Q: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_re_us/trucking_safety;_ylt=Aj.f_SNugsDWrvOKymp63PUXIr0F Truckers, by law, can drive up to 70 hours per week. Airline pilots, by law, can only fly 85 hours per MONTH. Truckers lie on their logs and work/drive up to 80 hours per week (320 hours per month). Truckers are told, by employers, "If you won't 'do the job' we will find someone who will." Tired drivers make more mistakes than rested drivers. The tachograph, and its variants, are rare, and generally only used to penalize a driver on his PAYCHECK (not for safety). Also, less than 1% of trips will see a driver getting his logs checked. http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.asp?rule_toc=764§ion=395.2§ion_toc=1939 On-Duty time shall include: 1) All time at a plant, terminal, facility, or other property of a motor carrier or shipper, or on any public property, waiting to be dispatched, unless the driver has been relieved from duty by the motor carrier; 2) All time inspecting, servicing, or conditioning any commercial motor vehicle at any time; 3) All driving time as defined in the term driving time; 4) All time, other than driving time, in or upon any commercial motor vehicle except time spent resting in a sleeper berth. Most (all) drivers lie outlandishly about their ACTUAL On-Duty time. There are far too may ways to fudge on any record of duty status.
A: While I agree there is a problem with drivers falsifying logbooks, and with companies pressuring drivers to do so.....I disagree that more "restrictions" imposed by the government are the answer. Stricter enforcement of existing laws, and forcing trucking COMPANIES to take responsibility for their role in the problem would go a long way in solving it. I think the problem lies less with the drivers and more with the companies. How many drivers would falsify their logbooks if there were NO pressure to do so by the company? If they could make the same amount of money in an average week running totally LEGALLY and the company absolutely enforced 100 percent compliance from their drivers, why would ANYONE fudge a logbook? As for on-board monitoring devices, they are far from rare. I've never seen a "tachograph" but I'd venture that 80% of the trucks on the road in America are monitored by satellite. JB Hunt, the largest trucking company in America, monitors their trucks via satellite. Every time the parking brake is set, the satellite relays that information to the company's computers. The time and location is recorded electronically, and if the brakes are set for more than 7 1/2 minutes, the driver's logbook MUST accurately reflect the time and location where the stop took place. The company enforces logbook policy VERY seriously and more than 3 violations in a 12 month time period puts the driver up for review and he/she could potentially lose their job. Werner, another one of the major trucking companies in America was one of the first companies to switch over to totally "paperless" logs. Meaning there is an on-board computer that automatically registers whether or not the truck is rolling or stopped, automatically records the truck's location, and automatically keeps track of the driver's 70 hours. There is NO room for "fudging". Many other companies have switched to paperless logs. Most of the major trucking companies use on-board satellites (Qualcomm, etc) to track and record the truck's movements. I can't think of a company with more than 30 trucks that DOESN'T have Qualcomm or something similar.....aside from the safety aspect, it's become such an industry standard that shippers prefer it for load security and tracking purposes. Not all companies are as strict as JB Hunt, but most of them require the drivers to "match" at least their loading/unloading and fueling times, with the satellite info. The driver sends computer messages indicating when they arrive and leave shippers, and the logbook must match the times they sent those messages. They cant lie since the satellite knows the trucks position. So if that driver spent 5 hours between "arrived at stop" and "loaded"....his logbook has to show 5 hours of on-duty time. Fueling is done with electronic fuel cards and the time and location is recorded in a database, so that has to match....and likewise, the unloading arrival and completion times have to match as well. Requiring all of the above REALLY cuts down on the amount a driver can "fudge". These companies DO review driver's logs and will penalize the driver (not their paycheck) for violations. The companies take it seriously because when DOT comes in and reviews the company's log records, they can impose VERY hefty fines. Rumor has it JB Hunt was fined nearly a MILLION dollars and almost shut down due to a DOT records inspection before they imposed their strict satellite-matching policy on their drivers. Furthermore here has been legislation up for review that would mandate ALL trucks to have a "black box" or some sort of electronic logging system in place on board the truck, which would eventually eliminate the need for paper logbooks and "random" log checks. The "black box" idea would be a device that could be automatically detected and "read" by computers in a scalehouse, instantly telling officers how long that truck had been rolling without a 10 hour break, whether or not a team was on board, etc. Opinions vary about the black box idea, but at least it presents a solution that allows effective enforcement of EXISTING laws rather than creating a whole bunch of new laws that don't make any sense. Restricting truck drivers to 85 hours of work per MONTH isn't logical or efficient for the industry. There is already a driver shortage, as the industry has more freight than it has trucks to haul it. They'd need to DOUBLE the number of trucks on the road to maintain the time constraints required in the industry if the hours were cut. That's more pollution, more crowding on the highways and less available parking for trucks. Plus, on top of fuel prices it'd put everyone out of business. Let's just enforce the laws we HAVE instead of trying to change the whole industry.