the Pilot and find another scale to weigh the load on and headed for New Mexico.

We spent the night on a mountain north of Las Cruces, NM, just south of the White Sands Missile Range. After a breakfast of sausage, egg and cheese croissant with coffee, we were back on the road. Traveling with us is Sonya, a Chihuahua, who hates anyone in border patrol uniforms, and Harley Davidson, a French bulldog who hates anyone who looks in his direction!

Traveling with two dogs isn’t as difficult as one might think, especially in a big truck. They have food and water available at all times, are able to play with one another, sleep on our bed, or ride in our laps. When we stop, they get to go outside, do their business and then sniff every bush, post and tree in the area. They sleep with us when we stop at night, and when we are in a dock being loaded or unloaded, they have other truckers to intimidate!

We stopped in Tucumcari, NM to shower and fill up the thermos and coffee mugs, walk the doggies one more time and head east. After feeding Harley and Sonya a supper of popcorn chicken we headed into the Texas panhandle and are now in our home state of Oklahoma getting ready to bed down for the night, since it's 3 AM on the 27th! Good night!

 

Harley Davidson likes to drive too!

Sonya isn't so sure Harley knows what he's doing!

I thought this mountain top looked cool!
Located on I-17 south as we headed to Nogales, AZ.

January 24, 2010

Here I am in Phoenix, AZ! Traveling through Texas brought rain, New Mexico and Arizona brought snow, but down here in Phoenix it's a balmy 78 degrees with blue skies and a light breeze.

The trip was pleasant with little drama, and the snow made for some beautiful photos. And being the gabby girl I am, I met a few truck drivers along the way!

Evan from Nebraska

                                                              Mike from San Antonio, TX

Here Speeder, Speeder, Speeder!

This is on I-40 where it was snowing, south of the freeway the skies were clear and the sun reflected off the clouds.

  

                                                   Canyon east of Albuquerque, NM

Prickly Pear Cactus (north of Phoenix)

The parking lot of the LOVE'S truck stop in Phoenix, AZ.

                                                                                    




This truck carrying vehicles is also called a "parking lot".

Here We Go!

After getting showered, dressed and even putting on make-up and shoes, no load was available so we didn't go anywhere! Woke up this morning with, "Get dressed, we gotta load in Oklahoma City and have to be there before two!" It was ten and I had fallen back asleep while watching Maury. I rolled out of bed, dressed, ran a brush through my hair and brushed my teeth. Then I chugged some coffee and grabbed Harley Davidson and we were on our way.

We picked up syrup in OKC going to the Phoenix, AZ area, fueled, got more coffee and by 10:30 p.m. we were in Tucumcari, NM to spend the night. This is where I am now after spending nearly an hour trying to figure out how to get connected to the Love's wi-fi service. I'm such a technological retard that those who know me just shake their heads and wonder how I mange a computer at all!

Tomorrow: Phoenix or bust!