Too much "rest" wears you out!
Well I've got a few weeks of O.T.R. driving in now after switching to a Regional position. I still don't mind the driving at all. Some customers are a pain in the ass to deal with though. One place I have to visit in Louisiana has a gal working there and her ONLY job is to harass drivers. Not sure if her job title is "Asshole" or "Pain-in-the-ass" or just plain "Jerk" but all three are apt descriptions. She's the kind of person you'd just like to blow away to make the world a better place. Sadly, society frowns on that sort of thing. No wonder there are so many like her left breathing.
My major bitch about driving is clocks. Many moons ago some guy devised a sheet whereby he could keep track of his time on the job to "prove" that his company was screwing him out of pay. Well.... as it turned out he was getting the best end of the deal..... BUT his little sheet fell into the hands of the government. Of course ANY time the government gets involved to "help" things always get screwed up royal and the truckers log (HOS or Hours of Service report) is a fine example of that practice.
Truck driving is simple enough. Go somewhere and pick up a load and take it somewhere else for delivery. If it's a long ways off... your need to plan to stop for fuel and food and bathroom breaks and sleep. Pretty darn simple and straight forward. Okay.... now let's have the government step in and "help" us out with that simple task. They got their heads together and figured that driving more than 11 hours a day wasn't a good idea so we have the 11 hour clock to keep track of your drive time. By the way..... it's not possible to drive for 11 hours a day because you need to do those things I mentioned above. This one rule also has the effect of putting a pay cap on every driver. We get paid by the mile so X number of miles an hour (50 is average) times 11 hours and that's all the money you are allowed to earn a day thanks to the government.
Not content with screwing us that way they also decided that perhaps we somethings do stuff around the truck not related to driving..... like loading and unloading or getting fuel or eating lunch..... going to the bathroom... etc. They decided that three more hours was all we could handle of that so we also have the 14 hour clock to keep up with. While you can start and stop the 11 hour clock once the 14 hour clock starts ticking nothing can stop it except for a 10 consecutive hour break. Okay... so now we can only drive for 11 total hours a day and work a combined 14 hours a day maximum. Are we done? NOPE!
Over more mind altering medication and bad coffee they further decided that working a combined total of more than 70 hours in 6 days was a bad thing..... so we also have the 70 hour clock to deal with. Never mind that there is a conflict already with their own rules. On the one hand they tell us we can work 14 hours a day.... then on the other hand they tell us we can only work 70 hours in 6 days. Last time I did math 6 x 14 was 84. See what happens when the government "helps" us with our lives!! The offshoot of all this help is that you find yourself in situations where you might have 4 hours of drive time left on your 11 hour clock..... but 0 hours on your 14.... so you can't go anywhere. Or there is time on your 11 and 14 clocks BUT your 70 is at 0 and you can't go anywhere. To reset the 11 and 14 clocks to have to take 10 straight hours off..... which is seriously boring. To reset the 70 hour clock you have to take 34 hours off straight. Move even one hour early and not a minute of those 33 hours you were off counts towards a reset. Pretty smart, huh? Yeah.... I didn't think so either. Case in point.... this weekend I got home and parked the truck at about 10pm Saturday night. I have a delivery at 8:30am Monday. As it works out that's about two hours before I would have had a full reset on my 70 hour clock..... so not one minute of all my time off counts. Pretty damn stupid.... but that's government for you.
What ends up happening is that it seems you spend more time off duty waiting to be able to work than you spend actually working. Just the other day I got within 3/4 mile of my destination when my 14 hour clock expired. I still had 2.5 hours of drive time left and about 28 hours on my 70 hour clock.... but had to stop the truck and sit there for 10 damn hours before I could legally move it 8 blocks. That is just plain beyond stupid..... which is to say it has to be a government policy or regulation. Hey Government!!! Want to really help us out? Butt out and stay the hell out of our lives! The best government is the least government. God help us if the freaking liberals get the White House in '08. It will be bend over and grab the ankles time for all of us.
Other than getting bored out of my skull with all the mandatory breaks I suppose the next biggest complaint is just missing Honey. Sort of goes with the O.T.R . driving but still when you are used to almost always being with someone.... NOT being with them is a real drag. Basically I make it home once a week.... unless I happen to be delivering something in the Dallas area and it's got a next day delivery.
Not much else in the way of news on the home front. Rampage keeps on getting bigger all the time. She still does a lot of crazy kitty stuff but she's also starting to do more regular cat stuff too. Sara is the regal queen of whatever area she happens to be in. They still don't get along all that well but at least there hasn't been any fur flying yet. Sara mostly stays out back and Rampage has the run of the big house. One of these days they are going to have to co-exist though. Perhaps that will be easier when Rampage calms down some.
And just a little parting request to y'all..... try showing a little courtesy to those guys driving the big trucks. Think about it..... if not for those big trucks you all curse so much..... you'd be standing stark naked in an open field. -=Everything=- you have and see around you got there because of some underpaid, government abused guy in a truck. Star Trek and the transporter don't really exist, folks. How do you think the shelves in the grocery store or your favorite shopping center stay stocked? It damn sure isn't magic. OH!!! Those blinking lights on the back and sides of a truck are turn signals..... something most of you never use. When they start blinking that means the big truck is going to turn or change lanes! It doesn't mean do your very best to cut us off or get in the damn way. As one driver put it SO very well...... "When you see my turn signal..... I'm NOT asking your permission!" Do the math..... 4000 pound car.... 80,000 pound truck. Do you really think you're going to win that match? Be nice.... it won't kill you. Not being nice could..... your call.
My major bitch about driving is clocks. Many moons ago some guy devised a sheet whereby he could keep track of his time on the job to "prove" that his company was screwing him out of pay. Well.... as it turned out he was getting the best end of the deal..... BUT his little sheet fell into the hands of the government. Of course ANY time the government gets involved to "help" things always get screwed up royal and the truckers log (HOS or Hours of Service report) is a fine example of that practice.
Truck driving is simple enough. Go somewhere and pick up a load and take it somewhere else for delivery. If it's a long ways off... your need to plan to stop for fuel and food and bathroom breaks and sleep. Pretty darn simple and straight forward. Okay.... now let's have the government step in and "help" us out with that simple task. They got their heads together and figured that driving more than 11 hours a day wasn't a good idea so we have the 11 hour clock to keep track of your drive time. By the way..... it's not possible to drive for 11 hours a day because you need to do those things I mentioned above. This one rule also has the effect of putting a pay cap on every driver. We get paid by the mile so X number of miles an hour (50 is average) times 11 hours and that's all the money you are allowed to earn a day thanks to the government.
Not content with screwing us that way they also decided that perhaps we somethings do stuff around the truck not related to driving..... like loading and unloading or getting fuel or eating lunch..... going to the bathroom... etc. They decided that three more hours was all we could handle of that so we also have the 14 hour clock to keep up with. While you can start and stop the 11 hour clock once the 14 hour clock starts ticking nothing can stop it except for a 10 consecutive hour break. Okay... so now we can only drive for 11 total hours a day and work a combined 14 hours a day maximum. Are we done? NOPE!
Over more mind altering medication and bad coffee they further decided that working a combined total of more than 70 hours in 6 days was a bad thing..... so we also have the 70 hour clock to deal with. Never mind that there is a conflict already with their own rules. On the one hand they tell us we can work 14 hours a day.... then on the other hand they tell us we can only work 70 hours in 6 days. Last time I did math 6 x 14 was 84. See what happens when the government "helps" us with our lives!! The offshoot of all this help is that you find yourself in situations where you might have 4 hours of drive time left on your 11 hour clock..... but 0 hours on your 14.... so you can't go anywhere. Or there is time on your 11 and 14 clocks BUT your 70 is at 0 and you can't go anywhere. To reset the 11 and 14 clocks to have to take 10 straight hours off..... which is seriously boring. To reset the 70 hour clock you have to take 34 hours off straight. Move even one hour early and not a minute of those 33 hours you were off counts towards a reset. Pretty smart, huh? Yeah.... I didn't think so either. Case in point.... this weekend I got home and parked the truck at about 10pm Saturday night. I have a delivery at 8:30am Monday. As it works out that's about two hours before I would have had a full reset on my 70 hour clock..... so not one minute of all my time off counts. Pretty damn stupid.... but that's government for you.
What ends up happening is that it seems you spend more time off duty waiting to be able to work than you spend actually working. Just the other day I got within 3/4 mile of my destination when my 14 hour clock expired. I still had 2.5 hours of drive time left and about 28 hours on my 70 hour clock.... but had to stop the truck and sit there for 10 damn hours before I could legally move it 8 blocks. That is just plain beyond stupid..... which is to say it has to be a government policy or regulation. Hey Government!!! Want to really help us out? Butt out and stay the hell out of our lives! The best government is the least government. God help us if the freaking liberals get the White House in '08. It will be bend over and grab the ankles time for all of us.
Other than getting bored out of my skull with all the mandatory breaks I suppose the next biggest complaint is just missing Honey. Sort of goes with the O.T.R . driving but still when you are used to almost always being with someone.... NOT being with them is a real drag. Basically I make it home once a week.... unless I happen to be delivering something in the Dallas area and it's got a next day delivery.
Not much else in the way of news on the home front. Rampage keeps on getting bigger all the time. She still does a lot of crazy kitty stuff but she's also starting to do more regular cat stuff too. Sara is the regal queen of whatever area she happens to be in. They still don't get along all that well but at least there hasn't been any fur flying yet. Sara mostly stays out back and Rampage has the run of the big house. One of these days they are going to have to co-exist though. Perhaps that will be easier when Rampage calms down some.
And just a little parting request to y'all..... try showing a little courtesy to those guys driving the big trucks. Think about it..... if not for those big trucks you all curse so much..... you'd be standing stark naked in an open field. -=Everything=- you have and see around you got there because of some underpaid, government abused guy in a truck. Star Trek and the transporter don't really exist, folks. How do you think the shelves in the grocery store or your favorite shopping center stay stocked? It damn sure isn't magic. OH!!! Those blinking lights on the back and sides of a truck are turn signals..... something most of you never use. When they start blinking that means the big truck is going to turn or change lanes! It doesn't mean do your very best to cut us off or get in the damn way. As one driver put it SO very well...... "When you see my turn signal..... I'm NOT asking your permission!" Do the math..... 4000 pound car.... 80,000 pound truck. Do you really think you're going to win that match? Be nice.... it won't kill you. Not being nice could..... your call.
posted by Rev. Joe Ruyle | 2:44 PM
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