Out of duty time II
Keeping duty times is a serious thing. I remember when I was a truck driver in the army, I was out driving the whole day during a maneuver in winter, and some sergeant wanted me to take a guard duty shift, essentially cutting my sleep down to three hours for that night. I flat out refused. I wasn’t going to drive a seven ton truck with a dozen men in the back around on icy roads after hardly getting any sleep. Of course, it’s easier to refuse when you’re drafted and don’t care too much, than when it’s your career and you don’t want to disgruntle your employer.
The US recently changed their truck driver duty time rules. They lost a goodly amount of drivers, and because they changed the hours structure, now need far more than they lost, so companies are screaming for new drivers. The drivers are screaming for more places to stop and rest. I’m noticing a drop in the quality of the drivers as well (both at work where we ship and receive stuff, and on the road where I am 99% of the time on a motorcycle) although the points changes to drop “dangerous drivers” has brought about a rash of inexperienced drivers who seem to be even more dangerous.
When I worked fueling SWA, I did see flights grounded for a bit while they waited for a pilot who still had enough duty time to get to the next stop. This happened when weather was causing massive flight delays all over.
You know whats the worst? When you sleep during the week and you dream from work and the dream is so real that when you wake up you feel like you already worked 8 hours? But there is nothing to it – you still need to go for work – when that happens to me I do really feel a little cheated. Dreamt working time should be counted as normal working time. But I need yet to find a Boss who accepts this argumentation!
Ha, freaky, cause exactly the same thing happened to me, at the famed (infamous?) TÜPL Seetaler 🙂
But it’s actually more than that, according to military law one is required to refuse such an order and it would be an unlawful order, but yeah, easier said than done when it’s your career …
Due to Federal regulations, nobody working on a train can work more than 12 hours. No matter where the train is, it stops and the crew gets off. A little shuttle will drive up with a replacement crew and will take the first crew to a hotel. Those laws only apply to train crew though, if you work any other position they will work you till you drop and wait for you to get back up. The pay is high though.