Letters to the Editor: Hours of Service, Fuel Price Controls, Idling

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b> Hours of Service

I have been in the trucking industry for 27 years as both driver and management. Once more, the government is proving that more government in anything is not always a good thing.

Since the rule change not allowing drivers to sleep when they are tired and in need of the rest, I have seen more exhausted drivers trying to do their jobs properly and safely. They come to work looking as though they never slept — and in some cases, they have not slept much. The problem is they cannot turn themselves off like their truck when they get off the road.

The government feels you must continue to work until you reach your 14 hours. These are the same government people who blame the “big bad truckers” when a driver falls asleep and runs over a minivan. These are the same people who point out a driver made an error in judgment, but do not say the error was caused because the driver could not lay down and rest so his head was clear. All they say is that we need more regulations to stop this madness — when, in fact, it is their regulations that cause the problems.

Before government tries to regulate human behavior, they should walk a mile in the driver’s shoes. Let the regulators try to do what they are expecting drivers to do and see how well they function at the end of the week.

I do not believe there is a driver on the road who does not want to be safe and arrive without incident at his or her destination.

It is time for common sense to go into the rules the trucking industry must abide by. Therein lies the problem.

Michael Snyder

i>General Manager of Operations

ir Ground Xpress Inc.

uncansville, Pa.

Fuel Price Controls

The letter writer who thinks the government should get involved in controlling fuel prices wasn’t around years ago when it did

I well remember when gas went up 50 cents and you had to buy it depending on the last number on your license plate — odd or even. Then you could buy only five gallons at a time.

You really don’t want the government running the oil companies. Yes, they should make sure they are running an honest business and not ripping anyone off.

Thomas Randall

i>Longhaul Driver

alifax, Pa.

The U.S. government has allowed fuel prices to escalate so as to enable the oil companies to achieve record profits each yearly quarter. Record profits are not made by simply passing additional costs to the consumer.

Oil is a monopolistic commodity. The oil cartel is a monopoly and the federal government is its agent. The cartel has owned our government for decades.

This is not a Democratic or Republican issue except that they are both culpable. At what point do the American people say “enough” and change representation?

But that leads into the topic of elections, and that is just as corrupt and unseemly as the oil cartel issue.

James Stanford

i>President

tanford Development Inc.

ynden, Wash.

Idling

Everyone wants us to stop idling our trucks. This is not a hard problem to solve: The answer is carefully providing a way — logically, physically and monetarily — for drivers to shut off the trucks.

The first issue is that those in authority can’t take what I call the Wal-Mart approach: One day allow idling on their property and the next day, don’t. They do not provide any IdleAire connections, nor do they provide any shore power. There isn’t one executive in that company who will leave his home with the air conditioning off, knowing that in 20 minutes it will be 120 degrees inside. Nor will they allow the temperature to drop to 20 degrees in their home in wintertime.

That truck is the trucker’s home. They feel the same way. That will not work.

The answer must come over time. First, there needs to be some type of support for the project from the government. Grants for each truck would be preferred; however, a tax credit would work. For the small operators, this credit would need to cover about 100% of the installation costs.

Now, what do we install? New trucks and trucks less than two years old would need to install an auxiliary power unit that could also handle shore power. It would power both A/C and heat. Trucks three to seven years old would need to install the controlled idling system along with shore power. Then those older than seven years would need only the idling control system.

The government would also need to provide incentives for locations where trucks park to have the shore-power hookups available.

And everyone making the rules must remember that the issue is not idling — it is being comfortable — and truckers will not happily do anything they are not happy doing.

Gary Hull

i>Driver

edicated Transportation

ennings, La.

These letters appear in the Aug. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.