In March 2020, you awoke to find that the government deemed you essential or nonessential. Over-the-road (OTR) haulers, or truck drivers, were deemed essential. But as the arrival of healthcare workers was celebrated with fire engine parades, truck drivers were spared recognition and told to shift into overdrive and deal with peeled back restrictions, including letting drivers with learner’s permits drive without their Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and changing hours of service guidelines so truckers could drive longer than they would be allowed to otherwise. In other words, truckers were directed to stretch themselves, and not just absent parades, but in a landscape of closed waysides, truck stops, restaurants -- while being told to stay in their cabs when picking up or delivering their cargo. Being a trucker before the pandemic meant choosing a profession under-appreciated by the public. During the pandemic, finite truckers were unfathomably treated as expendable. IN THIS EPISODE. Doc interviews former trucker Jonathan Burger to discuss the state of OTR haulers before the pandemic, at the onset of the pandemic, and now in 2022. Jonathan will talk about OTR haulers access to toilet facilities, restaurants, and places to park when they sleep. In addition, Jonathan will bring awareness to lesser known aspects of trucking including new Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandates, negative behaviors within the trucker workforce, hazard pay (lack of), and lumpers. Doc and Jonathan consider how government and society might better demonstrate appreciation from truckers - the seemingly forgotten essential workers. ABOUT JONATHAN BURGER. Jonathan Burger has a YouTube channel focused on Second Amendment activism/advocacy. His channel is called Guns N BBQ as he periodically tosses in content about his hobby of barbecuing. He is a former armed security officer and corrections officer turned truck driver. Jonathan drove truck for just over 5 years before going blind. Shortly after losing his vision he decided to start a YouTube channel. Jonathan remains well-connected to the OTR hauler community and understands the lesser-understood nodes along the OTR hauler network. PRE-2020 STATE OF TRUCKING. Jonathan reminds us that the trucking industry had challenges prior to the pandemic. Overnight parking was particularly difficult to find and even booking ahead didn’t necessarily secure a spot for the rig. Fewer businesses were allowing truckers to park in their lots due to the poor behavior of some in the industry who would leave behind trash. IMPACT OF 2017 ELD MANDATE. On January 23, 2022, Grace Dean of Business Insider wrote an article titled: Truckers say an electronic device that measures the hours they drive each day sometimes leaves them stranded just 30 minutes from home. While truckers had maintained paper logging records for decades, electronic logging devices went into effect in 2017 for most rigs. The logs track when truckers drive and take breaks, but the system is inflexible. Jonathan offered an example of a trucker taking a break in the parking lot near a warehouse. A few minutes into the mandated break, someone asks the driver to move his truck to the end of the lot, perhaps a hundred feet away. When the truck begins to move, the ELD resets the break. Ultimately, the purpose of ELDs was to prevent fatigued drivers from being on the roads - so ELDs make sense, but in their current incarnation, they seem to be too restrictive. PANDEMIC RELAXED TRUCKING RULES WITHOUT SUPPORT TO TRUCKERS - LUMPERS CASH IN AS DRIVERS TOLD NOT TO UNLOAD THEIR FREIGHT. On March 13, 2020, the US government made an emergency relief declaration that allowed OTR drivers with expiring licenses to continue working, eliminated the 30-minute break requirement during 11 hours driving, and relaxed the 60/70-hour rule. However, neither federal or state governments took action to support truckers. Arizona opened two shuttered waysides with limited hours - so that was at least something. But, no hazard pay for truckers, no National Guard deployed to keep open waysides and supply food, showers, and basic care to truckers. County fairgrounds could have been temporarily opened for truckers, right? There were no hero parades for truckers - even as wait times increased for truckers to unload and they were told to stay in their rigs, cubed away from the world. BROWN BAG BOOST CAMPAIGN. Doc and Jonathan pondered items that might go into a brown bag that would be given, as a sign of support, for truckers at waysides or scales. Items included a thank you note, chunky soup, socks, plastic utensils, and 3D printed air vent diffusers. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 168 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-25-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
License Plate Readers in Schools | An Added Layer For Campus Security or Rights Violation? | SDP202
Perfect Attendance Can Win High School Students A New Car | What Do You Think? | SDP201
Bystander Effect | Why Are We Unwilling To Help When Others Are Watching? | SDP200
Opioid Emergencies in K-12 Schools | Community and Legal Considerations | SDP199
Medical CBD Oil In Schools | Brooke Adams vs. Rincon Valley Union School District | FAPE | SDP198
Bank Account Voting System | Transparent Solution to Election Integrity | Guest Lee Jarvis | SDP197
Seven School Safety Exercise Objectives That Actually Help Teachers, Police, Fire, and EMS | SDP196
The Meteoric Rise of High School Esports | What You Need to Know | Guest Mike Dahle | SDP195
The Law of Necessity | Good Samaritan Considerations | Guest Attorney Lisa Linney | SDP194
Citizen’s Arrest - What You Should Know | Your Jury Trial Rights | Guest Attorney Legalman | SDP193
Should Teachers Be Armed? | High School Trap Teams | Guest Competitive Shooter Bending Ballistics
What It Was Like to Present Live School Safety Specials on PBS TV | Never Do This One Thing | SDP191
Fitness in Chaotic Times | What Really Motivates Us | Fitness Professional Megan Usui | SDP190
School ‘Swatting’ Skyrocketing in America | What Is It? | What Can Be Done to Stop It? | SDP189
Peggy The Comfort Pig | Animals in Schools | BOE Policy and ADA Considerations | SDP188
I Failed My PhD Dissertation Defense | Priest Prepared Last Rites | SDP187
Decision Making Up in the Air | Pilot Graham Wilson | The DECIDE model | SDP186
Bill Would Ban Cellphones in Schools | 7 Reasons For and 7 Against Cellphones in Schools | SDP185
Lost Person Behavior Facts | 4 Ways to Make it Easier to Be Found | SDP184
$50K Bonus for Teachers | Unpacking Educator Free Agency | SDP183
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