10 Wheels

Unfit Commercial Drivers.

https://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5898939.html

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States carry commercial driver's licenses despite also qualifying for full federal disability payments, and some of those drivers have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

CliftonGK1

Same industry (commercial trucking) where every year up here we read about another logging truck spilling its load across a highway and killing people. When they run the investigation, the truck driver is usually a multiple DUI offender and almost always on meth.

What the industry needs to start doing is fining the companies that hire these bozos.

Feldman

Speaking of logging drivers, who because of freeway miles here in the Northwest are more of a hazard to us when we're driving than cycling, it would be a great thing if incentive pay/pay by productivity were outlawed--haste and productivity pressure have caused more wrecks than meth or reefer. Guarantee a high pay, drug test 'em often, can 'em if they can't produce a clean specimen, and **** productivity.
This is as much of a capitalism and management problem as a drugging trucker problem. Incentive pay for truckers is just way ****ing stupid.

HoustonB

The industry?

Az B

I've got a buddy that works at a commercial driver training school. He has made it very clear to me that the level of expertise required by these drivers is pathetic at best. Many of the people undergoing training are people who are being forced to by different state agencies, (think graybar hotel and rehab) as part of thier rehabilitation into society. They are allowed to take the course as many times as needed, all paid for our tax dollars.

It's pretty frightening.

Az

ATAC49er

OK, that's it, I'm ready to resign my citizenship....The lies, the cheating, the back-door GARBAGE has got to STOP!

These yutzes are proving the Scripture reading -- "the LOVE OF money is the root of all evil."

roadpig2001

Hate to jump in late here but for the most part CDL drivers have a sh** load more training than your average motorist , which can get a license by showing up. Yes I agree there are quite a few bozos driving commercial vehicles but you get that in every industry as for drugs I am tested about three times a year randomly so I have no idea when it will happen. Yes there are some unfit drivers but "hundreds of thousands" is complete crap. I would be the first to increase physical requirements but I also think that automobile license standards should be increased as well. I wish I had a nickel for every time I have been cut of by some jerk coming across three lanes of traffic so he doesnt miss his exit. Its a two way street your cars are also capable of inflicting damage. BTW I have over 2 million miles of safe driving in the last 18 years . I also manage about 6000 miles a year on the bike.

John E

I have no doubt that commercial drivers have traditionally consistently ranked among the very best motorists on the road. The open question is whether standards, training, and attitudes have declined over the years. I suppose one metric would be at-fault collisions per 100K truck-miles.

mondaycurse

Roadpig, I can't agree more. I worked a temp job for about a month and a half where I washed trailers. I'd say 99% of the truckers I talked to were perfectly fine people. All were better than every driver on the road. The last half mile of my commute followed a "trucker road" to my wash bay and all of them passed me giving me a whole lane to myself and a friendly wave.

One trucker actually uses his job as a sort of travel pass and showed me tons of pictures of him biking nearly everywhere in the nation, so not all truckers are sedentary slobs.

wahoonc

Truckers are just like every other industry that I am aware of; you have the elite and you have the scum and everybody in between. We had a logging truck busted on our rural road the other day. I know the trooper that runs that section of road and was talking to him about the stop. Seems Mr. Trucker is a known flagrant violator. He was running about 15k# over the legal limit and about 25k# over the limit for that road and the bridges on it. He also DID NOT have operational trailer brakes. The troopers write tickets, the courts don't enforce them, or allow the prosecutors to cut deals. Happens all the time. Until you have total effective enforcement you are going to continue to have problems.

And yes the car drivers need much more training than they currently get.

Aaron

Jasper Storm

Truck drivers are on average far more careful than car drivers- their lives depend on it. If they wreck, that load doesn't come to a complete stop- it continues moving right through the cab, leaving a driver more fit to be hauled off in a bucket than a stretcher.

Log loads cannot be loaded with a perfect center of gravity, unless the trees are all uniform in size and shape. Log trucks do take an incredible beating due to the grade/condition of the roads up in the hills/mountains.

There are some truckers who ride with crappy equipment. Sometimes they get caught, often they don't until an accident. The state police will sometimes set up surprise checkpoints on less-travelled roads to catch scalehouse dodgers, but not too often. The commercial enforcers can probably raise more ticket revenue on the interstates.

I can only imagine how much fun it is to try to spot a cyclist (especially one who doesn't want to "look like a Fred" w/ a hi-viz jersey) with a split second glance in the side mirror when trying to pay attention to the auto traffic- jerks cutting into your "safe stopping distance space", etc.

There are some backwoods hicks who have cobbled together enough money to buy a 1958 Ford dump truck with a backfiring 6 cyl. gas engine, pulling a equally rusty backhoe on a trailer w/o operable brakes. They are the ones most likely to take glee in running cyclists off the road, but I don't consider them to be "real" truck drivers.

SU100

Wow...must be a different country than I drive a truck in. I get randomly tested for drugs often and as far as DUI's go even ONE is an immediate disqualification. You license is yanked immediately, no matter if you committed the offense in your private car.

CDL holders are by far the least offending drivers out there; we're screened, tested and examined to death.

(Which is a good thing, but that doesn't stop some folks from disparaging us and grossly over-generalizing anyway...)