In the name of fighting global warming, Congress has strong armed all 50 states into passing legislation to keep truckers from using APU's or any other idling engines from producing A/C while the truckers sleep and rest 10 or 34 hours as mandated by law. If they are 10 minutes from a motel, they legally must stop where they are.
Most motels do not have the parking space for semi trucks, and are expensive, and there are probably not enough motels for all the truckers.
This summer, one trucker died from sleeping in a 140+ degree cab since he chose to obey the law and not turn on his A/C.
IMO, anyone who is against truck idling should not buy anything that was transported on a truck, such as groceries and just about everything else. Hypocrats want to buy stuff, but they don't care who dies for it to get to them. If there was a dog in the truck, they'd stage a huge protest over it dying. But they don't care about truckers.
I was going to go into the industry, but not anymore. I don't want to get hit with a $1,000 fine every time I need to sleep. Even teams have to take 34 hours off each week. The only reason shi+ has not hit the fan yet is police are not writing tickets most of the time. They know the feds forced it, and they don't like it. Only a small number write tickets. But some do.
It bothers me that I don't even have the opportunity to weigh a load before I take it. If I want a load, they give it to me, and if it is too heavy, the driver is the one who gets fined. They should fine the people who packed it, since they know how much is in it. Why do they fine the drivers? The drivers don't make much, yet they pay a lot in fines. Local governments know a driver is too busy in another state to return to fight the fine, and spend too much time on the road to stage a law suit. Fines are just about cowardly revenue generation.
Yeah, so I was going to go into the industry, but not any more. I heard they are hiring people with a clean record, but not felons.
And one other gripe: during the winter time, they schedule you to go through icy mountain roads at night, even when it is snowing. You have the right to go around the mountain on the freeway, 200 miles out of the way, but they will not pay you for the extra miles. Their shortest route calculations through horrible routes they know you will not take are just ways for them to get free miles off of you, and they do this often, like 3x per week.
I'd love to see all the major truck companies (not drivers) go on strike. No freight moved in the country until these dumb laws are changed. Some smaller companies would pick up 10% of the slack. But stores would be empty in 4 days or less. What could they do? Manufacture new cabs overnight and train people with class A license over night to break the strike? The rigs are the property of the company, so any driver who tried to drive would be driving stolen property if they disobeyed the companies. I strongly believe that people are not slaves, and have a right to go on strike. They do not have a right to sign contracts or make someone else sign contracts under duress. But they do have the right to strike for some temporary rule changes. But to congress, truckers are just slaves whom they trust will keep doing the labor even if they must sleep in 140 degree heat.
Most motels do not have the parking space for semi trucks, and are expensive, and there are probably not enough motels for all the truckers.
This summer, one trucker died from sleeping in a 140+ degree cab since he chose to obey the law and not turn on his A/C.
IMO, anyone who is against truck idling should not buy anything that was transported on a truck, such as groceries and just about everything else. Hypocrats want to buy stuff, but they don't care who dies for it to get to them. If there was a dog in the truck, they'd stage a huge protest over it dying. But they don't care about truckers.
I was going to go into the industry, but not anymore. I don't want to get hit with a $1,000 fine every time I need to sleep. Even teams have to take 34 hours off each week. The only reason shi+ has not hit the fan yet is police are not writing tickets most of the time. They know the feds forced it, and they don't like it. Only a small number write tickets. But some do.
It bothers me that I don't even have the opportunity to weigh a load before I take it. If I want a load, they give it to me, and if it is too heavy, the driver is the one who gets fined. They should fine the people who packed it, since they know how much is in it. Why do they fine the drivers? The drivers don't make much, yet they pay a lot in fines. Local governments know a driver is too busy in another state to return to fight the fine, and spend too much time on the road to stage a law suit. Fines are just about cowardly revenue generation.
Yeah, so I was going to go into the industry, but not any more. I heard they are hiring people with a clean record, but not felons.
And one other gripe: during the winter time, they schedule you to go through icy mountain roads at night, even when it is snowing. You have the right to go around the mountain on the freeway, 200 miles out of the way, but they will not pay you for the extra miles. Their shortest route calculations through horrible routes they know you will not take are just ways for them to get free miles off of you, and they do this often, like 3x per week.
I'd love to see all the major truck companies (not drivers) go on strike. No freight moved in the country until these dumb laws are changed. Some smaller companies would pick up 10% of the slack. But stores would be empty in 4 days or less. What could they do? Manufacture new cabs overnight and train people with class A license over night to break the strike? The rigs are the property of the company, so any driver who tried to drive would be driving stolen property if they disobeyed the companies. I strongly believe that people are not slaves, and have a right to go on strike. They do not have a right to sign contracts or make someone else sign contracts under duress. But they do have the right to strike for some temporary rule changes. But to congress, truckers are just slaves whom they trust will keep doing the labor even if they must sleep in 140 degree heat.
