The Trump administration proposed new rules Wednesday to relax regulations for commercial truck drivers on breaks and work hours.Mrs. Moscow Mitch is full of shit. Letting drivers run for longer hours does zip point shit for safety and it is 1,000% laughable that there is a single political appointee in the Trump Administration who gives a flying frak about safety.
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Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the rules seek to balance safety and flexibility for truck drivers.
“This proposed rule seeks to enhance safety by giving America’s commercial drivers more flexibility while maintaining the safety limits on driving time,” Chao said in a Wednesday statement.
There's been enough research on this, but Trump is all about the rich getting richer. As far as I know, the Orange Nazi has never driven anything larger than a golf cart in his life. He doesn't ride on the highways, that's what helicopters are for. So if more motorists die because they've been hit by a truck that was driven by an exhausted driver, don't expect Trump to care.
As a former delivery truck driver with +/- one million miles in service, I can say that for most employed drivers, safety regulations are non-existent.
ReplyDeleteBig rig drivers (class 1 license) have to pass a physical periodically and keep a log, and class 2 license drivers (>19,000 lbs. gross, air brakes) have to pass a physical to get licensed, and the rules are different if you carry passengers, but most delivery drivers are class 3 just like all the other drivers on the road, and the job of delivery driver is pretty much entry level; you have a license? You're good to go.
I have seen many, many, drivers of 20' bobtails who should never have been licensed to drive anything, let alone a 19,000 lb. vehicle with a lift gate on the back.
Also, drug use is rampant among those who don't have a physical to pass, and those trucks are a handful to drive stone cold sober.
The flip side of the argument is that owner/operators have a much harder time making a living now than they used to, but in my experience, very few of them would want to flout the safety regulations if they could make a decent living safely.
If you make your living on the roads, you have seen the carnage the safety laws are trying to prevent up close and personal more times than you want to think about.
I think it would be helpful if the deregulation fanatics had to demonstrate a working knowledge of the issue they want to deregulate before they are allowed to do so, but even that would just be another regulation in their minds.
-Doug in Oakland
Cue Tracy Morgan, celebrity who was brain damaged by this exact nightmare
ReplyDeleteThe invention of the automobile is man's greatest mistake. Corporate capitalism most in important product is that four wheeled ecocidal profit machine. Everybody talks about how bad the fossil fuel industry is. Well I got news for you, It's not the fossil fuel industry that's the problem. The problem is our lethal, addictive, diseased obsession with the privately owned automobile. Stop building cars and stop driving cars! Anyone who "owns" a car is a witless chump for the auto industry.
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