Posts Tagged “Driver”
Kevin Bowling has been trucking since 1986, but his truck is now sitting at his 
home in Tampa, FL and he is driving for a large fleet.
The 44-year-old former owner operator says he parked his truck because of poor economic conditions and excessive government regulations.
The driver for MK Express of East Butler, PA was fueling at a Petro Truck Stop at Vienna, GA. He hauls primarily produce out of the Southeast and dry freight on the return haul.
Bowling says a main complaint with hauling produce are the delays associated with getting loaded. Although this is not as serious a problem working with his current carrier, he notes too often product is still in the fields when arriving at the loading docks. Maintaining proper load temperatures also is cited as being very important.
While Bowling loves the independence associated with trucking, he says U.S. Department of Transportation regulations are excessive and challenging.
“The DOT is always wanting to put more regulations on you and it just makes it harder,” he states. More specifically, he cites most recent hours of service regulation changes. Bowling says the changes, involving the 14-hour rule may be better for some drivers, but worse for others.
He is referring to the 34-hour restart once a week with two sleep times from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., plus there is the 30-minute rest break following eight hours of driving.
“For some guys it would be too much time off, but for others it might help keep them from driving when they are tired,” he says.
Driver turnover rates among the nation’s fleets has gone up and continues to be high. It has increased with small trucking companies too, but remains well below the big carriers.
The American Trucking Associations reports turnover rate for large fleets to be at 89% for the third quarter of 2011. That is up 10% from the second quarter rate of 79%. The driver turnover rate has risen 50 percentage points since the start of 2010.
Meanwhile, small truck load fleets had a 57% driver turnover rate, up 10 points since the third quarter of 2008.