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The Real Reason America Doesn't Have Enough Truck Drivers
Yahoo News! ^ | Wed, February 9, 2022 | Peter S. Goodman

Posted on 02/09/2022 5:40:11 PM PST by nickcarraway

A faint winter sun slides toward the frozen scrub as Stephen Graves guides his tractor-trailer across the cracked pavement of a truck stop parking lot in southern Oklahoma. Exhausted from another 400 miles behind the wheel, he needs the restroom. But mostly he needs an answer to the same question that dogs him nearly every day as darkness falls: Where can he park his rig for the night?

Graves is nearing the 11-hour limit on driving before he is legally required to rest for 10 hours. He could push on for another hour, creep closer to the Texas border and shorten the distance to his drop-off the next morning — a warehouse alongside the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

The calculus is tricky. The next truck stop down the interstate is notoriously short on parking. He might get there and have to settle for the shoulder of a highway on-ramp. This stop outside the minuscule town of Springer is unappealing — its bathrooms rank and its dining options minimal. But it has parking in abundance. So he pulls in for the night and climbs into the bunk at the back of his cab for a few hours of fitful sleep.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fascism; freight; policestate; shipping; supplychain; surveillancestate; trucks
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1 posted on 02/09/2022 5:40:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

This is why drones and amazon are the future. And maybe a resurgence of cargo trains. But lack of truckers is going to make it real tough to keep the lifestyle Americans are used to.


2 posted on 02/09/2022 5:44:25 PM PST by thefactor (yes, as a matter of fact, i DID only read the excerpt )
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To: nickcarraway

Yep.
Parking, bathrooms and restaurants.


3 posted on 02/09/2022 5:45:08 PM PST by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos)
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To: nickcarraway
I never drove long haul, and so I never had to contend with such issues.

I could not express myself adequately on FR about how the state DOTs harass Truckers around the country because my salty language would compel the Mods to give me the hook in short order.

4 posted on 02/09/2022 5:45:48 PM PST by Radix (Politicians; the Law and the Profits)
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To: nickcarraway

Bkmk


5 posted on 02/09/2022 5:48:42 PM PST by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Life is risk, your highness.)
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To: Radix

the future is Musks boring company. Cross country underground tunnels and automated electric chassis running through them to region yards.


6 posted on 02/09/2022 5:49:26 PM PST by orionrising
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To: thefactor

Typically I never cared much for truckers...it seems many of them drive like d***heads. Spend miles in the left lane passing another truck going a smidgen slower.


7 posted on 02/09/2022 5:50:55 PM PST by Rural_Michigan
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To: Rural_Michigan

Not to mention the dragonfly trucking. Very irritating


8 posted on 02/09/2022 5:53:04 PM PST by FreshPrince
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To: nickcarraway

Bookmark


9 posted on 02/09/2022 5:53:12 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: Radix

25 Years of big rig for the Teamsters. Screwed with by the DOT and forked over by the union. 30% cut in pension.


10 posted on 02/09/2022 5:53:42 PM PST by pgobrien (Trump - not a politician .....a Leader!)
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To: nickcarraway
The solution:


11 posted on 02/09/2022 5:54:28 PM PST by jdege
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To: nickcarraway

America’s elites have zero respect for average working people


12 posted on 02/09/2022 5:55:19 PM PST by PGR88
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To: nickcarraway

Send inside baseball info for everyone. The feds spent over a decade trying to devise a new hours of service rule for truck drivers. What they came up with was a one size fits all disaster. Truck drivers used to take a nap in the afternoon, then wake up and drive and eat dinner, then if they felt awake and could drive some more they might drive another three or four hours before resting. A hard 14 hour rule made that impossible. Once a driver starts in the morning his electronic log gives him 14 hours after which he must stop for 10. This means that it’s always a race to the truckstop before they fill up. And sleepy afternoons where they are forced to drive even though they would love to take a nap. This is what bureaucracy gets you. This is what idiots in suits and ties who’ve never actually driven a truck has wrought. Truck driver related accidents are up, not down.


13 posted on 02/09/2022 5:59:22 PM PST by freedomjusticeruleoflaw (Strange that a man with his wealth would have to resort to prostitution.)
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To: orionrising

The Musk Boring Co does one mile a week.
So if they have one start in NYC and one in LA, they’ll meet in Nebraska in 2048!


14 posted on 02/09/2022 6:01:10 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: Rural_Michigan

What you don’t realize is that most trucks are governed at 68 miles an hour now. If the driver was to have a mechanic adjust the speed up it would void his warranty. Likewise, trucking companies like to govern the speed of their trucks for fuel mileage savings and safety. Go back 20 years ago and you had very few trucks running the same speed, And you had many more trucks driving into the late evening, but DOT regulations have made all of that go away. Call your congressman if you want the trucks to move.


15 posted on 02/09/2022 6:04:07 PM PST by freedomjusticeruleoflaw (Strange that a man with his wealth would have to resort to prostitution.)
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To: Rural_Michigan

My unofficial Uncle when I was a kid was a trucker neighbor. His daughters babysat us. They were family.

Great guy. Loved him much.

When he retired, he and his wife sold their house and lived in a R.V!

Independent breed.


16 posted on 02/09/2022 6:05:05 PM PST by lizma2
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To: Rural_Michigan

Typically I never cared much for truckers...it seems many of them drive like d***heads. Spend miles in the left lane passing another truck going a smidgen slower.


Seriously?

Who do you think gets the food you put on your table, to the grocery stores?

And, the furniture you sit so comfy on, and, your tv, to the stores?

And, they happen to be the very ones standing up, and holding the line, for our FREEDOMS, right now.


17 posted on 02/09/2022 6:06:25 PM PST by Jane Long (What we were told was a “conspiracy theory” in 2020 is now fact. 🙏🏻 Ps 33:12)
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To: nickcarraway

I have been told that truckers, and trade workers, are not held in high esteem in on-line dating markets. Consequently, many young men don’t want to pursue these occupations.


18 posted on 02/09/2022 6:08:44 PM PST by alternatives? (The only reason to have an army is to defend your borders.)
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To: freedomjusticeruleoflaw

Truckers are Probably my Favorite having been in Big
Time Auto Racing.
.
I hooked up a CB radio an hung out at a LOVES .
No Chatter,no lot Lizards,,,
No love.


19 posted on 02/09/2022 6:11:06 PM PST by Big Red Badger (Make His Paths Straight!)
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To: Jane Long

Amen.

In honor of the Canadian truckers, we’re watching ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ tonight. (Watching a live stream from Ottawa today, I saw that one of the gathering places had a loudspeaker playing ‘East Bound and Down’):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOgUaFkpS3Y


20 posted on 02/09/2022 6:12:35 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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