Letters to the Editor: Another 'View'; Unfair Hazmat Laws

b>Another ‘View’ From the Road

I enjoyed reading “The View From the Road” Opinion column. (Click here for previous coverage.) I share Don Schobert’s views that driving today, in many cases, is a less-than-desirable occupation.

I stopped driving commercial vehicles about five years ago and retired at 65, three years ago. I am now 68 and have a current Class A CDL with all endorsements and a current DOT physical. My experience and Don Schobert’s are similar. Although I would find coast-to-coast truckload driving difficult at my age, I believe I am well qualified and current enough to drive in operations that return home each day and involve daily driving 10 hours or less.

Over the years, I have found that trucking companies and private carriers with desirable employment have waiting lists of qualified drivers and very low turnover, if any.

We used to say in good companies that the only way someone left was because of illness, death, retirement or being fired. Basically, no one quits a job at a good company. I believe this is still the case today, and companies that use their drivers as drivers and respect them, combined with serving customers who also treat drivers with respect, don’t have any turnover problems. I recall that in the early 1990s, I went to Wal-Mart and applied for a driving position. I was told my application would be placed with the other 11,000 on file.

If trucking companies and private carriers want to train, hire and retain their drivers, I offer the following suggestions:

• Tailor your routes so your drivers can be home, at a minimum, most weekends.

• If drivers are required to lay over, provide them with private rooms in respectable motels and provide a meal allowance sufficient for them to eat reasonably priced food.

• Provide eight hours of pay after 16 hours of layover during each 24-hour period.

• Provide personnel to load and unload trailers for everything other than dedicated city delivery drivers.

• Arrange routing of loads, whenever possible, so drivers can drop and hook within 10 hours’ driving time of their home terminal. This can be as simple as having a drop-and-hook yard at driver mid-point locations on major routes. If the driver is maximizing his hours of service in delivering his trailer to the drop-and-hook location, he would rest and pick up another trailer and deliver it back in his home area.

I believe that trucking company owners and/or executives are capable of making their operations more efficient and allowing their drivers to earn competitive wages and maintain a respectable family life. If this is done, I believe those companies would reduce their turnover and might even be in the enviable position of having a waiting list of drivers eager to drive for them.

Gordon Shults

i>Retired Over-the-Road Driver

an Antonio

Unfair Hazmat Laws

I have been an over-the-road driver for 28 years and I would like to know why the American trucker is being targeted as part of the problem that occurred 9/11.

There were no trucks involved in the whole thing, yet we are being targeted for background checks, fingerprinting and a major increase in price.

In the incident that occurred back in 1993 at the World Trade Center in New York, there were trucks involved, but those were rental trucks and they are not being monitored. As of today, anybody can rent them, with no special qualifications.

Think about it.

Ray Snyder

i>Over-the-Road Freight Driver

echanicsburg, Pa.

These letters appear in the Jan. 16 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.