How common is it for companies to pressure you to violate HOS regulations?

Miasma

New Member
I understand that there are many truckers that do this because they're trying to make as much money as they can, but talking with truckers I know, I've heard a few times about companies and dispatchers using threats of job termination or other tactics to forcing drivers to violate HOS regulations and run illegal loads.

Some truckers I've talked with say it's common industry practice and every company they've worked for made threats and put pressure on them to drive insanely long hours and go weeks at a time without getting proper rest. While others I've talked to said their company would let them falsify their logs (and maybe reward them with bonus checks, better loads, ect) but didn't put much pressure on them to do it. The latter situation is the one that I always thought was the norm.

I'm getting very different answers from those I've talked to in person and would just like to hear more input on the issue before I enroll in trucking school. Is this really so widespread and severe? I've heard stories from people saying they've drove 24 hours straight without resting just to take a 2 hour nap, eat and do another 20 hours sleep deprived behind the wheel. I have a hard time believing it can be that bad, and think that these stories are probably tall tales. What are your guys personal experiences with this? Have any of you actually lost a job just for refusing to take a load that would be impossible to deliver by the deadline without falsifying logs? What companies (especially ones that hire new graduates) are known to engage in this activity, and which ones prefer to put safety first?
 
It ain't like that any more. Maybe with some small carriers who hire drivers who have something in their history that makes other carriers not want them.

Most of the big fleets that hire rookies with no experience run electronic logs that can't be cheated anyway.
 
I was sitting at the counter at Denny's once and was listening to a guy say he pulled into a weigh station, went inside and had the officer do a timeline and go over his receipts just to be put out of service for a reset. He said the officer was very nice, didn't go over his stuff and put him out of service on the guys say so. No inspection either. The officer said he wasn't the first to do that. It was in Missouri.
 
I was sitting at the counter at Denny's once and was listening to a guy say he pulled into a weigh station, went inside and had the officer do a timeline and go over his receipts just to be put out of service for a reset. He said the officer was very nice, didn't go over his stuff and put him out of service on the guys say so. No inspection either. The officer said he wasn't the first to do that. It was in Missouri.
Keep in mind, ... you were at the truck stop counter. Most common place to hear the tall tales.

I'd have told the guy he was a freakin' MORON though. Unless he was bigger than me.
 
He wasn't talking to me. I did get involved though. He was talking to another driver in his company and it did sound believable.
 
There are reg's against it, and companies are losing lawsuits for violating them.

Like the guys said with elogs coming those days are gone and good riddance.
 
I understand that there are many truckers that do this because they're trying to make as much money as they can, but talking with truckers I know, I've heard a few times about companies and dispatchers using threats of job termination or other tactics to forcing drivers to violate HOS regulations and run illegal loads.

Some truckers I've talked with say it's common industry practice and every company they've worked for made threats and put pressure on them to drive insanely long hours and go weeks at a time without getting proper rest. While others I've talked to said their company would let them falsify their logs (and maybe reward them with bonus checks, better loads, ect) but didn't put much pressure on them to do it. The latter situation is the one that I always thought was the norm.

I'm getting very different answers from those I've talked to in person and would just like to hear more input on the issue before I enroll in trucking school. Is this really so widespread and severe? I've heard stories from people saying they've drove 24 hours straight without resting just to take a 2 hour nap, eat and do another 20 hours sleep deprived behind the wheel. I have a hard time believing it can be that bad, and think that these stories are probably tall tales. What are your guys personal experiences with this? Have any of you actually lost a job just for refusing to take a load that would be impossible to deliver by the deadline without falsifying logs? What companies (especially ones that hire new graduates) are known to engage in this activity, and which ones prefer to put safety first?
Drivers aren't threatened if they refuse to break HOS regs by any legitimate company. I have run for three different companies, two big-box companies and a tiny mom n pop. I have never been pressured to falsify my logs or run illegal.

When most drivers claim they're being pressed to run, it's because they wasted too much time at the lunch counter yapping instead of in their trucks driving. What happens is, they start their clocks, then stop somewhere along the way for a lunch break that turns into the driver "holding court" for hours and hours, then having to rush to get the load to the customer. They place themselves in a position that would require illegal running to make the load happen on time...then b**** that the company is pressuring them to get the load there.

I think this is one of the biggest complaints against electronic logs because they make this behavior all but impossible.
 
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I have had my dispatcher ask me to make the delivery Happen. After telling them that them it could not be done. So I simply asked for clarification on what they meant by make it happen? They would not actually say the words falsify or anything like that.
They said other drivers could do it. So I asked them exactly how other drivers did it? Again they would not say the words.

A company can not force a driver to violate HOS. If they threaten you with termination then they are not worth working for. They do not care about their drivers, The others that share the road with big trucks and they do not care about their CSA score.
Big red flag.
 
When most drivers claim they're being pressed to run, it's because they wasted too much time at the lunch counter yapping instead of in their trucks driving. What happens is, they start their clocks, then stop somewhere along the way for a lunch break that turns into the driver "holding court" for hours and hours, then having to rush to get the load to the customer. They place themselves in a position that would require illegal running to make the load happen on time...then b**** that the company is pressuring them to get the load there.


LOL! This was happening 30 years ago, too! You'd go to bed in Ontario @00:00 after listening to someone gripe on the radio about "they ain't giving me enough time!", and still hear the same dudes, with same story, still running their lips, when you'd leave @5:00 to go make a pickup.
 
Companies utilizing POS equipment, have numerous name changes on file, have a PO box, hire less than stellar CDL holders I've heard... will likely as not be the culprits.

They don't have much to lose and unfortunately have an unlimited supply of drivers as good ones get busted for things like.... not using hands free technologies ($2,750 fine to the driver and a potential $11,000 fine to the employer), excessive traffic violations etc. placing them on the unemployment line and available to unscrupulous trucking companies.

"Run it or leave"
 
It still happens but it's not wide spread.
Like Duck said, companies who might push you wouldn't dare say it out loud these days.

The last company I leased to told me that if I'd go all the way to the customer I could park on the property and Elogs wouldn't show me as moving when I did the delivery (4 or 5 hours later). The idea was that you had to make delivery in the middle of your break. Then finish your break and turn back out for another thousand mile run.

When I asked them if they were telling me to deliver during my break or begin my break 5-6 hours after arriving they wouldn't say so. When I asked them how to log a delivery in the middle of a 10 hour break they wouldn't say squat.

I was getting them to make my delivery so I could go home to take my break. :)

After a couple of weeks of them doing my deliveries the operations supervisor called me and told me that the El Paso run was better structured for a company truck because they couldn't keep doing deliveries for an O/O.

Translation - We need somebody who will deliver on schedule and roll out 10 hours after they roll in. Bass-tards. :mad:

Everybody on that run was delivering during their break but it was voluntary because it was a good run. I wasn't above doing it myself but the only thing that made it a good run was going home to take your break. I never figured out why the other guys thought that getting back to town without being able to go home was a good deal.
:confused-96:
Might as well be in Bufu, NM or whatever if you can't go to the house.
o_O
 
The last company I leased to told me that if I'd go all the way to the customer I could park on the property and Elogs wouldn't show me as moving when I did the delivery (4 or 5 hours later). The idea was that you had to make delivery in the middle of your break. Then finish your break and turn back out for another thousand mile run.

...Translation - We need somebody who will deliver on schedule and roll out 10 hours after they roll in. Bass-tards. :mad:

...
That's how it works at my company. Except they'll flat out tell you over the phone to just throw 15 minutes at the beginning or end of the 10 hours for "unloading".
 

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