My Email to PATT

Posted on 24-09-2004

I wrote an email to PATT when they won the recent court decision. It was more of a rant, If I had known someone was actually going to read it and respond I would have done a better job.

Are you happy now? Now that you found a judge that agrees with you. The rules you propose are ludicrous and will only hurt the economy. Why don’t you focus on safety and not trying to shut us down and force us out of business?

Safety meaning - Lobby for rules against shippers making drivers work for free. Standing around on a dock for hours watching a fork lift go back and forth and making the drivers responsible for the load and count. Why should I be responsible for their job? A lot of shippers use bar codes that are more reliable than any manual count. Besides if my count is different from their count they are not going to unload it and recount it. (I’ve tried).

You want to lobby against tired truckers. Lobby for rules looking for the 28% of truckers that are suspected to have sleep apnea or some other sleep disorder?

Studies, facts and numbers on fatigue are basically worthless, everyone is different and nothing is going to change until the pay scale of cents per mile and our time being taken advantage of by shippers is fixed.

Here is their response, with a few of my own remarks thrown in.

Dear Wayne,

Thank you for your mail. We actually are the organization speaking out and working to change the unfair labor practices truck drivers are facing. Drivers must be paid for all time worked, and we filed suit against the DOT to keep them from implementing the new hours of service.

Okay, we agree on that, but how is cutting back my driving hours (and money) going to solve the dock problem?

The FMCSA has staffed a toll-free telephone line around the clock to answer drivers’ questions about the new hours of service: 1-800-598-5664.

More than 800 truck drivers were killed on the job in 2002 in truck crashes, and at least 40% of these fatal-to-the-driver crashes were caused by the driver being fatigued. That is more on-the-job fatalities than ANY OTHER occupation. Our efforts and those of our volunteers are aimed at making the drivers’ lives better and safer.

If the drivers were killed, how do they know they were fatigued? By looking at their logbook? That may or may not say they were driving tired. They never did address sleep apnea which one study showed affects 28% of truckers as opposed to 3% in the general population.

What about the 75% of cars causing the fatal truck-car crashes? Uh? Uh? They got numbers, I got numbers. Trucking has always been the most dangerous occupation, except in 2001 when firefighters had more job related fatalities. Cutting back on driving isn’t the answer.

We also strongly suggest you get in touch with your Congressman and educate him on what is happening out there and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Imagine if all drivers did that? There is power in numbers and Congress will need to make many of the changes that need to be made.

I wish you the best and hope you continue to drive safely, the life you
save might be your own.

Annie Rowe

www.trucksafety.org
www.patt.org

Yeah, yeah, that’s what OOIDA is for. They twist their message to vaguely match OOIDA’s. I wish they would stop saying they are doing all this for my welfare. Makes me sick. Stop the dock wait and uncompensated (and uncounted) labor, check for sleep disorders and leave the driving alone.

I got another email from them today, just before I posted this. It says the same thing and it’s more of a form letter. They are now emphasizing that they are for changing the trucking industry and helping truckers get paid for all time worked. From other things I’ve seen on their website, their main mission is to cut driving hours and there’s no other mention of uncompensated time other than their front page.