Tractor Shortages

[ddbackhoe]

When are drivers subject to the DOT Drug and Alcohol testing requirements? | FMCSA

www.fmcsa.dot.gov

Also bi yearly or yearly CDL driver physicals are required

All drivers, as in everyone using any type of public road.

 

[Hay Dude]

When are drivers subject to the DOT Drug and Alcohol testing requirements? | FMCSA

www.fmcsa.dot.gov

Also bi yearly or yearly CDL driver physicals are required

Yep, and they are another couple hundred bucks.
No objection to them, but let the ones demanding them pay for them.

 

[DK35vince]

Yep, and they are another couple hundred bucks.
No objection to them, but let the ones demanding them pay for them.

Every job I have had all CDL drivers are subject to random drug and alcohol testing.
Also required to pass bi yearly CDL driver physicals.
A couple years ago my blood pressure was a little high on a CDL driver physical, ( blood pressure meds have it under control) but I'm now required to get a yearly CDL physical.

 

[finn1]

What do you have to pay $500 a year to test?

I paid a lot more than that to get n Engineering degree, and I pay for my own CTL expenses.

$500/ year is chump change, plus, if you’re running your own business, it’s deductible on your income taxes, so the government is subsidizing you anyway.

 

[Hay Dude]

I paid a lot more than that to get n Engineering degree, and I pay for my own CTL expenses.

$500/ year is chump change, plus, if you’re running your own business, it’s deductible on your income taxes, so the government is subsidizing you anyway.

A first year business owner knows deductible from your taxes isn’t the same as paid for by the state.
$500 might be chump change to you.…..but opinions are like, well, you probably know…

 

[4570Man]

I paid a lot more than that to get n Engineering degree, and I pay for my own CTL expenses.

$500/ year is chump change, plus, if you’re running your own business, it’s deductible on your income taxes, so the government is subsidizing you anyway.

How does getting to keep a little bit of your own money that you earned change into getting subsidized by the government? I’m all for taking every tax deduction I can but other than the bs stimulus check they mailed out I’ve never taken a dime of government subsidies. And I’d gladly give that back if inflation was set back to 2020 levels.

 

[Torvy]

Some people think it is all their money and we should be thankful that they deign to bestow a portion of 'their' largess upon us.

More importantly, the government didn't require the Engineering degree or the tuition required to earn it. My son is a ChemE. He didn't pay for it. Turns out that if you are smart enough and/or work hard enough, people will give you money to study.

How about we compromise between your two positions? You pay up front for the testing, but if it comes back negative, you get reimbursed. If it is positive, you pay a fine equal to 100x what it costs to do the testing. Or maybe, rather than testing everyone, you just prosecute those caught using while driving? That way, we will no longer have tractor shortages, which, of course, is the whole point of this thread.

Sarcasm is a gift and a curse.

 

[DieselBound]

If only all drivers had to undergo UA or even medical review. There’s nothing to prevent Joe/Sally citizen from popping pills, smoking weed, doing w/e and getting behind the wheel.

I'd be happy if we could fix folks' out-of-alignment and or badly modified headlights!

Bad drivers don't need to be under the influence of anything to be BAD DRIVERS. There's a TON of ****ty BC (British Columbia) truckers running the roads around me (tailgating arseholes); I'm pretty sure it's got nothing to do with being under the influence of drugs.

Insurance*, pardon the pun, drives everything. Insurance companies along with big trucking companies help shape laws. I understood where everything was headed long ago as a child playing Monopoly...

* Insurance subsidizes bad drivers: that is, GOOD drivers subsidize bad ones (distribution via "insurance").

 

[Hay Dude]

Some people think it is all their money and we should be thankful that they deign to bestow a portion of 'their' largess upon us.

More importantly, the government didn't require the Engineering degree or the tuition required to earn it. My son is a ChemE. He didn't pay for it. Turns out that if you are smart enough and/or work hard enough, people will give you money to study.

How about we compromise between your two positions? You pay up front for the testing, but if it comes back negative, you get reimbursed. If it is positive, you pay a fine equal to 100x what it costs to do the testing. Or maybe, rather than testing everyone, you just prosecute those caught using while driving? That way, we will no longer have tractor shortages, which, of course, is the whole point of this thread.

Sarcasm is a gift and a curse.

I’m not a full time trucker, but do a lot of hay and equipment trucking. I see first hand what these folks go through, the sacrifices they make to keep stuff rolling down the highway and me too to a lesser degree. They sacrifice so we don’t have shortages and empty shelves and put up with the aggravation from regulations and laws.
The final nail in the coffin of the independent trucker will come when electric trucks are mandated.
As it is right now truckers in states with emissions laws must drive newer than 2008 models to pass inspections. Trucks tend to get held onto longer so that knocks a lot of trucks off the road right there. Those 2008 and up trucks are inherently less reliable and more costly to maintain.
Now that freight railroads are greatly reduced, trucks have to fill the void. My thinking is theres enough rules and regulations now. We don’t need anymore expenses or regulation.
Its only going to make the cost of goods and services go up along with the year of record inflation we already have.

 

[SwingOak]

Been here long?

Yeah, I have, and this is the main reason I don't participate more.

 

[RickB]

Many states exempt intrastate drivers from periodic physicals and having a medical card.

 

[RickB]

A first year business owner knows deductible from your taxes isn’t the same as paid for by the state.
$500 might be chump change to you.…..but opinions are like, well, you probably know…

I don't subsidize your license, insurance, registration or vehicle inspection fees. I'm not about to sign up to subsidize your drug tests or physicals.
Man up. It's the cost of doing business.

 

[Hay Dude]

I don't subsidize your license, insurance, registration or vehicle inspection fees. I'm not about to sign up to subsidize your drug tests or physicals.
Man up. It's the cost of doing business.

Expected reply….
I man up each and every day, RickB…. I didn’t cut and run from my career and I don’t mind paying licenses and registrations, but recently mandated random drug testing? In this age of handouts for health care for everyone else? They should pay.
Subsidize? If car drivers like Flynn1 are the ones whining we truckers are “killing their granddaughters in the back seats of their cars”, then they should pay the tests.
There’s already heavy fines, revoked licenses to drive, and jail time for a trucker doing anything like that. That’s called a deterrent and punishment. I don’t mind being tested, since I don’t do drugs, but paying for the testing should be by the side demanding it.

Should anyone owning a gun have a drug test? How about anyone running a Scag mower? How about teachers around our children? Safety inspection mechanics?
Where does it end RickB?

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Anyone who doesn’t understand that we subsidize trucking to a huge extent, doesn’t understand how this nation pays for roadways.

Trucks are about 5 to 15% of the traffic volume. Pay roughly five percent ot the cost of building and maintaining roadways, and cause 90 to 95% of the wear and tear to this roadways. The fuel taxes a truck pays for roadway construction /maintenance, are a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the level of wear and tear they cause.

The wear/damage to a roadway is function of the tire pressure. My Tiny truck with four contact patches at 32 psi, does far less damage per ton mile, than my brothers 1-ton dually with six contact patches at 70-psi, and his truck does far less damage than a ten-wheeler at 120-psi.

We subsidize trucking heavily with our imbalanced financing, much to the detriment of our railroads, which pay their own maintenance costs.

And, if you stop and think on it for a bit, you realiz that probably 90% of what we are sending down our highways, really needs to be there. And, if we weren’t subsidizing trucking so heavily most of it would go by rail, with trucks for only the last forty miles or so.

Back in the late seventies, I was a manager at UPS. We could deliver packages almost anywhere in the United States, in five business days. We relied heavily on rail transport. Dedicated rail cars, and dedicated trailers were used to move packages from major hub to major hub. Where they were offloaded, sorted and put out on the package cars for delivery. I don’t see those rail cars, with trailers on them very often anymore. They are now putting those packages in smaller trailers, and dragging them down the highways. Which says to me, that due to the subsidized highways, it is less expensive to drag them down the highway, than put them on the rails. The delivery for non-air is still five days coast to coast.

 

[Hay Dude]

Anyone who doesn’t understand that we subsidize trucking to a huge extent, doesn’t understand how this nation pays for roadways.

Trucks are about 5 to 15% of the traffic volume. Pay roughly five percent ot the cost of building and maintaining roadways, and cause 90 to 95% of the wear and tear to this roadways. The fuel taxes a truck pays for roadway construction /maintenance, are a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the level of wear and tear they cause.

The wear/damage to a roadway is function of the tire pressure. My Tiny truck with four contact patches at 32 psi, does far less damage per ton mile, than my brothers 1-ton dually with six contact patches at 70-psi, and his truck does far less damage than a ten-wheeler at 120-psi.

We subsidize trucking heavily with our imbalanced financing, much to the detriment of our railroads, which pay their own maintenance costs.

And, if you stop and think on it for a bit, you realiz that probably 90% of what we are sending down our highways, really needs to be there. And, if we weren’t subsidizing trucking so heavily most of it would go by rail, with trucks for only the last forty miles or so.

Back in the late seventies, I was a manager at UPS. We could deliver packages almost anywhere in the United States, in five business days. We relied heavily on rail transport. Dedicated rail cars, and dedicated trailers were used to move packages from major hub to major hub. Where they were offloaded, sorted and put out on the package cars for delivery. I don’t see those rail cars, with trailers on them very often anymore. They are now putting those packages in smaller trailers, and dragging them down the highways. Which says to me, that due to the subsidized highways, it is less expensive to drag them down the highway, than put them on the rails. The delivery for non-air is still five days coast to coast.

I would love to see rails reopened and used more. Too many trucks on the road. Less trucks, less drivers, less accidents, less trucker drug tests. We all win.

What you say is very true. When our interstate system was designed, rails carried far more traffic. Many of our roads were not originally designed for all these heavy trucks.

In my little hometown, we have one 4 lane concrete highway running through built in late 1950’s. They just finished a 1 year project removing large section of concrete dissolved by heavy trucks. New rebar drilled in and new concrete patches, some the size of tennis courts.
I bet heavy trucks did that damage.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I don't subsidize your license, insurance, registration or vehicle inspection fees. I'm not about to sign up to subsidize your drug tests or physicals.
Man up. It's the cost of doing business.

EXACTLY!!!!

 

[Hay Dude]

I think owners of large gun collections should be randomly drug tested and they should pay the tests.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I think owners of large gun collections should be randomly drug tested and they should pay the tests.

Not a bad idea to drug test people for a Concealed Carry...

 

[Hay Dude]

Not a bad idea to drug test people for a Concealed Carry...

Ok and you can foot the bill, too.
Now see how well gun owners like paying that.
Im a gun owner and wouldn’t want to pay it.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Ok and you can foot the bill, too.
Now see how well gun owners like paying that.
Im a gun owner and wouldn’t want to pay it.

I always foot the bill... it is what it is...