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August 2, 2006 8:00 AM, EDT

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b>Cruelty to Drivers

It seems like every day or so another state, county or city passes a law prohibiting trucks from idling longer than a few minutes.

I can understand the world’s concern about global warming, air pollution and the need to conserve fuel. But do we have to try to save the world by punishing truck drivers by having them shut down their only source of generation for air conditioning in the summer heat and heat in the winter’s cold?

I would like to know when a truck driver’s life and well-being became less important than a child’s or animal’s. There are children’s protective services all over the country trying to get the message out about how dangerous it is to leave a child in a vehicle in the summer.

There have been numerous articles about the extreme temperatures reached in automobiles during the summer months, even with the windows down. Does anyone believe the temperatures in a truck are going to be less than in a car?

Why would these government agencies want a driver to stay in these ovens or freezers to either wilt or freeze?

And please don’t tell me to have the drivers wait inside the building, as I’m guessing that with 80% to 90% of all shippers/receivers, drivers have to remain in their trucks while they are being loaded or unloaded. Most do not have a drivers’ room for them to wait in.

How on God’s earth are they supposed to maintain any sort of comfort level or be able to rest during this time?

When will the shippers/receivers be mandated to have a drivers’room to answer this problem? I’m guessing about the same time hell freezes over or Alaska’s North Slope thaws.

Tom Eaton

i>Operations Manager

onan Express Inc.

oodland, Calif.

I just read the article, “[Rhode Island] Sets Tougher Idling Law With State Trucking Group’s Blessing.” (Click here for previous coverage.) I think the idea is great, in time, but the states are pushing this before the truckers are ready.

What happens this winter, when the temperature drops below zero and the driver needs a heater to keep from freezing? What happens when that same driver refuses to take a load of groceries to Rhode Island? Or when the driver can’t hold a load of produce at the required temperature because he cannot run his reefer?

I guess this is one of the reasons I am a retired truck driver, because the lawmakers expect the driver to go along with everything they tell him to do, even though they would never give any real consideration to living under these conditions themselves — to say nothing about the lack of pay for living this way.

Lynn Thompson

i>Owner

oot’s Pilot Car Services

larkston, Wash.

Winter of 1976, truck stop in Buffalo, N.Y.: I had two police officers tell me that when they came back in 10 minutes, if the truck was still idling, I would get a ticket.

How do I keep warm, officers?

“That’s your problem.”

Phil O’Brien

i>Retired Driver

itusville, Fla.

Hours of Service

I’ve talked to several of our drivers, and now, with the new rules for splitting the sleeper-berth time, they feel they can no longer stop and take a short nap when they are tired and the log book shows they shouldn’t be.

If they do what is safe — and stop and take a nap when they are tired — they are punished because it affects their earnings for that day (they can’t drive after 14 hours).

Before, they could take a two-hour nap and it wouldn’t change how many miles they could drive that day. I’m positive the new split-sleeper berth rule will increase accidents caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

Drivers get tired even when the log book shows they should be wide awake, and when that happens, they need rules that encourage them to stop and take a nap — not punish them, as the rules do now.

When you meet a truck on the road, do you pray that the driver is in full compliance with the hours-of-service regulations? Or do you pray, as I do, that the driver has rested at least eight hours in the previous 24 hours and has stopped to take a nap whenever he felt tired?

If a driver gets at least eight hours rest a day and is encouraged to stop and take a nap whenever he or she feels tired, he or she will probably never fall asleep at the wheel.

If we truly want fewer accidents caused by drivers falling asleep, then this is what we should all be working toward.

Name Withheld by Request

i>Trucking Executive

rand Island, Neb.

These letters appear in the July 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.