[gambiting]

"he had 15 hours of driving in a 20-hour window. His on-duty time was 80 hours, too."

As a European, these stats are nuts to me. No wonder she mentions that drivers chug energy drinks - that can't be a reasonable or safe working time in any industry, much less in one where you're operating heavy machinery. Or do people think we are soft with our 8-9h driving time max per long rest regulations?

[jillesvangurp]

Commercial interests vs. collateral damage in the form of accidents, truckers with health issues, etc. are basically balanced differently.

Tired truckers falling asleep behind the wheel causing accidents tends to be not appreciated in Europe. And it's a reason that they check this very strictly. I remember when these rules started getting tightly enforced. At the time there were lots of incidents with truckers driving way longer than they should literally falling asleep while driving.

Fatal accident rates with trucks in the US are up in recent years: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/large-t...

"Also in 2021, 117,300 large trucks were involved in crashes resulting in an injury, a 12% increase from 2020. Since 2016, the number of trucks involved in injury crashes has increased 15% and the involvement rate per 100 million large truck miles driven has increased 3% to 36."

Not great statistics.

[seanmcdirmid]

There are often different rules for ice truckers than normal truckers, at least in Canada (eg Manitoba they are exempt from driving time restrictions).

[petercooper]

It doesn't sound ideal, but I guess the risk of causing danger to third parties is lower driving through Alaska than round the M25 or the Périphérique, simply due to numbers and space. I've never been to Alaska, but in the lower 48 folks seem to treat truck drivers with more caution and space than we do in Europe, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're "safer" even with more fatigue.

[legitster]

Part of the thing is that long haul truckers themselves often prefer these hours. They would rather just get the trip over with and back to their family than spend 16 hours at a motel in Coldfoot, and pocket the difference.

They could run double crews but you don't get that much consolation sitting in a passenger seat vs a drivers seat.

[gambiting]

Obviously - I know many European truckers who hate these regulations. Most will tell you stories of being stuck 30 minutes away from home but being unable to drive a little bit longer because the fines are Draconian and with electronic logging you can't fake it.

And honestly, from like a human standpoint - I get that. But these rules are there to ensure their safety as well as the safety of everyone else on the road. Tiredness is a massive factor in accidents, and I'm sure we've all driven a little bit more than reasonable "because I'm almost home". Being a trucker is a profession so it has professional standards.

[legitster]

Tired truckers is a conversation that comes up in the US somewhat regularly. And some states are imposing more serious regulations. But I don't think we are seeing it enough as a cause of accidents to treat it like a crisis. As other commenters have pointed out, for long-haul trucking in the US (and other rural areas) you are mostly dealing with highway driving on pretty desolate routes. Mile for mile truckers in the US are still some of the safest drivers.

I think Alaska just stretches this to the extreme given the unique experiences. Just having truckers pull off to the side of the road in Tundra 300 miles away from services is probably a MUCH bigger safety liability than long hours.

[_8j50]

You can't drive more than 8h in any 24h period, and it isn't hard to bust them when they do due to simple physics.

[butterknife]

Sorry to be pedantic but in EU the daily maximum as prescribed by law is 9 hours per day of driving, which can be extended to 10 hours twice per week. There are maximum hourly limits specified per week and per fortnight along with prescribed lengths of daily and weekly rest periods.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/LSU/?uri=CELEX:32...

[_8j50]

Sorry, I meant the US

[effingwewt]

Not in the US[1] . And truckers here have been cooking their books since they were actual paper and pen.

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forc...

[_8j50]

I had a CDL-A a long time ago, that was the rule then. Big shops made sure you stuck to it (or so they said) but I also did here that they will indirectly force drivers to drive a lot more than that. When you hear about truckers making six figures, that isn't from 8hr days for sure. They even gave you a tip during training: if you open your truck's door, you're losing money. What happens when they force you is you don't get the trips you want or that are lucrative if you have a reputation of doing bare minimum.

[effingwewt]

I got you, I have tons of family who are truckers and the stories abound of shady company tactics. When GPS first started being used in trucks they would take a bucket or something and cover it, it simply 'lost service'.

None of this is new but it's definitely getting markedly worse.

Even still, I'd never heard of some of the evil things they are doing these days like closing the yard gates so they have to keep rolling.