Perhaps it would be good to start a letter writing campaign to PATT, etc., as well as your congressional representatives. Part of the problem we have had is that most drivers and owner operators don't take time to sit down and make a few phone calls or write letters to those who have a say in our future. Those who make the rules only hear from PATT and others who have no clue to how to operate safely out here. There is an old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

8hr breaks ...suck...unless you don't do anything other than shut it down go straight 2 sleep wake up and start running . BUT for those of us that take care of themselves 8 hrs is inadequate .

I take very good care of myself, and 5 hours of sleep at night with another 1 1/2-2 hour nap in the afternoon is the perfect amount of rest for me. I kill most of my ten hour breaks by posting on internet message boards. 8) The notion that one person or group of people can dictate what works for all people is just silly, as far as I'm concerned.

I rarely sleep more than 5-6 hours. That is fine for me. So I have or 5 hours to kill to be compliant with the current hos rules. The main problem with the hours of service rules is that they try to use a cookie cutter approach to them. While I don't need a lot of sleep, some people can sleep for 10 hours. I would prefer simply using common sense. You can have all the rules in the world. You can force everyone to have a black box in the truck, but it won't make anyone more safe. Only common sense will do that. I think most drivers have enough common sense to stop when they get too tired, whether they have hours left to run or not. There will always be those who find a way to break the rules. Logs and black boxes won't stop those people from breaking the rules or using common sense.

the H.O.S. are flawed in that you can not regulate sleep not just for many people ,but even on an individual basis ,as sleep patterns vary day to day ,and because there is no set 0900-1700 scheduele in OTR trucking this makes regulating sleep ...impossible...

Can't get the goofballs in D.C. to figure it out for US drivers so it would be difficult to get both regulatory agencies to reconcile the differences of the two seperate nations to make it the same. :roll:

Scotland and the US got the rules straight for golf. There's always a chance.

I am going against the grain here but, I really dont think humans are designed to work more than 40-50 hours a week on a consistant basis. I really dont like that the maxium amout of hours allowed becomes the industry standard to work a driver.

I say, cut the hours back, way back! Cut back the weekly and daily limits.

Hey, if we can keep the mexicans from pulling freight, maybe we can get some wage inflation too and we can get paid closer to what we are worth?????

40-50 hours might be fine as a general theory. However, since I'm usually a thousand miles from home anyway, being told that I'll spend another 20-30 hours a week sitting around with nothing to do really doesn't sound too cool. If I'm out here, I'd rather be working.

Furthermore, 70 hours over 8 days is less than nine hours a day. I worked more as a restaurant manager. I worked more as a financial advisor. I worked 50 hours a week as a customs broker while I was going to college full-time.