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The government only decides that if the driver(s) let them. Everybody is being monitored 24/7. OTR trucking is downright crappy work. The better end of trucking is in the regular route, more than decent hourly pay type of gigs. They're out there. A person just needs to have a clean MVR, the skills to pay the bills, a solid work history, and have a reputation for being a reliable person.
This is pretty much the only way to stay in the game without completely losing your mind. As far as the line-haul with the motel stays, the motels these guys are staying at now seem quite decent compared to the flea-bags they might've had to deal with in the past. Nothing like not having to deal with "finding a parking spot at an overcrowded truck stop" and a big bed to sleep in with some amenities every other night.
Which, in the real world of line-haul operations in any mode of transport, isn't always as simple as those in the ivory tower within the Beltway would lead us to believe. I'm going to cite one example I recall from my dispatching days:
The nature of the American economy is such that the Eastern Coastal cities always import and consume more goods than they produce; what's more, the outbound freight, if there is any, tends to take up less space. So moving empty trailers westbound from Eastern termini, especially at the beginning of the week, is a common phenomenon.
So on Sunday evenings at a couple of companies where I got to see things from the inside, drivers would take a load into the eastern cities, but have little or nothing to bring back. If an empty trailer was readily available -- no problem.
But occasionally, the shipper or terminal might have only a half-full load when the driver returned from his mandatory rest in mid afternoon. And if that load was expected to "fill out" -- but not until well into the evening, the driver had a problem; he could not "force himself to sleep', but if the loading took another six hours to "fill out", the driver might then face another ten hours (and in sleep-inducing darkness) to complete his trip back into the interior.
The situation I described above was, admittedly, not an everyday occurrence. And I also have first-hand knowledge of incidents where the scenario worked in reverse (upon completing an urban delivery and "out of hours", drivers would head inland hoping to drive until nightfall, but cause a serious accident due to diminished attention),
There is no easy answer here. And from what I've of the increasing use of recent immigrants with limited command of English by some firms during a brief attempt at returning to the industry a few years ago, the conditions "around he edges" won't be getting much better any time soon.
My hope is that ELDs will give us good data we can use to build better rules about what actually causes accidents. No system is perfect, but in the trucking world there is a considerable incentive for drivers to behave poorly-- people will pay alot of money to rush a load as fast as possible, and squeezing in an extra few hundred miles a week makes a big difference to the driver's bottom line.
This is pretty much the only way to stay in the game without completely losing your mind. As far as the line-haul with the motel stays, the motels these guys are staying at now seem quite decent compared to the flea-bags they might've had to deal with in the past. Nothing like not having to deal with "finding a parking spot at an overcrowded truck stop" and a big bed to sleep in with some amenities every other night.
I had that at my old food service gig in WA. I had a Friday route that would take me all the way down to Ashland, OR. After finishing my final stop, I'd hit up a hotel next to the Petro in Phoenix, OR. I'd park at Petro right around 0900. Fortunately, parking was never an issue. Since I was being paid by the hour, I would cruise along at 53 - 55mph. It was only 5.5 hours from SW WA, where the warehouse was located.
My son owns his own rig, makes crazy good money and gets annoyed with the mandated breaks. BUT he is at an age, 37, where he isn't in a rush. He schedules his own loads and gives himself time to smell the roses so to speak.
He drove out west, is out there now. Last time he stopped in Vegas and hired an Uber and went down to the strip and saw the sights. He doesn't drink or smoke, so he was just there to sight-see.
He likes calling his own tune, and is resolved with the federal rules, still doesn't like them though. He feels he should decide when he rests.
The government only decides that if the driver(s) let them. Everybody is being monitored 24/7. OTR trucking is downright crappy work. The better end of trucking is in the regular route, more than decent hourly pay type of gigs. They're out there. A person just needs to have a clean MVR, the skills to pay the bills, a solid work history, and have a reputation for being a reliable person.
After years of being a company guy, hating dispatchers, loads that didn't show, etc. he bought his own brand new rig and has a renewed love of trucking. He is his own boss, has a LLC, going where he wants, working as much or as little as he pleases.
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