Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedhardwoods
You are being sarcastic about the very solution that would help keep our highways safe. For a long time I have been for some type of exemption card that a driver could earn by having 5 or so years of safe driving. Any ticket would cause you to have it suspended or revoked. If a driver would have the determination to drive safely to earn it, he would continue to do so to keep it.
As far as scoffing at the Constitution; :thumbsdown:
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See.......Now this is where I disagree with you. There are plenty of trucking companies out there, that would abuse the hell out of something like what I think you are suggesting. An "exemption" that would allow a driver to drive, just because said driver felt it was "safe" to drive. There have always been "Cowboys" in this industry. Those "Cowboys" are why this industry has the reputation that it currently enjoys.
I saw where you say that you started driving in 1978. So............given your attitude on this subject....I can only assume you are one of those "Cowboys" that feel driving 20 hours of a 24 hour day is perfectly safe...........just because your eyes are open.
I started driving in 1979...."Professionally". I drove my first truck in 1973. I have seen plenty of people killed over the years. Not just by 18-wheelers...but by all modes of highway transportation. I think trading 1 hour of drive time for one less hour of the work day...was a fair trade (remember....10 and 15 became 11 and 14??)
I don't think someone saying "I am safe because I can handle it" is safe. Not in anyway shape or form. There have been drivers, that I have known over the years, whom should not have been allowed to drive after 8 hours.......let alone 10. There have been plenty also, whom should have never been allowed behind the wheel of a truck. When I voiced my opinion of some of those drivers........I was called bigoted and "churlish".
Having EOBR's on trucks...while it may invade the privacy of the driver, when it comes to seeing that the driver is comitting an illegal act.....that type of driver is exactly why all these "Anti-truck" groups are getting their way....Those drivers and their employers.
I am an "Owner Operator" and I like the Qualcomm. The Qualcomm backed me up several times over the last 20 months. When a manager and a dispatcher tried to say I didn't inform them of my HOS limitations (a load that was forced on me, even though I had informed them, via Qualcomm, that I did not have HOS to make the delivery, was delayed while I did a reset 200 miles from the receiving customer)....it was all right there on the Qualcomm. When I got shafted on a very high revenue load....it was all right there on the Qualcomm...and I got the money I was shafted out of....once in 2009, and 4 times in 2010. A total sum of $10,800 was paid to me, based on the information that the Qualcomm contained (the company paid me 50% of the linehaul on those 5 loads, that I did not haul).
It comes in handy when dispatchers are stupid. When managers are stupid. If the driver is stupid as well....to bad for the driver. The driver knows that the EOBR is there. Some folks have to be forced to "Play safe". And that is to bad.
Giving people a free hand to "Be Stupid".............just isn't a good idea. Bad drivers have affected us all for years.........................and it continues.