Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[BravoXray]

You don't see trains pulled over to sidings because the engineer was required to have a break after 10 hours.

No they park them on the main lines until they can recrew it or the original crew has had their 10 hour break. A town west of where I live had a 2 mile long train parked a few months ago, blocking several crossings, including one in the center of town, for 32 hours. NS said they had a crew shortage.

 

[Alan W.]

"There are so many trucks on the road that rest areas and truck stops are filled to capacity and trucks are lined up on the sides of the off ramps taking mandatory down time."

There is another way to look at this. Especially for company trucking. They COULD set up relief drivers, and get a great deal more done. The 10 hour rule is for A Driver. But that isn't how it is working. You don't see trains pulled over to sidings because the engineer was required to have a break after 10 hours.

Some companies use team drivers. Have drove for one myself. But with the driver shortage its hard enough to get one driver for a truck much less two.

Dad was a conductor for Norfolk Southern and many times they would dog and the train would sit until a replacement crew could be rounded up off the extra board.

 

[sea2summit]

"There are so many trucks on the road that rest areas and truck stops are filled to capacity and trucks are lined up on the sides of the off ramps taking mandatory down time."

There is another way to look at this. Especially for company trucking. They COULD set up relief drivers, and get a great deal more done. The 10 hour rule is for A Driver. But that isn't how it is working. You don't see trains pulled over to sidings because the engineer was required to have a break after 10 hours.

Pretty big shortage of drivers, the Army through some program is actually offering free CDL training to soldiers getting out of the Army on several posts. Pretty sure it's only going to get worse with the new requirements to get a CDL.

 

[newbury]

perhaps we could look forward to subsidies for Tesla semi's

 

[MossRoad]

"There are so many trucks on the road that rest areas and truck stops are filled to capacity and trucks are lined up on the sides of the off ramps taking mandatory down time."

There is another way to look at this. Especially for company trucking. They COULD set up relief drivers, and get a great deal more done. The 10 hour rule is for A Driver. But that isn't how it is working. You don't see trains pulled over to sidings because the engineer was required to have a break after 10 hours.

Oh yes we do. It's one of the reasons my wife's nephew quit the RR last year. They'd take a train somewhere. Have to stop due to time limits. No relief crew. So leave the train, call an Uber and go off to hotel. Train sits. Then he sits, and sits, and sits.

 

[MossRoad]

He said the work was too inconsistent, and the notification to be at work time was too short.

 

[5030]

Some companies use team drivers. Have drove for one myself. But with the driver shortage its hard enough to get one driver for a truck much less two.

One of my very good friends manages a small fleet of 56 road tractors all leased to Fed-Ex, pulling short doubles and some single trailers as well and he has no issue getting well qualified drivers for his team operation, in fact, he has a waiting list of drivers to chose from.

Reason being is, he pays his drivers an equitable wage, has an excellent benefit package and pays detention and breakdown time and if they get stranded because of an issue, he also pays their meals and motel fees too....and they still make money. In fact last year the the owners of the trucks, cleared over a million after all expenses.

If you actually pay a fair and living wage with a good ancillary benefit package, getting qualified drivers is not a problem. It's the low wage no benefit companies that have issues. He once told me his drivers average around 70 grand a year and even more if the want to.

 

[rbstern]

"There are so many trucks on the road that rest areas and truck stops are filled to capacity and trucks are lined up on the sides of the off ramps taking mandatory down time."

There is another way to look at this. Especially for company trucking. They COULD set up relief drivers, and get a great deal more done. The 10 hour rule is for A Driver. But that isn't how it is working. You don't see trains pulled over to sidings because the engineer was required to have a break after 10 hours.

The economics are different. Two engineers' salaries relative to the tonnage value of cargo on a freight train is very small.

If a truck full of small kitchen appliances, sneakers, and dogfood takes an extra couple of days to make a distribution journey, at lower per mile transport cost, it's a worthwhile savings for the seller, as long as the retail destination isn't out of stock on a signficant amount of the items the truck carries.

 

[5030]

I believe (but not 100% certain) that the 'hours of service' rules that apply to truck drivers also apply to train crews.

When the Federal Transportation rolled out there HOS rules, they put an immediate crimp on supply chain economics. Back when I drove long haul, we all had at least 3 log books and never ran out of drive time. I can remember driving from the meat patch in Texas to the east coast only stopping to whiz and get coffee and popping caffiene pills to stay awake. Those were the days. Long gone now with electronic logs and Barney Fife's around every corner waiting to bust you for any and all violations. All about revenue and the consumer suffers.

Kind of like the JIT philosophy that don't work today because of the suffocation rules.

You cannot have it both ways, no matter how you think you can....

I retired before the electronic log books and the HOS rules. Glad I did too. I made large bucks but I worked my butt off. Still own a big truck and grain trailer and haul local for farmers around here. Longest trip is now 35 miles and hauling ag commodities intrastate, I'm, exempt from the HOS rules. Don't even need to get a DOT physical as I'm self certified under Michigan rules.

 

[JasperFrank]

I don't have a dog in this fight. Not part of either the Trains or the Trucks and the fight involved. I'm not in the transportation business. Yet I have done a great deal of loading and unloading of trucks. And I find them to be mostly marginal, just enough to get by, and the drivers.... less then professional. I don't know about trains. I've never loaded one of those. I do know that I have witnessed the almost insane increase of the number of trucks now on our public roads in the last 30 years. I'm sure they all pay their taxes on those roads.... well maybe. My last Congressman, I wrote to, who was on the transportation committee, didn't have have any answers, and never presented any solutions, as to why rail gets so little attention in this country. Long haul should be by train, short haul by truck. That makes sense to me to get a more long haul trucks off the roads.
Cause what?, the roads need to be expanded to accommodate the trucks? And we pay for it? Well if we are paying for it, nationalize the damn rail roads. They were given this in the first place. Served the original purpose, and now we should take them back.