Posted on 03/09/2005 7:44:05 AM PST by TXBSAFH
Critics: 'Sweatshop-on-wheels amendment' Tuesday, March 8, 2005 Posted: 7:35 PM EST (0035 GMT) What's this? MyCashNow - $100 - $1,000 Overnight Payday Loan Cash goes in your account overnight. Very low fees. Fast decisions.... www.mycashnow.com Mortgage Rates Hit Record Lows Get $150,000 loan for $625 per month. Refinance while rates are low. www.lowermybills.com Compare Mortgage Offers Up to four free mortgage, refinance or home equity offers - one easy form. www.nextag.com LendingTree.com - Official Site Lendingtree - Find a mortgage, refinance, home equity or auto loan now. Receive... www.lendingtree.com YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated Retail Transportation or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this? WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wal-Mart and other retailers are lobbying Congress to extend the workday for truckers to 16 hours, something labor unions and safety advocates say would make roadways more dangerous for all drivers. Rep. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican whose district includes Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, is sponsoring a bill that would allow a 16-hour workday as long as the trucker took an unpaid two-hour break. The proposal is expected to be offered as an amendment during debate over the highway spending bill on Wednesday. "Truckers are pushing harder than ever to make their runs within the mandated timeframe," Boozman said. "Optional rest breaks will reduce driver layovers and improve both safety and efficiency."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Maybe we can children back into the coal mines, and all will be right with America again.
And there are ways around everything you identified. It's easy to avoid the scales, it's not like they move.
Many, many drivers continue to run dual sets. Hell they even trade freaking receipts at rest stops.
Extending the hours is not an option, especially now that we'll have trucks from mexico and canada on our roads.
Again, WalMart can KMA this thing isn't going anywhere.
Again, there not extending the hours of service. They remain the same at 70 hours in 8 days.
Just the window to comlete the days driving.
I concede that I will not convice you otherwise, so take care and have a good and profitable day.
Stay out of the blindspots..
Matt
So then we should pass a law that stipulates that all truckers who use cell phones for more then 2 hours at a time be thrown in jail? Or that if a trucker uses a cell phone while it is raining or snowing or foggy they should be locked up?
Also, some people are just bad drivers. I'd like to see a study that compared the worst 1% of drivers (sober) with the best 1% of drivers drunk - and see how many beers it took to even them out. :)
My point is that the thresholds for public saftey are set too low and are most often dominated and used by special interest groups.
Trucking often require costly and differnt inter and intra state liscencing, which were lobbied for by the big firms to exclude smaller competitors.
I am willing to bet these changes (raise to 16hrs) will be opposed by the big trucking companies, who don't give a wit about the public saftey, but about limiting their competition. Infact, I bet they passed these laws in the first place.
Same, here. You as well.
Trucks comprise 4% of the total number of vehicles and are involved in 13% of the fatalities.
Those were federal statistics from 1999. Not sure what the numbers are now.
One driver? I did 12 hours one day and was completely burnt the next day.
Tell it to the family that gets its car plowed into by a sleepy truck driver.
Driving recognized as a legal privilege not a right.
---
This way of thinking is (IMO) problematic and reflective of the differences in our viewpoints. So many things are nowadays construed as 'legal privilages' that we hardly have any rights left.
It is a legal privilage to own a gun.
It is a legal privilage to (sometimes and in limited amounts) donate to a politicians campaign.
It is a legal privilage to own property (emminent domain).
It is our legeal privilage to have our taxes confiscated to pay for a million billion government programs and special interest perks.
I understand that some regulations are necessary, but I think it has gone way, way, way overboard.
I'm not sure exactly why Wal-Mart would pay someone to drive a truck back and forth across their parking lot, but if that's what they want to do, it's no skin off my nose.
Just make sure to keep it off the public roads.
As I noted on another thread, if the Republicans keep voting for big-business corporatism (as opposed to free market capitalism), 08 November 2006 will be a day of woe on FR (and a day of exultation on DU).
I don't disagree with that. Trucks are subject to inspection at any time. Truckers are also subject to mandatory drug testing. While it hasn't made the MSM, the feds have been prosecuting companies whose dispatchers are forcing truckers to falsify their logs.
A trucker is between the devil and the deep blue sea when forced dispatched. If the trucker, who shouldn't be driving because of hours of service rules, doesn't take the load, they can find themselves either parked for days without a load or given loads that don't enable them to get the miles they need to earn enough money to pay the bills.
As I said, the feds know this happens and they're nailing companies and the executives of those companies that engage in those practices.
But were the accidents their fault?
There was a statistic from the Feds that said something like 9 of 10 accidents involving commercial trucks were not their fault, but the fault of the other driver.
It would make sense the fatality rate is higher, because the trucks are so much bigger and capable of more damage.
That's a blame game. Almost all accidents are avoidable. The key is courteous and defensive driving. I watch truckers tailgating on I-10 almost every day.
I refuse to ride in a vehicle that my dad is driving. After years of driving trucks, he has absolutely zero tolerance for us nonprofessional drivers.
For a living I drive I-10 from the Alabama to the Louisiana line across Mississippi in a half ton pickup. I almost never see a smaller vehicle pull in front of a faster moving 18-wheeler. On the other hand, 18-wheelers routinely pull in front of faster moving cars/trucks so that they can pass another 18-wheeler that is going 1 mph slower than they are.
When a faster moving car hits an 18-wheeler that pulled out in front, guess who's fault it is?
(hint: not the truckers)
Were not talking about outlowing them, we're discussing loosening up the rules for people that drive "big transport trucks..." that "...have a large mass, are difficult to control, and have trouble stopping." I don't think that's a paticularly good idea.
Its not just the Feds cracking down. The New York State Troopers have beefed up truck checks in the NYC Metro Area. In addition to weight and safety, they are also checking loads and manifests. I have also heard that the NYS Dept. of Transportation has checked GPS logs to determine if truckers have exceeded hours of service.
"...they're trying real hard to make me regret all my votes last November."
Me too.
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