Archived Are truck drivers stranded when they run out of hours?

[Retail Girl]

DH, a driver, said that it's quite possible the truck did die (shut down) on him. Some freight companies use electronic logs that monitor how long the driver has been working and when the driver hits his limit, vehicle turns off. Driver max is 14 hours per day, 60 hour max per week. Counted in the driver's time is the amount of time it takes for the trailer to be unloaded.

So heavy traffic, bad weather, slow unloading all count in the driver's time.

What about break downs? We were a day behind on FDC once. They said the driver broke down in the next state over, ran out of hours and they couldn't get another driver in to take over for us to get the delivery in a timely fashion.

 

[3LetterDevil]

DH, a driver, said that it's quite possible the truck did die (shut down) on him. Some freight companies use electronic logs that monitor how long the driver has been working and when the driver hits his limit, vehicle turns off. Driver max is 14 hours per day, 60 hour max per week. Counted in the driver's time is the amount of time it takes for the trailer to be unloaded.

So heavy traffic, bad weather, slow unloading all count in the driver's time.

My brother said the "kill switches" are just rumors....almost all logs are electronic (he thinks all OTR logs are required to be now, only "local" drivers can use paper logs) and some companies even have real-time diagnostics, but no kill-switches. Think how hard it is to control a car when it stalls....multiply that by 10+ & you can imagine how it would be to try and maneuver a semi with a trailer behind it!!! No company in their right mind would actually use them even if they DID exist because the liability if the truck caused an accident and killed someone would be astronomical! Wait....that must mean Spot IS using them

 

[mrknownothing]

A lot goes by rail.
Whenever I'm stopped at a crossing, I'll see a freight train go by with double stacks of shipping containers.
I've counted 110-120 cars at a time.

Wow. I've lived near a major CSX corridor my whole life and I've never seen a freight train quite like that.

 

[redeye58]

UP & SP mains around here, usually see a few car carriers & tankers sprinkled in.
If they're going thru town, sometimes they'll have helpers because there's an incline that's known for breaking knuckles.

 

[JustJoe]

We're less than 250 miles from our DC, so theoretically we shouldn't encounter issues like this. We have, on the other hand, encountered hours issues with our C&S trucks. Weird, because our C&S warehouse is less than 150 miles away.

 

[Circle9]

My brother said the "kill switches" are just rumors....almost all logs are electronic (he thinks all OTR logs are required to be now, only "local" drivers can use paper logs) and some companies even have real-time diagnostics, but no kill-switches. Think how hard it is to control a car when it stalls....multiply that by 10+ & you can imagine how it would be to try and maneuver a semi with a trailer behind it!!! No company in their right mind would actually use them even if they DID exist because the liability if the truck caused an accident and killed someone would be astronomical! Wait....that must mean Spot IS using them

I'd say trying to kill somebody is a going a bit far for Target but I remembered some of the pallets I've seen come off our FDC trucks. Or my ETL's response when I told him there was some bleach spilled during unload.

 

[3LetterDevil]

I'd say trying to kill somebody is a going a bit far for Target but I remembered some of the pallets I've seen come off our FDC trucks. Or my ETL's response when I told him there was some bleach spilled during unload.

I was actually referring to the "no company in their right mind," not the part about killing someone...

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

A lot goes by rail.
Whenever I'm stopped at a crossing, I'll see a freight train go by with double stacks of shipping containers.
I've counted 110-120 cars at a time.

Don't fall a sleep counting, red!

 

[Kompa]

Target would rather make the Flow team push the truck to the store than pay overtime.

 

[jackofall]

Twice in the last two weeks, the driver has had to take his break as soon as he dropped of our trailer and hooked up the empty/sweep trailer.

 

[SFSFun]

Twice in the last two weeks, the driver has had to take his break as soon as he dropped of our trailer and hooked up the empty/sweep trailer.

I've always been curious how swapping the trailers works.

Does the driver drop the full trailer away from the dock, hook up the old one and also drop it away from the dock, move the full one to the dock, and then finally hook up the old one and drive off? Or is the old trailer first removed by a different driver?

 

[bikebryan]

It depends on the number of bay doors you have and how many trailers are in them. If you have two bay doors, but only one trailer at that point, then the driver can back the new trailer up to the empty bay, disconnect, then hook up to the empty and head out in their merry way home.