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 ...
Yes. I used to pack those packages and prepare the shipping papers, from the shipper's end, as part of my first professional chemistry job. 'Course, I forgot most of it by now...And the regs likely change on a random basis..!
As for the rest - that's a lot to know! I'm sure that there's a practical side, truck handling and so forth.
Pretty soon Meskin truck lines are gonna have all your brother's Wal-Mart biz.
Free market, ya know.
Jimmy Hoffa is turning over in his grave. I can see it now - Walmart brings back putting out cigars and cigarette butts on driver's knuckles to keep drivers awake at the wheel..
The free market got us to a position in this country where Drivers don't have to do this crap. And once again, corporate America is trying to legislate it's way around the market - just as with trade and the illegals. How much of this crap do we have to put up with before someone gets genuinely enraged?!
Our forefathers had common sense. Where's ours!
Wal-Mart gives you an appointment time and that is when they will unload you. Even if you are there earlier and they have the personnel, they will NOT unload you, period. If you miss the appointment time, they refuse the shipment, period. So either you get there early and have to wait around, or get there late and lose. Very few other companies do this.
Wal-Mart charges the trucker money to unload. They will allow you to use their hand-operated pallet jack, but if you want them to use their powered equipment you pay between $30 per skid for small shipments to about $150 to unload the full trailer.
Prediction: almost any trucking company that gets a lot of WMT business will go under or have severe financial crisis a few years afterwards.
Yes a lot has changed. The trucker as the cowboy of old is not more. For the most part these guys are professionals and have much more responsibilities.
When you have to travel 700 miles to make a delivery time with WalMart at 9:00am there isn't much leeway to goof off. Miss your appointment and you may end up spending two day doing nothing and not getting paid for it.
Random drug testing has knocked out a lot of the bad drivers.
Several states see out of state drivers as a source of easy revenue and do random truck inspections or write stupid citations. The thinking is, write the ticket for just enoungh money that it's not worth coming from out of state to go to court and contest it.
Conversely, hazmat violations can be $32,000 for each violation for each day it exists. ...A truck can be idled until a correction is made......brakes fixed, new tire whatever.
What world do you live in? People get paid for not working all the time. Government officials, sports figures, bureaucrats, mid-level managers, Hollywood actors...and they're usually making an ungodly sum of money in the process... So if my boss is forcing me to work 16 hour days, he can foot the bill for the two hour nap that makes it all possible.
Yes, forgive me. I must be thinking about all the paid-for driver's licenses floating around - I call it "the new coke".
"What world do you live in? People get paid for not working all the time."
And it costs the economy greatly. Do you expect to be paid for your 8 hours of sleep at night too?
"Yes, forgive me. I must be thinking about all the paid-for driver's licenses floating around"
How many?
People who are required to be in such-and-such a place pending the start of actual work are paid to do so all the time -- it called "being on call".
"People who are required to be in such-and-such a place pending the start of actual work are paid to do so all the time -- it called "being on call"."
Transportation industry doesn't go by the same labor laws.
They're paid for miles driven for the most part. On a 2000 mile trip they're techinically on call the whole time, but aren't paid as such. If a driver is held over from the "usual" trip time he would be paid for his hold over time, motel bill whatever but not paid for not driving per se.
If someone were paid to not drive where is the incentive to drive?
If I have to sleep at my office, I would.
But I see your point.
How many you want?
Can you say "NAFTA."
Very sad.
At any time, anyone of us can be hauled before a magistrate and jailed for some infraction, and our "privilege" taken away without a jury trial. And, they call it "due process."
Yea, and unfortunately on this 'conservative' forum there are only a handfull that agree with us. For some reason I got a lot of replies for what I wrote on the beginning of this thread and almost all have been negative. :(
False CDL's "How many?
How many you want?"
What percent on the road right now?
Apples and oranges. You have to compare number of total miles or total man-hours driven.
Soo true!
Many truck drivers have agreed with me the only thing we wish was different about the new rules was the times we stopped to eat or take a rest break, would not come off the 14 hrs we had to work for the day.
There is already a RULE in place to extend the drivers work day by 2 hrs. Wal*Mart and (R)Boozman are getting a bum rap here on this.
When we start our day on duty we have 14 hrs to eat, drive, potty break, stop to load or unload, shower, fuel, do the paper work etc. and in that time cannot drive over 11 hrs.
Go figure.............. most of us never get close to driving 11 hrs. One day last week I had driven 221 miles for the day, sat in my truck most of the time, waiting. I then had to take my mandatory 10 hr lay over. I sure got plenty of rest that day.
Wal*Mart has NEVER asked me to do anything against the rules.
I have seen lots of auto drivers I believed to be asleep at the wheel and car wrecks I wish I could forget.
Hey, I'm all for making more $ and working less, but the new rules cause me to have to work another day to make the $ I was making following the OLD RULES.
I can always find something else to do after I've had my 6 or 7 hrs sleep. My truck may will be a little cleaner. LOL!
Just wanted to put in my thoughts on this.
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