LAWS OF THE ROAD - DRIVING TIME

The laws governing hours to run (drive) are in place to protect the motoring public. The main lobby influencing these laws is called PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers). This organization was started after a trucker fell asleep at the wheel and killed a family in N.J. This organization influenced the D.O.T. to establish extremely strict guidelines about hours to run and work, which if violated, are not only massive fines, but criminal offences. The image of the speed-taking , wired and frazzled truck driver was, as all generalizations are, somewhat based in truth. There are currently 3 laws which dictate the hours of running (driving) and working (time spent doing things related to the job and driving). In order to understand these laws you have to understand the basics of how hours are recorded in the driver's log book (the standard legal book that every truck driver literally records every minute of his life, regardless of if he's working, sleeping or on vacation). I will explain the rules in their order of importance. In other words, these rules trump each other in this order: The 70 hour rule. This rules states that a driver can work no more than 70 hours in a week. In the logbook there are 4 lines of a driver's status. These are: driving, on-duty/working, sleeper berth and off duty. The second rule in importance is the 14 hour rule. This rule states that a driver can only work 14 hours in one day (24 hour period). The third rule is the 11 hour rule. This rule states that one can only drive for 11 hours in one day.

In the morning when you release the brakes of the truck your 14 begins. No matter what happens, 14 hours from this point the truck must be stopped for 10 hours. The company knows this through the Qualcomm, which tracks everything about the truck, including idle time, how many times the driver braked, speed and location of the truck at all times within 10 feet. During the day the driver has 11 hours with which to drive. These 11 hours do not have to be consecutive but nu st be within the 14. The driver has 70 hours in a seven day period in which to comply with the 14 and the 10 every day. When the 70 hours are used up the driver must the take a 36 hour restart. The restart or reset as some drivers call it, starts the countdown all over again. Most drivers use this restart as the time at the house. All of this information is immediately available to the police or D.O.T. by looking at the driver's logbook. The status of the logbook must be updated at each change of duty. Lets say the driver pulls into a truck stop to fuel the truck. He will go from line 3- driving to line 4- working. Then he takes a quick 1 hour nap; he then goes from line 4 to line 2-sleeper berth.

A NOT SO SUBTLE INTRO TO WINTER - NJ TO WI

So this week, like all other departures from home, started by leaving my park location, the designated place where the truck is left when I'm at home once a month. My company does not allow trucks to be parked in NYC, so my location is in South Kearney, NJ. This is a highly industrial wasteland near Jersey City, Newark and the Holland Tunnel. The park location is a company drop yard, a secure location where trailers, both loaded and empty are relayed, dropped and picked-up (italicised words denote trade terminology). A relay is when a load is transferred from one driver to another for whatever reason, most often to get a driver to the house. My Qualcom, the computer which communicates everything between the company and I, indicated that I was to pick up a pre-loaded box (loaded trailer, as opposed to a live load/unload which is when I pull into a loading dock and wait while a trailer is loaded or unloaded) in nearby Bayonne, NJ. The load was a, HV load (high value-- any load worth over $10,000). I've pulled loads valued at half a million dollars--that was 45,000 lbs. of plasma TV's from Mexico to NYC. The load was going from Bayonne, NJ to Beaver Dam, WI, 822 miles--a nice load. By the time I got to the O.C. (operating center--a company facility, like a huge truck stop) in Gary, IN the snow had begun.

That night I got to stay at a hotel because my truck was having an overnight P.M. (periodic maintenance). I can have P.M.'s done at any O.C. but I happen to really like the shop in Gary. Chicago is a very interesting urban area--it is made up of a whole bunch of different little cities in IN and IL. The locals call it Chicagoland. On the IN side are a bunch of towns, the biggest being Gary. Then in IN there is Hammond which borders Calumet City in IL. Both of these are East Chicagoland as you go west into Chicago proper you get all the towns of Chicagoland like Aurora. These continue around the lake North/North-Weston I90/94 all the way to the WI border. The traffic in Chicagoland is enough to make grown men cry--most of it, however, is due to massive construction projects on the I90/94 corridor. My ride from NJ to Gary, IN was very big. Almost 800 miles. I was completely wiped out from this push of 14 hours of driving. I am going to use this opportunity to briefly explain the seemingly complicated federal laws concerning driving times as established by the secretary of transportation and state D.O.T. agencies.