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Retailers want 16-hour trucker workday (Walmart)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/08/trucker.rules.ap/index.html ^ | 3-9-05

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: freight; nafta; sweatshops; transportation; truckin; trucking; walmart; wto
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To: M. Dodge Thomas

three consecutive days pushes that above .1.
---

k. well, no one is arguing for three days of driving and I doubt any Trucker would actually do that. I'll have to think about such an 'extreme case' as the one you describe. Perhaps legislation in such a situation is warrented. I would think that a jury would prob find such a trucker guilty of involuntary manslaughter if they killed someone. or?

Also keep in mind cell phone use puts you almost at somewhere around .05-.08 (I think, not positive on this statistic)

I think a good portion of drunk driving deaths are caused by 'reckless drunks' who speed. (not to minimize drunk driving, just to put in context some of these other impairments)


81 posted on 03/09/2005 8:52:14 AM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/foundingoftheunitedstates.htm)
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To: frgoff
Most wrecks are caused by some ass in a Honda cutting off a 18-wheeler.

Bears repeating. People just don't understand basic physics. The whole car is a "crumple zone" if there is enough force involved, and then the jerks blame the trucker.

82 posted on 03/09/2005 8:52:27 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (Live from an oil rig in Eastern Montana.)
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To: Lx

You yourself that it is AMAZING. He is an anomaly, not the norm.


83 posted on 03/09/2005 8:53:00 AM PST by totherightofu
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To: RushCrush

aahh, poor pony!


84 posted on 03/09/2005 8:53:03 AM PST by Valpal1 (Crush jihadists, drive collaborators before you, hear the lamentations of their media. Allahu FUBAR!)
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To: Lx

You yourself admit that it is AMAZING. He is an anomaly, not the norm.


85 posted on 03/09/2005 8:53:06 AM PST by totherightofu
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To: mvpel

Good, you have one week down. Now go out and do this for the next 20 years and get back to us with a report on how easy it actually is.

Thanks, we'll be here waiting.


86 posted on 03/09/2005 8:54:39 AM PST by RinaseaofDs (The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.)
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To: Mathews
Basically I'm wondering if we are funding our own demise?

Just think about Japan in the 1930's.

87 posted on 03/09/2005 8:55:31 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (Live from an oil rig in Eastern Montana.)
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To: Kretek
"just so long as there's the mandatory rest period immediately before it!"

This change from 14 to 16 hours just changes the mandatory rest period from 10 to 8 hours.

88 posted on 03/09/2005 8:56:04 AM PST by Mensius
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To: Mensius

Sorry, shut off </i> italics.


89 posted on 03/09/2005 8:57:00 AM PST by Mensius
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To: Smokin' Joe

All of the drivers in my family tell me that they can recogize people who know trucking by the way we drive around trucks.


90 posted on 03/09/2005 8:57:10 AM PST by cripplecreek (I'm apathetic but really don't care.)
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Current rules limit drivers' workdays to 14 hours, with only 11 consecutive hours of driving allowed, union leaders and safety advocates say. That gives truckers three hours to eat, rest or load and unload their trucks.

Nothing about 'consecutive hours of driving allowed' under the new proposal in the article (other than 2 hours unpaid).

91 posted on 03/09/2005 8:59:14 AM PST by elli1
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To: traviskicks

That is an interesting take on it, but consider this: Should companies be permitted to offer contracts which stipulate that the driver drive drunk? Sure, if that happened you could pin it all on the drivers, they weren't forced to take the contract... but highway deaths would skyrocket, and I, for one, wouldn't do any driving.


92 posted on 03/09/2005 8:59:51 AM PST by LiveBait
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To: RushCrush
That is not the point.....DOT laws say a driver can work 15 hours a day on duty NOW....he just cant drive more than 10.
without an 8 hour break...

The bigger question is "who's next"?

I'm sure YOU would just love to work 16 hours every day with a 2 hour unpaid break. After all you just sit there at your desk all day long doin nuttin'.... :-)

The other question is safety...My wife and kids share the road with these trucks....(I ran coast to coast for 20 years in a rig). 10 hours behind the wheel is PLENTY to ask from a guy who might have to hand unload a 53'trailer weighing 50K pounds in the course of his day.

This is just another attempt to circumvent DOT laws to the benefit of a company at the expense of its employees.
93 posted on 03/09/2005 9:00:26 AM PST by halfright (9/11 3,000 Americans Murdered...Payback is a bitch)
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To: RushCrush

"16 hour days- big whoop. I did that in college and I'm certainly capable of it now"

Have you ever driven a truck for sixteen hours? Do you do manual labor or are you one of those armchair commandos who likes to downplay the work of others?


94 posted on 03/09/2005 9:02:10 AM PST by dljordan
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To: totherightofu
That is an observation. God knows I don't want half asleep truck drivers barreling down the highway.
95 posted on 03/09/2005 9:03:28 AM PST by Lx (Tuesday is Soylent green day!)
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To: dljordan

How rude. You have no CLUE !


96 posted on 03/09/2005 9:04:23 AM PST by RushCrush (I like America to some extent. -Michael Moore)
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To: traviskicks

"If a trucker is willing to work 36 hours and Wall-Mart is willing to pay them for it, then what is the problem?"

The problem is someone going to sleep at the wheel and taking out an SUV load of soccer mommies.


97 posted on 03/09/2005 9:04:51 AM PST by dljordan
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To: TXBSAFH

That's odd, because it is in the trucking co's best interest to have safe drivers.

A trucking co that employs bad drivers will soon be out of business.


98 posted on 03/09/2005 9:05:57 AM PST by Guillermo (Abajo fidel: End the Cuban Trade Embargo)
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To: cripplecreek
I believe it. I watched a guy in an F350 long box 4X4 get inside of a flatbed the other day in a turn at a stoplight.

The fool nearly got his front clip clipped. And I live in an area where people should know better.

We were taught as kids to stay out of the blind spots, signal when the truck is past, never cut a truck off, and how the trailer cuts corners even if the tires don't.

Funny, but you can usually tell who rides motorcycles by the way they act around bikes, too.

99 posted on 03/09/2005 9:07:54 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (Live from an oil rig in Eastern Montana.)
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To: Guillermo

Just last week a coke delivery truck changed lanes, the problem was I was already there. Had to slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid being run over.


100 posted on 03/09/2005 9:09:14 AM PST by TXBSAFH (Never underestimate the power of human stupidity--Robert Heinlein)
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