Are OTR truckers restricted from speeding?

[way2roll]

In a trip over the weekend, we spent a few hours on Sb 95 from NC, through SC, into GA. What I noticed was every single OTR truck doing the speed limit or less. While not faulting the trucks and I have much respect for drivers and no issue with them at all - this post is not an invitation to a flame fest. It's just a question. Was something recently imposed? I used to see trucks speeding or at a minimum keeping up with traffic.

[cummins2014]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

ford truck guy wrote:
I have seen the trucking industry take a 180 degree turn over the past 35 + years... The old hands are not driving anymore, its a new age of driver, and not one I agree with...

With all the regulations, there has been a huge uptick of old drivers retiring and new, non English speaking drivers coming in.. I don't have a problem with them, its the fact that most cannot read English either which is a problem in many ways.

I would bet that we take 12 or 15 trucks a day in just 1 or our warehouses, and I bet 2 or 3 of them cannot hardly back into the 14' wide bay door. Then once unloaded, we have to go through all the paperwork and determine what is ours as they have NO CLUE... I have met a few, non English speaking drivers that were awesome, they are now working for us, and speaking English ( kind of )

Being a Construction Superintendent I required everyone to be able to communicate in the language of English on my job sites. It was all about being able to instantly communicate in an emergency situation. Never had an issue with this policy.

I was a fabrication manger in a steel company , and if I had that policy , you wouldn’t see any bridge railing or guardrail ,or safety end treatments on a good portion of the highways and freeways here in the western states . I have been retired going on 12 years, and even then about the only guys I could hire to stick around were not English speaking. I may add also the majority of those men were the best I had . Loyal , and hard working , and glad to have a job .

I had one that spoke good English , and was one of my foreman’s , it worked out great .

[dedmiston]

Not to defend Facebook, but I hope they can spell "plain" English.

[wa8yxm]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Being a Construction Superintendent I required everyone to be able to communicate in the language of English on my job sites. It was all about being able to instantly communicate in an emergency situation. Never had an issue with this policy.

One of the things I'm doing in my Facebook jail time (I got to hurry and finish) is taking the Incident Command System 100 and 200.. They talk about the use of a single plane language (American English never confuse what we speak with English. it's not, it's close, but it's not what they speak in London (The One in England) I talk to them often enough to know.

But no codes. We don't say 10-4 or QSL (Mean the same thing) We say "Acknowledged" or Confirmed.

why? Well imagine two agencies working together on an incident, One calles in oh,, let's make something up> I've got a Murphy here (Meaning I need help in a hurry) and the other says I've got a 100 here (meaning the same thing) Well the two agencies don't realize it's the same thing but "I need help fast" .... is universal. .

NOTE: no agency I've ever worked worth uses either of the codes I made up for this post.. though I suspect may know Murphy comes from "Murphy's Law and other reasons why things go wrong"

[JRscooby]

enblethen wrote:
When a driver is waiting for his truck to be loaded, he is off the driving clock!

Yes, this is true. He is "On duty, not driving" And after 14 hours from log on duty, no how many hour/miles you have driven, you must log 10 hours of sleeper or off duty before you can drive again.

[enblethen]

When a driver is waiting for his truck to be loaded, he is off the driving clock!

[valhalla360]

wa8yxm wrote:
One of the folks I chat with is a Trucker today (IN fact a few of 'em but this one near daily) He's been like 30 minutes from home when the clock says "Park for 10 hours" and he has to park or else. That's the electronics on the truck. Auto tracking and position reporting and such. This is the kind of thing that "Enforces" speed limits now days.

So when you have 3hr on the clock and you are 3.5hr from home...you couldn't plan for a place to stop?

If you give people a 0.5hr fudge factor, they will use the extra time and then complain that leaves them 20min from home.

Last month we were in Germany escorting a tour group and due to some delays, the bus driver started getting concerned 3hr before we were scheduled to get to the hotel because he was running out of hours. It wasn't a surprise where he had no clue and suddenly the bus shut down.

[valhalla360]

JRscooby wrote:
Yes, laws need to be enforced, can't have a driver running a extra hour to get home to family instead of sleeping in truck. OTOH, on every RV board I have looked at there is discussions about somebody drives his desk for 40 hrs in a week, then Friday night, loads family in vehicle he likely only drives twice a month, and "I'm not wasting vacation" for 400 miles.

This falls squarely under...2 wrongs do not make a right.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see similar changes in passenger cars. I haven't read up on the details but the new infrastructure bill calls for drunk driving defeat devices on all new passenger cars...it would be fairly easy to use facial recognition to track non-commercial drivers.

The fact is truck drivers are a more logical first adopters. They drive several hours per day on a regular basis. Most non-commercial drivers only rarely drive more than a couple hours in a day.

[Grit_dog]

JimK-NY wrote:

Mike134 wrote:


Picture yourself on a camping trip that takes 23 hours to get to your destination. You work so you have limited vacation time. Too bad for you if you drive 2- 11 hour days, you need to rest 10 hours before driving that final 1 hour. Now do you see the problem?

I certainly do see the problem. No one should be driving consistently 11 hours a day, let alone arguing for more. And, yes that 23 hour trip should and would take more than 2 days. How about 4 hours of driving, then a break and another 4 hours of driving and then call it a day? 3 more hours on top of the 8 seems plenty and beyond what most of us should do on a regular basis.

We're not talkin about maw maw and paw paw taking a leisurely stroll to Florida for the winter here.

[wa8yxm]

One of the folks I chat with is a Trucker today (IN fact a few of 'em but this one near daily) He's been like 30 minutes from home when the clock says "Park for 10 hours" and he has to park or else. That's the electronics on the truck. Auto tracking and position reporting and such. This is the kind of thing that "Enforces" speed limits now days.

My brother retired before this happened but they were starting with tracking and electronic logging before his heart attack.

Now: IS this a good thing? Not sure. not sure at all.
But a bit of flexibility (like letting someone go 30 minutes over if it means he gets to sleep in his house tonight)... I suspect that might help ease the transpiration bottleneck in the supply chain.

ON THE OTHER HAND (You have different fingers) If you allow 30 minutes. Well what about 45, or an hour or ... You get the picure.

[Grit_dog]

Cummins12V98 wrote:


Being a Construction Superintendent I required everyone to be able to communicate in the language of English on my job sites. It was all about being able to instantly communicate in an emergency situation. Never had an issue with this policy.

LOL
That's funny!

[way2roll]

So it sounds like there are legitimate reasons to explain what I am seeing with truck traffic. It wasn't my plan to generate a debate, I was just curious.

Thanks for the replies.

[JimK-NY]

Mike134 wrote:


Picture yourself on a camping trip that takes 23 hours to get to your destination. You work so you have limited vacation time. Too bad for you if you drive 2- 11 hour days, you need to rest 10 hours before driving that final 1 hour. Now do you see the problem?

I certainly do see the problem. No one should be driving consistently 11 hours a day, let alone arguing for more. And, yes that 23 hour trip should and would take more than 2 days. How about 4 hours of driving, then a break and another 4 hours of driving and then call it a day? 3 more hours on top of the 8 seems plenty and beyond what most of us should do on a regular basis.

[Mike134]

bgum wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Just one more example of Government beauracraps doing everything they can to control every aspect of everyones life.

And for that we thank them. Those rules were caused by events that the rules are intended to prevent. Complaints and lawlessness is committed by outlaws not law-abiding citizens and should not be tolerated by the population.

Picture yourself on a camping trip that takes 23 hours to get to your destination. You work so you have limited vacation time. Too bad for you if you drive 2- 11 hour days, you need to rest 10 hours before driving that final 1 hour. Now do you see the problem?

[bcbouy]

J&R wrote:
Hate trucks? Stop buying stuff, problem solved. As far as speed..... INSURANCE.

so,how does insurance help the people killed from a speeding semi?

[Cummins12V98]

ford truck guy wrote:
I have seen the trucking industry take a 180 degree turn over the past 35 + years... The old hands are not driving anymore, its a new age of driver, and not one I agree with...

With all the regulations, there has been a huge uptick of old drivers retiring and new, non English speaking drivers coming in.. I don't have a problem with them, its the fact that most cannot read English either which is a problem in many ways.

I would bet that we take 12 or 15 trucks a day in just 1 or our warehouses, and I bet 2 or 3 of them cannot hardly back into the 14' wide bay door. Then once unloaded, we have to go through all the paperwork and determine what is ours as they have NO CLUE... I have met a few, non English speaking drivers that were awesome, they are now working for us, and speaking English ( kind of )

Being a Construction Superintendent I required everyone to be able to communicate in the language of English on my job sites. It was all about being able to instantly communicate in an emergency situation. Never had an issue with this policy.