Safety first
So in the grand scheme of things, I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to trucking, and I definitely don't claim to be any sort of genius but I trust my common sense. I just wanted to share a few thoughts, if you don't like them that's ok.
I guess my first thought is on this hours of service business. Asside from encouraging me to drive faster, I am currently out of hours parked. It is raining and has been the last week, which doesn't really matter, but the temp is supposed to be 30 degrees F by 5 am, which means the roads will likely be patchy black ice by the time the government says I'm fit to move my truck at 5:30 am. Right now I am 200 miles from home. Due to the incoming snow storm my judgement told me to go home for the week, because of poor conditions and the load on my trailer is not time sensitive to the shipper. Here's where I'm going with this...my judgement tells me it's safer to drive the 3.5 hrs home tonight while the temp is 40. I have traction. Yes I'm out of hours, but I've only driven 20 hours in the last 5 days so my judgement tells me I'm far from fatigued. My judgement tells me to go home and park the truck. HOS tells me it's safer to wait till morning when it's black ice. I'm not sitting here 3 days until weather clears on Friday, I have a pregnant wife and 2 daughters at home.
So I read about how the best way to be successful is to be a good business person. Business business business. If I'm a good business person I will wait until morning to go home, yes it will be slippery, but if I get in an accident I'm legally covered because I followed my HOS rules. If I kill someone insurance covers it, even though I'm more likely to cause harm (in my opinion) while driving in slippery conditions.
Or, I be a decent human being, and drive home tonight when I feel it's safer for myself and the rest of the people on the road causeee have more control of the vehicle...but I'm breaking the law.
So what would you experienced drivers do???? I feel like flexibility in my sleeper birth would allow me to get home safely. When I posted my comments to the fmcsa there were only 2500 comments. I don't know how many there are now but I couldn't believe there was that few. Yes I get it, they likely won't read mine or give a crap, but there is strength in numbers right???
Sorry for the long rambling, I'm just frustrated
I guess my first thought is on this hours of service business. Asside from encouraging me to drive faster, I am currently out of hours parked. It is raining and has been the last week, which doesn't really matter, but the temp is supposed to be 30 degrees F by 5 am, which means the roads will likely be patchy black ice by the time the government says I'm fit to move my truck at 5:30 am. Right now I am 200 miles from home. Due to the incoming snow storm my judgement told me to go home for the week, because of poor conditions and the load on my trailer is not time sensitive to the shipper. Here's where I'm going with this...my judgement tells me it's safer to drive the 3.5 hrs home tonight while the temp is 40. I have traction. Yes I'm out of hours, but I've only driven 20 hours in the last 5 days so my judgement tells me I'm far from fatigued. My judgement tells me to go home and park the truck. HOS tells me it's safer to wait till morning when it's black ice. I'm not sitting here 3 days until weather clears on Friday, I have a pregnant wife and 2 daughters at home.
So I read about how the best way to be successful is to be a good business person. Business business business. If I'm a good business person I will wait until morning to go home, yes it will be slippery, but if I get in an accident I'm legally covered because I followed my HOS rules. If I kill someone insurance covers it, even though I'm more likely to cause harm (in my opinion) while driving in slippery conditions.
Or, I be a decent human being, and drive home tonight when I feel it's safer for myself and the rest of the people on the road causeee have more control of the vehicle...but I'm breaking the law.
So what would you experienced drivers do???? I feel like flexibility in my sleeper birth would allow me to get home safely. When I posted my comments to the fmcsa there were only 2500 comments. I don't know how many there are now but I couldn't believe there was that few. Yes I get it, they likely won't read mine or give a crap, but there is strength in numbers right???
Sorry for the long rambling, I'm just frustrated