example 1:
Go out with a trainer to learn new equipment, at the end of the day I am told we have to leave out at midnight to go on our next run...we got back to the yard at 1700! He hands me his logbook and tell me to copy his! I make a copy, dont sign, go to my car to start heading home and decide to call safety. After telling him this, the Safety doode tells me 'We do whatever it takes...long hours...serve customer' and i ask : ' so it is required to falsify me logbook? If yes, tell me now, ill turn around right now and bring you back your equipment and resign' and he gets quiet, then sais he will talk to dispatch and call me back. Later when he calls h sais' nevermind that run at midnight, just call dispatch tomorrow'. I call the trainer midday and he tells me what run we are supposed to do and i ask if that run can be done legally and he sais' its possible but unlikely because we would be detained loading/unloading.' So i call safetyagain and he sighs and tells me to just bring back their equipment, this would not work out.... After all the safety blabble he gave me b4 hiring- this- unbelievable!.

Ex2: I arrive to deliver with 3 hrs on my 14 remaining. I send qualcom message to my DM to inform about the long line infront of me that puts me empty in about 5 hrs in a place where im not allowed to park overnight. He tells me i have to stay in line and deliver or i get a service faliure, I tell him how can it be a service faliure, im here, i wanna unload but they rnt honouring their appointment. And if he can call and ask if they can make an exception and let me park overnight after im empty. He doesnt reply to that but he does tell me that with electronic logs, i can drive after im out of hours as long as its within 2miles and under 25mph! and if theres a problem to call his boss. So I call his boss and he sais that its legal to drive after im hos under 2miles and 25mph and i ask him to put that in a qualcom message....He does!! Meanwhile i been sending quotes from fmcsa 395. Within a minute of sending that message that i can drive etc, he sends another telling me to get out of line, go to truck stop and come back after my reset. Im already on the phone with safety; The lady is all ears and puts me on hold for about 20mins, then comes back on and sais ok i informed him, i copied all the Qcomm messages and will be discussing this in a meeting on monday with the VP, thanking me for doing the right thing.

 

Don't ya just love the safety bla-blah safe blah legal blah blah then "oh come on you can do it it's just a little over your 14"
My story sounds a lot like your's.

 

Put your "big boy" pants on and go to work! You will soon realize there's a better chance of winning the Power Ball than having your log book checked so, get out there, haul freight safely and make some dough!

 

OH YEAH! I just had a minor accident with a 4 wheeler, even tho he addmitted he ran into me guess what the first thing the LEO asked me? Yep where's your log.

So much for your "big boy pants"

 

Wow, he told u that? lol, i would have popped a vein!

 

That isn't very smart for a safety guy to say. Risks are much too high for both the carrier and driver. While I think the logs books and hos are BS, they are the rules by which we must abide if we plan to stay in this business. Whether you are at fault or not, if you are involved in an accident they will do everything they can to make it the fault of the truck driver. Pockets are deeper with a carrier.

 

Driving local my hos are 12/16. When I told my DM after 10 hours that there was no way I could complete the route legally, he sent another driver out to take some of the stops off of me. Well the other driver got lost and I sat for 1.75 hours just waiting for him to take 3 stops. I told the DM I would get what I could done and he said that I had to make all the remaining deliveries no if's and's or but's about it. I said "will do". So I made all the deliveries and started heading back to the yard. About 30 minutes from the yard my 16 expired, so I parked on the side of the road and called my DM. He said to take the surface streets and stay off the highway. By the way, the company had a bad safety audit 6 months ago and is under the microscope with DOT! So, I called the transportation supervisor and told him the situation. He said sit tight, I'm coming to get you with a relief driver. The next day, I had a different DM and never talked to the other guy again!

 

I dunno nothing about the 12/16 hrs deal but i just know 16 hrs is long enough a day imho...to think most office peeps work only 8...

 

With this company there are several routes that are over 16 hours. I actually rode with another driver, we started at 2200 and made 7 stops before we returned to the yard at 1800 the following day. He started driving while I rode in the sleeper then after the final stop I drove while he slept. Made for a really long day with very little sleep!

 

What type of work do you do? I have worked for two foodservice companies that did routes like that. One did it the right way, leagal and the other did it the wrong way;log slepper while working.