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Thanks Bob for a very interesting read. I have been involved in the industry for the past 50 years. Speaking to lots of us older guys here I find very few new people are joining the industry as drivers. We all agree that the fun and comradery are gone. We are now more regulated than the air industry. From driving time, max 45 per week or 90 per two week period . Max driving per day 9 hours. Max driving in one sitting 4.5 hrs and a 45 minute break. But then that 9 hrs can be spread over a 15 hr work period. Then all the usual safety checks that must be done prior to departure etc. Also the driver rates of pay have reduced. It is one of the few industries that you could be arrested at work.
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There are many parts of this article that are a little outdated as far as regulations are concerned here in the U.S. Every truck on the road is now required to have electronic logging devices or ELDs for short. Paper logs are and a driver's ability to be "flexible" with logging his/her hours of service is now a thing of the past. Drivers are now limited to driving no more than 11 hours within a 14 hour period and the use of the ELDs enforces this. Drivers also have to take their entire mandatory 10 hour break between shifts, as well as take their 30 minute break sometime before the 8 hour mark. Due to the enforcement of the ELD mandate, the driver shortage here in the states is more noticeable than ever. On a side note... technically, there is not a shortage of CDLs being issued in the U.S. Recruiters have no problem bringing in brand new steering wheel holders and/or glorified seat covers. The actual problem lies in the retention of said drivers. Trucking is not for everybody. It is a hard and lonely job with long hours and minimal pay for the sheer amount of work the average driver does in a day. A 70 hour work week is no joke, especially when you're in your fourth week out on the road. Moving along... Shippers and receivers also have to make adjustments to loading and unloading times because of the 14 hour rule. The last thing they want is to have to pay a driver detention or a layover fee because he got stuck on their premises because his clock hit zero. And speaking of parking, the ELD mandate has made it a lot more difficult to find safe and legal parking later in the evenings. Truck stops and rest areas are almost always completely full and often overflowing before sunset. All of those factors have contributed to a rise in the pay rates carriers charge to haul a load. This has also caused many major companies to raise the prices of their products to offset the shipping costs. On a personal note, there is a higher demand for team drivers, which has resulted in a pay increase for my hubby and I. Not to mention, a husband and wife team is considered the "holy grail" in Expedite trucking, which gives us a bit more job security. Our paychecks do not necessarily reflect the amount of work we put in each week or the exhaustion we feel when we take a week out after running for two months straight, but Joey and I love our job. We basically get paid to travel around the country together. Every day is an adventure and we are blessed to be able to experience it all, together.
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