Why Truckers Fall Asleep at the Wheel
Why truckers may fall asleep at the Wheel
When my husband, Gene, got a job driving an 18-wheeler, he was told that drivers were protected from overwork by the rules governing how long they could drive. They could drive only 10 hours before they had to take 8 hours off to sleep. That sounded good. (This was back in the day before the change to 11 hours driving and 10 hours to sleep – still not bad, especially since they have to include their showers, laundry and meals during sleeper time.)
Then came experience. Some nights he was being required to drive overnight, to get a load to its destination by a certain time. All this was, of course, still adhering to the rules of 10 hours driving and 8 hours sleep. What they don’t tell you is just how that works.
An example: On a trip in the Los Angeles area, he got an early evening parking space at the small truck stop at Hesperia, about 50 miles from LA. They have hardly any truck stops in that area, so the outlying truck stops, rest areas, and even wide spots along the highway, start filling up early in the evening with trucks waiting to make an early-morning delivery.
He tried to get a little sleep before having to leave at two a.m., figuring possible traffic slow-ups as well as driving time. Arriving at four a.m., he had to park on the street to wait, but they let him in at 4:30 and were finished unloading by a little after six. Then, back out to the street to await the next load.
By 7:20 he gets several shag loads (short local runs). First a huge Carson drop yard, not far away, to drop the empty trailer and pick up a load of doors. Arriving at 8:25 after missing a poorly-marked turn on Sepulvida, he has to go clear to Long Beach to turn the beast around.
They wave him over to be inspected and checked in. He takes off down a hazy corridor of trailers to drop the empty. Soon he brings the truck, bobtail, back the way he’d gone, parks in a row of bobtails near the shack, and goes in to take care of some papers. He reappears in about 15 minutes, taking off again into the haze of smog to find the load.
After more paperwork and faxing rigmarole, he is finally ready to sign out! He leaves about 10:15 for Garden Grove, immediately taking another wrong turn, but after a stressful search finally finds his next drop, at the Architectural Door Co. He has to go around the block to get to the tight little space to back into, through an alleyway full of dumpsters and pallet boards. They’ve parked another truck in there while Gene was going around the block, but somehow he manages to squeeze in after half an hour of sweat and jockeying.
They decide it’s time now to take their lunch break, so he has a sandwich while he waits. They find that the load was not strapped properly, but they know the damage was not Gene’s fault, since the trailer was sealed when first loaded.
There’s still a partial load to drop, but by now he’s completely missed his next appointment time. He arrives about an hour later, after more wrong turns from being given poor directions, and the usual LA traffic jams. They finish unloading by four p.m., but he still has to go back to Carson to drop the rest of this load.
Gene knows the procedures better now, so by 5:35 he’s parked in the bobtail row, waiting for a faxed release on the trailer. At 6:15 he has it, and hooks up to an empty trailer, finishing the paperwork by 6:30.
Anyway, he’s outta there! He heads for Oxnard and arrives at Proctor & Gamble just before nine to pick up the next load. After such a stressful day, he’s wondering where he will spend the night.
But now he’s sitting in a long line of trucks, more piling up behind. He gets to the guard shack after about 45 minutes, goes through the procedures, and drops the trailer about 10:30.
Meanwhile he’s been trying unsuccessfully to reach Dispatch to tell them there’s no way he can meet his next appointment on time. But the HQ phone and Qualcomm are both out of commission – they’re having computer problems. He finally gets through and finishes the drop and paperwork. They say the next load isn’t ready yet, so he has to go out of the yard.
At the guard shack on the way out, at 11:40 p.m., they tell him his load is now ready! So he has to ask HQ if they still want him to pick it up and then trade loads with another driver so he’ll have a load he can deliver at a later time. He hasn’t had any dinner, but he’s too tired anyway.
So now it’s nearly one a.m., and he’s still jabbering back and forth with the night dispatcher about the swap. Finally he takes off with 33,000 lbs of Pampers. He sends in a request to sleep at the Gold Coast yard, as he hasn’t had much to eat and no sleep since two a.m. the previous morning. His knees are hurting from city driving.
He arrives at Gold Coast at three a.m., and the truck he’s to swap with is parked in the street out front. After the paperwork and switching of trailers, he falls into bed at 4:30. At 6:35 he is awakened by a message on the Qualcomm, wanting to know when the load will arrive at Gold Coast! It’s been sitting in front of the place since yesterday morning, but they want to know when it’ll arrive?
Awake now, he goes in to ask when he can unload. The guy says he can bring the truck in now. He also says that they won’t be able to unload the trailer ‘til one p.m. Typical! So the dispatcher tells him to go ahead and just drop the trailer there, and go get another empty.
By 8 a.m., he’s parked back on the street, requesting the location of another trailer, and hoping not to have to go back to Carson. By 8:15 he gets the next load assignment, to pick up at – Carson! He grabs a quick bowl of cold cereal and takes off.
Arriving a little after nine at the Carson drop yard, he knows right where he dropped the other trailer, so he gets out a lot faster this time. By 9:40 he’s heading for Long Beach, and arrives at Lowe’s at 10:45 after the usual jammed traffic and problems finding the place. He backs in and is unloaded by 11:15.
Now he goes back out onto the street to park and wait, and see if he gets to go sleep somewhere.
11:45 a.m., he gets a new load - to pick up in South Gate and deliver in – at last! - Denver, Colorado! Yippee! At least with a long trip he can stop and sleep when he wants to! He’s starving, so he stops at the first sight of food, a McDonald’s, just to get anything to eat! Wonderful!
He arrives at the Hon Co. near Downey, at 1:50 p.m. and picks up the load, only 9,000 lbs of office furniture. It will be easy to take over the mountains. He soaks up the last of the warm sun, bougainvillea, and palm trees while he waits for the load. It’s finally ready about 3:30 and they say he can just park and sleep in their yard. Faaan-tastic! He can sleep while the rest of LA fights the rush hour.
After a refreshing 8 ½ hours of sleep, he takes off a little after midnight for Denver. He looks forward to a nice, quiet, long trip on the open road. It may not seem possible, but Gene's actual driving time during that 37 hours was about 10 hours. The long waits in between loads are not counted in his driving time. The only time he slept during that time was the two hours outside the Gold Coast Company.
That’s not how it’s supposed to be, but it happens. Dispatchers and consignees are only concerned with getting orders delivered when it is convenient for them – often in the wee hours. They seem to forget that truck drivers are humans who need sleep, and not only sleep, but at regular times, not sometimes in the daytime and sometimes at night. Truckers who complain too much endanger their job.
Anyone knows that when your sleep schedule is all out of kilter, you end up perpetually tired and making mistakes. So, how many truck drivers are out there driving drowsy? Beware! Next time your rearview mirror is filled with grille, that truck driver might be literally dreaming of an empty road ahead. Whatever you do, don’t suddenly slow down or stop in front of him!
