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

Breaker One Nine!

Since I'm here at a hotel in Kansas City and it's snowing like it's Christmas, I thought I'd an answer a few questions and offer a little road advice since big trucks and four wheelers must share the road.

I knew this question would come up eventually! Allison asked, "What about the bathroom?"

Of course, I use the bathroom when we stop for fuel, showers, and at the end of the driving day. Also, the dogs need to get out about every four hours and we try to stop at rest areas for this so we can use the facilities. Occasionally, there are times when one just has to "go" and there's no time to stop the truck, or we happen to be in the middle of no where, so for those times, I have a 44 ounce plastic pop cup from the Quik Trip. It has a plastic lid and gets dumped, rinsed and dried, and kept for future emergencies. For those occasions when we have to have a bm and can't make a rest area, there's a trash can, lined with a Wal-Mart bag and paper towels. It's not exactly comfortable, but it works. Toilet paper and baby wipes are a necessity on a truck!

Some of the newer trucks do come equipped with showers and toilets, some even have mini-kitchens with cook stove and sink. These are called "apartments" and are longer than a normal tractor. They are very expensive and you may have seen them pulling moving van trailers.

Driver CB Lingo:

Remember those trucker movies from the 80's  BJ & The Bear and Smokey & The Bandit? They used trucker talk like "hey good buddy" "10-4" and "breaker-breaker," while some of the speak hasn't changed, some of it has changed meaning. So here's some Trucker-speak so when you rush out and get a CB for your car, you'll know how to talk to the truckers!

Good Buddy-This used to be a reference to any truck driver who was courteous or had done some kindness, however, now it means a gay or bi-sexual trucker looking for a partner for the night

Brake Check-vehicles are slowing or coming to a stop

Breaker One Nine-someone wants to talk

Radio Check-wants to know if  CB is working

Lot Lizard-male or female prostitute who works truck stops

10-4 or 10-affirmative, yes, or I understand

Smoky/Full grown/Statey/Bear-State Trooper

Care Bear-Any cop sitting in construction with lights on to slow traffic and protect workers

Plain Wrapper (any color)-Unmarked cop vehicle

Polar Bear-White unmarked cop vehicle

Kojak w/a Kodak-any cop shooting radar or taking pictures

City Kitty & Local Yokel-City cop

County Mountie-County Sheriff

Chicken Coop-weigh station

Yard Stick-mile marker

Meat wagon-ambulance

4-wheeler-any four wheeled vehicle

HazMat-Hazardous Materials require placquard on trailer

Straight truck-A truck w/tractor that doesn't detach from trailer

Bob tail-Tractor w/o trailer attached

Seat cover-A female in the passenger seat

Covered Wagon-A flat bed trailer with removable wooden sides and rails covered with a tarp

Flat Bed-A trailer used to haul heavy objects like steel, pipe, etc. and has no sides or roof, not to be confused with a step-deck, used to haul heavy equipment, or a low-boy, used to haul trucks or other large vehicles

Day Cab-tractor with just seats, no sleeper

Tanker-hauls fuel or any liquid, usually hazmat

Parking Lot-A trailer used to transport vehicles

DriveAway-A tractor that has other trucks piggy-backed on it

Reefer-hauls cold/frozen foods, sometimes hauls hazmat that requires temp. control

Dry Van-hauls any type of load not requiring temp. or humidity control

Bull Hauler-big, metal trailer that hauls livestock

Chicken hauler-flatbed loaded with metal crates hauling live foul

Boom Bar Load-These tractors have a large bar that attaches to the 5th wheel and has another tractor attached, facing rear so it can be towed

Dammit Girl-Driver has just seen a sexy woman in a four wheeler

Dammit Boy-same as above, but used by female drivers

Dammit Girl/Driver-A response used to express surprise, interest, or excitement (usually in response to a sexual comment)

Shut up stupid-a response to arguing truckers and one I hate hearing

I ain't got no panties on-usually whispered over the CB when no one is saying anything, a conversation starter, or in my case, a way to get me to turn off the CB

Some trucker's friends we met along the way