Are Truck Drivers Over Worked?
I came across this article that had a list of “Top Myths in Trucking” the second myth was “Drivers are Over-Worked and Create Unsafe Driving Conditions.” Would you say that’s truly a myth?
Any truck driver’s out there, do you feel overworked, or is it truly a myth like the article states?
https://www.abltrucking.com/post/top-3-myths-trucking
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Not sure if you’ve been paying attention the past 20 years or so….but literally everyone is overworked.
I know a few. It is a personal thing. Some overwork by choice, some overwork to try to make ends meet.
There was an interesting article only a few days ago in the NY Times about the life of a truck driver. Long hours, bad food at truck stops, neglecting their health because of the unpredictability of the job, not seeing family very much (which has a negative impact on personal relationships), long hours, low pay for the hours worked, so many negatives.
I’m a truck driver, not overworked. Back in 2002–2007 or so I was, but definitely not now.
@jca2 Sounds like they were talking about OTR drivers, not local or regional. Still, depends more on the company, industry you drive for, management, attitude of driver, and so many other variables. Saying all are overworked or not overworked isn’t reasonable, not for any profession.
@Chestnut: Yes, over the road truckers. They weren’t saying all are overworked, because of course they can’t say that. They were saying the life of the OTR trucker can be very stressful. They said there are three times more people with a CDL than actually do the work of a trucker, and it may be because of the poor conditions, and how it’s like a lifestyle, people don’t want to do it.
@jca2 I did it for about a year in like 1994 and did not like it. I liked driving, not how was treated by company. They treated drivers like the oil in the trucks; totally disposable and not respected at all. They didn’t even bother learning our names and called us by truck number. Awful company, awful management.
This is spam from a trucking company trying to find employees.
@elbanditoroso When a company post an article saying that overworking is a myth, should I be afraid?
No, but you should also look at their motivations for posting it.
All I know is that there are good and bad OTR drivers. I live off I44 and it’s not fun to have to drive with the bad ones, or watch people get killed by their driving choices.
(My FIL retired from Roadway, so I aam not making blanket judgements on the good drivers.)
Well they have dead lines and quotas.
Where is SQUEEKY?
With a lot of companies they most definitely are.
There is a lot of types of trucking .
I did short range line haul, point A to point B and back within a day and home every day.
long range line haul same load but long distances most times gone all week home on weekends.
Next P nD pick up an delivery all city work lots of physical labour ,but home every day.
Then there is gravel work ,road and construction work.
Where drivers are miss treated companies will say they pay by the hour,but in reality they pay by the run and they judge every run on a perfect haul,and most times it takes a few more hours to complete and they don’t pay for those hours,like waiting your turn to get unloaded.
Most don’t pay for waiting behind accidents,or road closures ,
when you see truckers stranded on a highway because of wether they are not getting paid for it.
Where unsafe starts is being paid by the run instead of hourly drivers will lie on their hours and speed to get an extra run in so they can make a bit more money.
Another is companies want to put repairs off for as long as possible,keep telling the driver we will get it fixed after the next run .
It comes with the job in that the more one is delivering the more one is able to make more money.
“The early bird gets the worm”, so to speak.
However in the near future Elon Musk is creating a driverless truck that will make this question a little redundant.
You really think there will be a total driverless truck?
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
There will always be a need for a babysitter with the rig and load, he/she may not need to drive it but will be needed for breakdowns, weather ,and other conditions.
You going to turn a driverless truck on it’s own with a very valuable load?
Not in the United States, where they are only allowed, by law, to drive a maximum of 10 hours a day.
Not if they stay within the legal number of hours allowed on the road
I see quite a while before all that happens and there will still be a need for someone monitoring the transports,believe what you want I don’t see driverless trucks for at least another two or three decades.
and there will be a ton of bugs when they do try them, companies like to put off maintenance lets see how these things do when they get 700,000 kilometres on them and they aint all brand new and shiny .
Wow, a spam OP with 7 GQs! ;-o
This is a Flutherfest miracle! ;-D
@Brian1946 whoever advertised for that company must receive a year’s worth of bonuses and a 20-year contract.
Wow, a spam OP with 8 GQs. ~
This is a Whateverfest. ~[]~
Depends on the company and the person. If the company gives hard to meet deadlines and the driver is a rookie yes, if the driver is a pro then probably no. I say probably because sometimes it can get a little hard.
Driverless trucks wouldn’t be such a problem if they were on a road dedicated just to driverless vehicles.
My biggest concern with driverless vehicles would be the possibility of somebody hacking into the system. No computer system is completely safe from being hacked. We all know that by now. What kind of safeguards would they have for a driverless vehicle that has been hacked?
I have seen truck drivers lined up at the scales, trying to get their loads dropped off. If they don’t, they have to wait a day, or a weekend.
It isn’t a bad job, but it has shit aspects.
Think about this, complaining to the shop and dispatch that the repairs you have wanted for the last couple of weeks still hasn’t been done and they keep saying we will get it next time,and if you refuse they say well we will get someone else.
When we get pulled in for an inspection, and they find these defects they write the ticket (fine) in the drivers name not the companies.
@SQUEEKY2: In the NY Times article, they talked the issue that the driver had, where it was time for him to stop for the night, according to the law, because he had driven for 10 hours (or whatever the limit is). Where he was at the time, there was parking but no restaurants. If he continued to the next stop, exceeding the time limit, there was a restaurant but not a lot of parking, and he’d have to park on an exit ramp. It seemed like really sucky choices. He ended up going to the one with the restaurant and he was eating Burger King.
Wow, a spam OP with 9 GQs! ;-o
This is a Flutherfest miracle! ;-D
A FlutherWhaterverfest miracle!
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