Okay this is a subject I've been interested in a long time and though my views may not be everyone else's views I feel they are valid.  First off let me say that I drove 18 wheelers all my working life but I've always felt there were problems with the system.  You have bosses pushing you to get your load there when they want it there,  even if it's more miles than DOT allows you to drive per shift,  that's what they're hired to do.  I've been fired for refusing to take a load somewhere after already having been on the job 18 hours and too tired to drive 250 more miles to have a load there at the time they wanted it there.  I just couldn't stay awake any longer!  I went and filed for unemployment and the owners wife had the nerve to come up and fight it stating to the investigator, "we just can't get good help anymore." .. lol .. needless to say she lost her case.

Secondly,  companies that are allowed to pay drivers per mile driven instead of hourly wages only cause drivers to drive many more miles than necessary just to make the extra $$$ .. I know, I did also and I know many other drivers who get paid per mile driven do so as well.  You end up doctoring three sets of log books trying to keep up with what you claim you've been driving instead of what you've actually been driving.  This endangers everyone on the road to be honest,  it endangers the drivers as well as the public and that's why the trucking industry has such a bad rap.

Until drivers are paid fair hourly wages and not allowed to drive more than DOT regulations allow,  it won't be as safe as everyone wants it to be.  I'm no saint here folks,  I did the wrong things also,  I did what it took to keep myself awake so I could make a decent living for my family,  but now I see how wrong that was and that drivers shouldn't be put in the situation to be have to break the law to make a decent living for their families!  

I don't pretend to have all the answers,  but I feel that since the trucking companies have proven they aren't going to be as honest as they pretend they are,  and in this day and age of computers and GPS tracking, maybe the DOT should have computer tracking on drivers and hours of operation of individual trucks which would prevent this from happening.  The only bad side to this is the trucking industry will start screaming to consumers blaming the government about prices going up because it costs more to get their loads to market. That may be true,  but at what cost do you want cheap goods?  Are cheaper oranges really worth a driver falling asleep at the wheel because he's driven too many hours and running over a van load of kids coming from a school event.  It happens folks,  just read the news! I know my views here are probably going to be controversial,  I'm not trying to stir up trouble,  but this is real life truth!  

One last thing that I found intriguing,  I watched a quite interesting documentary on the interstate highway system in the USA,  it was speaking of President Eisenhower and how he wanted our highway system to be modeled after the Autobohn in Germany.  It was later learned that the USA had erred in making some sections of the highway system way too straight for too long of stretches.  This was found to cause a condition called "Highway hypnosis", or "white-line fever" a sort of subconscious driving mode where you're driving along yet your mind is elsewhere and you don't remember having driven along some stretches of road.  They say in this state the driver's conscious mind is apparently fully focused elsewhere, with seemingly direct processing of the masses of information needed to drive safely not being focused on the road as it should be.  Imagine being tired on top of that with all the miles truckers put behind them while behind the wheel everyday!

This post isn't anti-trucker,  truckers are great people,  I just think they need a more fair share for what they do,  and that they not be taken advantage of by being made to drive so many miles that it puts their safety,  as well as others safety also, at risk only because of greedy trucking company owners.  

SnowCajun