I awoke in the small hours of the morning and the first thought was a "56" Studebaker Powerhawk, with V-8 and stick shift, sitting in front of the house, my first car. I was seventeen years old.

I jumped into my duds and into the low seat of my "poor man's Corvette." Soon we were tooling along dark, desolate highways. After a couple hours, on the way home, I was awakened by rumble strips growling under the passenger side wheels.

I believe there are two fundamental dangers related to falling asleep at the wheel. The first is a notion that "it can't happen to me."

The second danger is the idea that one can successfully fight sleep. No one should need to fall asleep at the wheel of a vehicle twice in order to realize that such a notion is dangerous.

Falling asleep at the wheel is not a phenomenon specific to commercial drivers. If statistics have any value, somewhere a study is still floating around which finds fatigue related accidents more common among non-commercial drivers. However, the physical penalty for loss of control is potentially much higher in the case of an eighteen wheeler. Anyone who falls asleep at the wheel of a vehicle more than once is not taking personal responsibility that it won't happen again. A commercial driver who has fallen asleep more than one time is a driver who is likely, sooner or later, to have a serious, perhaps deadly accident.

We are being held to higher standards. I don't know if that is a good thing. Perhaps all drivers should be held to the same standards as commercial drivers. After all, it is a matter of life and death.

I'm a driver, not a preacher, but this is as good a time as any to ask everyone, please don't fall asleep driving.

Perhaps there are drivers reading this who did not begin their careers before October 1st, 2005. That was the date that professional drivers lost their right to split sleeper berth time. It is important that we give every driver every incentive and encouragement to take a break when first experiencing the symptoms of sleepiness. I, for one, find the loss of the split sleeper berth provision of HOS regulations to be significant step in the wrong direction.

Draconian measures with regard to HOS come to us through the efforts of self proclaimed public interest groups headed up largely by people who have lost loved ones in truck wrecks. Those people are more emotional than rational. Their skewed efforts have succeeded in giving us rules that make it a disadvantage, economically, for a driver to pull over when sleepy. Regardless, we cannot, as professionals, fall asleep while driving. Perhaps if a single experience is not enough to instill iron resolve that it not be repeated, then significant difficulty in finding work as a driver might be for the best.

There is a web page dedicated to restoring our right to take a break when we are sleepy and drive when we are ready, without economic disadvantage. If you are a driver who needs to, or likes to, take breaks in full 8 hour, or 10 hour blocks, every time, all the time, then by all means do so. There are many of us who do not. Many of us valued the split sleeper berth provision, and we'd like to get it back.

Please don't fall asleep at the wheel. We need you.



stonefly

 

Excellent post, Stonefly. However, it is not true that we lost the split sleeper provision. We lost the "5 and 5" type split that you were used to, but NOT the split provision.

I might agree with you that MANY are/were capable of taking shorter sleeper berth breaks and maintaining awareness, but science has proven otherwise. The depreciation of awareness over long periods of time due to sleep periods of LESS THAN 7 HOURS is indisputable.

What we REALLY lost, is the ability to EXTEND our 14 hour (then, 15 hour) "duty window" by taking any break less than 8 hours in the sleeper.

This DID engender economic issues that have affected many drivers and the industry in general. But, would you place economic considerations ABOVE safety concerrns?

When I was teaming (still am) and had another driver at the wheel, I could excuse an occaisional right side growler as just maybe cutting a curve too tight.... but, when I heard them hit the LEFT SIDE growler.... I came out of the sleeper like a bolt of lightning! :lol2:

There's NO ROOM to play with the median!

Full disclosure.... I did, indeed, start AFTER the change in the fall of 05. However, when driving solo, I've managed to "adjust" my logs to allow me to take a 3 hour nap whenever I felt I needed it. For ME.... 3 hours works fine and doesn't really affect my 14 hour rule. But, I couldn't continue that way forever.... and not with 5 hours either.

I understand your point and your frustration, but I have to agree with the science behind the rules as they are now. IMHO, every driver/person needs a minimum of 7.5 hours of uninterrupted "rest" every day.

I would like to see a compromise that would allow us to EXTEND our day (duty window) for that other 2 hour break (or any OTHER.) I doubt it will happen though.

One thing that can't be argued is that fatal crashes have gone down since the new rules. (even with the numbers of drivers who CHEAT their HOS.)

And that WAS the point of your post, wasn't it?

 

The proponents of restoring "split sleeper berth" provision do not seek to extend the 11 hours, nor change the 10 hours off duty/sleeper rule. Just allow the 14 hour clock to be pushed back the amount of time it takes for a 2-3 hour nap.

While I haven't actually operated under HOS rules yet - I've done a fair amount of LD driving, where arrival times were critical (driving a 42' tour bus/RV on tour for a band). I definitely WAS NOT getting my 10 hours rest before having to move on to the next stop on the tour - but when I felt fatigued after 4 or 5 hours of driving, swapping out with a musician (yech and catching a 2 hour nap was just the ticket to prevent driving in a dangerously fatigued condition.

"Creative logging" may end up being a thing of the past if FMCSA has their way, and restoring the split provision would go a long way towards not having to falsify logs in the first place in order to get a load to destination in a timely, safe and efficient manner...

Rick

 

It's difficult for me to discuss this matter dispassionately. I thrived under HOS rules when we could split our time. I'm a great fan of science. I studied it for years at an engineering college. That which passes for science nowadays would have gotten a student flunked out of school before he could say "slide rule."

I could sleep and awaken without alarm clocks and never be late. I could have the freedom to pull over and park if I was gonna hit Chicago at rush hour. I could stop anytime I felt sleepy and rest, with no penalty. It's all gone now. I always managed to get stretches of eight or more hours of sleep, even if it wasn't every night. I loved the life of trucking, and always made sure I never drove while sleepy. I was always on time and always got my rest. Since October, 2005, I feel like I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time, all the time. I feel like the law is breathing down my neck.

I don't believe that truck drivers need seven or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. I lived without it for years and never felt any the worse for it. In fact, I liked it. There was adventure in looking for, and taking, the opportunity to rest. When I felt like I needed more rest, I found a way, I took it. No problem.

I lost my way of life when the split sleeper berth provision was removed from HOS rules, and I'm bitter about it. The FMCSA did what they did because the judges ordered them to come up with something under an impossible deadline after the original 2003 rule change was thrown out of court, thrown out because of the meddling of people who know nothing of life on the road. Ironically, the original reasons for the court challenge, the 11th hour driving and the 34 hour restart, were ultimately upheld by the court. So in reality, the removal of the split sleeper berth provision was a stop gap measure with no rationale behind it, implemented solely to comply with a court mandate under short notice. Now we have to live with it. There was a lot of thought and a lot of time spent in formulating the original 2003 rule changes. The split sleeper berth provision was deemed worthy of remaining part of HOS regulations. If the provision was not worthy of being kept, there was every opportunity to have taken it out. Then, in 2005, the provision was removed without warning and without asking for specific and significant input from those who would be affected by the change. That is improper procedure on the part of the rule makers. Check out "bringbacktrucking.com" and read drivers' comments. The comments are being ignored by the feds because the comment opportunity was technically for soliciting comments in regard to the 11th hour and the 34 hour restart. Yet most of the comments were more passionately concerned with the loss of the split sleeper berth provision.

If the split sleeper berth provision were restored, there would be no implication that drivers could not take eight hour or ten hour breaks if they so desired. However, there are those of us who climb the walls of the truck when we are rested and yet can't go anywhere. That is stressful. Stress is not healthy.

Science? What scientist? Look at the back of a soup can or a box of stove top dressing. Listed will be the minimum daily requirements for the nutrients essential for human health. It's a crock. I'll give you the best recipe for human health in the nutrition department...disciplined under eating.

For me and many other truckers, the safe and successful delivery of freight under difficult circumstances and delivery deadlines developed into an art. I can't count the times I rolled into a receiver's lot, parked, walked to the window, and slapped down my paperwork just as the clock hit my appointment time. That's without the aid of an alarm clock, without speeding, and without worrying. It comes from years of knowing the highways, the cities, the truck, my own rest requirements, and my ability to stop when it feels right and drive when it feels right. The latter part is of utmost importance. It's an art form. Trucking for me, and many others, is a matter of turning life itself into an art. It's what made me love the life. I'm not Eric Clapton, I'm a truck driver. How would Eric Clapton be able to play beautiful guitar music if couldn't choose his songs, or the musical keys in which he plays them?

Economic disadvantage should not be underestimated in its relation to safety factors. If a driver knows he will not be able to come through for his family because HOS rules place him in a situation where pulling off the road for a needed break leads to a missed appointment, then the HOS rules are where the danger lies, and they need to be changed.

The split sleeper berth provision that we lost carried with it our right to split time 3/7...4/6...5/5...6 1/2 / 3 1/2...etc...

The way things are now, if a driver stops for 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours, it counts for nothing, HOS-wise. Unless a driver takes a full eight hours, sleep time counts for zero in the log book. Who has enough time in their lives that they can afford to throw out 3, or 4, or 5 or 6 hours several times a week, as if that time was not important?

It gets worse. If a driver has an 8 AM appointment, he has to make sure he reaches a receiver's lot by midnight or he will lose the entire next day's work, and then have to spend the entire next night going nuts in his truck. The only alternatives are speeding, to make sure to get there by midnight, or logbook falsification. I know. I've lived with the scenario. Before we lost split time, there was no problem. Arrive 2 AM, sleep for six hours, back into a door, sleep for a few more hours while unloading, look for another load, and get back to work...all legal...plenty of rest...

The way it is now? Arrive 2 AM, sleep for six hours, it doesn't count, sleep for a few more hours while unloading, it doesn't count, get signed bills at ll AM or 12 noon, begin mandatory eight hour break after being in the bunk for over eight hours and being ready to work, go crazy for the rest of the day and the rest of the night. Lose a day's work...look for another load in the morning...If it should happen on a Friday, lose a whole weekend's work.

There is one thing and one thing only that keeps a driver from going to sleep at the wheel, and that is the driver's resolve that he will not let it happen. He'll get off the road when sleepy. That's it...that's all...

There is one thing and one thing only that keeps a driver healthy, and that is the driver's resolve that he will not let anything destroy his health. He'll eat what is good for him and he'll rest when he needs rest. That's it...that's all...

Resolve...Government regulations cannot replace a driver's resolve.

Regulations can be constructed in a way to cause a driver's resolve to work against him. That's what is happening. The people who make the rules do not want a nation of men, they want a nation of compliant slaves.



stonefly

 

Stonefly,
While I agree with you on having multiple options for splitting sleeper berths I have to disagree with you on the driver resolve point. Just look around you while driving or at your nightly TS and you'll see lots of drivers for whom the word "resolve" means absolutely nothing and pushing themselves into exhaustion to "get a few more miles done" will become a regular and dangerous occurance. Unfortunately I believe there are too few people out there that would act as you state.

 

All that would serve to do is allow a driver to add a 2 hour sleeper berth break into his log whenever he needed to stretch his 14 hour clock a little further, whether he actually takes the 2 hour break or not.

 

Can you clarify for me how the present HOS regulations prevent or correct the scenario you describe?



stonefly

 

The original 2003 rule changes were the best "one size fits all" set of regulations that we were ever going to get. They were well thought out and did not interfere with a driver getting rest or getting work done.

The 2005 elimination of the split sleeper berth provision was hasty and ill conceived.

The present regulations count sleep time as work hours. That is fundamentally wrong and no good can come from it.



stonefly

 

The split sleeper berth provision was not eliminated. It was modified.

 

Do you use it?

I used to use it all the time. I can't anymore.

If you're still using it, please explain the modification to me so I can once again split my bunk time.




stonefly