I got through the internet frequently to find whatever new is coming from the Feds in the terms of new regulations. The level of expertise that is required to be a truck driver in having to know so many regulations - the trucking industry is the MOST regulated industry in the United States - is going to the levels that the pay level is going to have to be increased significantly to attract people who have actual brains and can do more than handle a steering wheel.
Why should I have to spend my own personal time looking at all of this stuff and educating my company about things they haven't even heard about and not getting paid extra for it? Why should I have to be dumped with exhaustive numbers of regulations that are predisposed to the opinion of a law enforcement officer? That's right - you could ask 100 commercial enforcement officers the same question about whatever - especially technical questions - and get numerous different answers that have no relevance with other answers that would be received.
I am exposed to more risk than most people realize. I have to concentrate at high levels the entire time I am driving - certainly in city driving which is most of what I do. I CONSTANTLY watch traffic not only in front of me, but beside me on both sides and behind me, plus side streets coming up and attempting to constantly change the level of reaction to the potential threats that are coming. If I run over a car and there is a family in it, even if it is not my fault that I just turned human beings into mince-meat, I would have to live with that in my mind and heart the rest of my life.
There is absolutely no way, in my mind, that with all this regulation coming out that the same Federal agency isn't forcing every single driver in the United States to go through exhaustive training on more than just that stupid test they are giving for a regular driver's license that an ape with half a brain could pass.
The Brainiacs that are coming up with these regulations are completely clueless. I would like to have a video camera installed on my truck dashboard and have all driver's that are breaking laws in front of me be ticketed by virtue of that camera. I want all drivers to have to go through training - including graphic video illustration - on the effects of recklessness enacted in front of a semi-truck. If we are to absorb this kind of stringent, potentially career-ending regulation, then the rest of the motoring public should have to be subjected to the same thing, because honey, it's the drivers of car and pickup trucks that are causing the most accidents with heavy trucks.
I predicted when I started reading about CSA2010 that there will eventually be a huge reduction in the CDL driver pool because of elimination and that it is going to in turn, affect the American economy. Trucks delivery almost everything. If vast amounts of drivers are going to be disqualified either by the Federal Government or by the companies that hire them. you are going to eventually see serious shortages of all kinds of merchandise in every venue. This new ruling? It's a potential $11,000 fine for the company that the driver is driving for if he/she is caught talking on a hand-held set while driving and up to $2,700 for the driver.
This new ruling came out at the end of last month and goes into effect - 2 days from now, I am just finding this out today and NOT by my own company. I was going through the FMCSA site and saw the "final rules" coming out. I just sent out emails to the general manager and to the operations manager. I will not be answering the phone in my truck while driving, period, unless they want to get hands-free, blue-tooth devices installed in the truck or blue tooth headsets with voice command.
I'm not paying for it, either. Let the trucking companies absorb this cost, they have more of a voice to the Feds than individual truckers do, though if truckers would truly unite, it would be a different story. For example, if it were truly possible to coordinate a shutdown of all trucks everywhere in America for a week - that would change the entire situation immediately. Truckers could, actually, shut down the American economy if they really wanted to.
Money talks. That's all I have to say about this. I may not be flying a commercial jetliner, but I am subjected to more regulation than any of them are. It may take more technical knowledge to fly an airplane, yes, but they aren't flying in city-type traffic, either. They aren't being "cut off" by other airplanes numerous times per day, etc. ad-nauseum. Why should I settle for all this increasing regulation and not demand more pay to equalize it? Yes, it IS going to affect the economy and that's that.
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