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Truckers Corner
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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looks like a great day at the beach. As a trucker, what's your schedule typically of being home/ away, and what kind of routes do you travel (cross country or more local)?
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Permalink Reply by dave foster on
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As truckers, way too often we work insane hours, we drive to and from places that are pretty scary, or dangerous or most often, just plain far away; sometimes all three !! We can actually calculate a percentage of our life on the road. You say to people, 'I work 14, 15 sometimes 16 hours a DAY' , and they think you are b/s-ing them. You say, 'I get 4 or 5 hours of sleep a day, if i'm lucky' and they think you are nuts or sick- hell maybe truck drivers are nuts or sick! We bust ass for people who often HATE us, deliver food, water, clothes, furniture, everything...and they just want us outa there, somewhere else, NIMBY. Just drop off our stuff and get lost asap. Which kinda brings me to my issue. Make time for your loved ones, and yourself! I have been trying to use my cpap as much as possible [i really have issues w/ it] to prolong my life long enough to see my 6 yr old graduate and get married. The doc kinda got in my face for only averaging 65% usage, basically saying i could drop dead from a heart attack or a stroke in the 35% i'm not using it. Well i guess ill have to keep at it. Any of you other truckers having issues w/ the machine? For all you four wheelers out there, pleeze don't cut us off -sometimes we can't stop, which means you are going to die, or at the very least have serious injury! Dont text while driving, its suicide.
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I typically am up by 8am, 830, work by 9 - pick up a load and go to NYC, usually 2 stops, get back to warehouse by 930 pm [sometimes not till 11 or 12 midnight]. sometimes i'll do 2 runs, but it's tough going in /out of NY. This is 6 days a week. Wow, no wonder i'm tired! Should'a become a banker, or a CPAP salesman! lol
Mike said:looks like a great day at the beach. As a trucker, what's your schedule typically of being home/ away, and what kind of routes do you travel (cross country or more local)?
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Permalink Reply by D. W. Conn on
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4 to 5 hours a day of sleep isn’t good. Let’s go with 5 hours of sleep. Each day you have a deficit of 3 hours. In 3 days that is 9 hours one entire night’s sleep gone. That is an average of 10 days each month of no sleep. Rough estimate of 120 days a year with no sleep. You are now running on a deficit of 1080 hours. These are not hours that are just gone. These hours have to be paid back. Your body will take what it needs.
First the metabolism goes, then cognitive abilities diminish, blood pressure may increase, if male impotence may occur, heart begins to have a heavier workload, and then pancreatic dysfunction causes type 2 diabetes. The worst may occur first. Your body having such a high deficit will simply shut down to sleep no matter what you are doing. G-D forbid driving, eating, talking, walking, or sitting in a movie theater.
Truckers and others have a hard life. Not much one can do when they have bills to pay. Just be careful.
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ok so I messed up the math on that one but hey you get the point.
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hey im tryin! making changes to try to get more zzzzs, use cpap as much as i am able. my moma told me there would be days like these, but not so many, and all in a row!
D. W. Conn said:4 to 5 hours a day of sleep isn’t good. Let’s go with 5 hours of sleep. Each day you have a deficit of 3 hours. In 3 days that is 9 hours one entire night’s sleep gone. That is an average of 10 days each month of no sleep. Rough estimate of 120 days a year with no sleep. You are now running on a deficit of 1080 hours. These are not hours that are just gone. These hours have to be paid back. Your body will take what it needs.
First the metabolism goes, then cognitive abilities diminish, blood pressure may increase, if male impotence may occur, heart begins to have a heavier workload, and then pancreatic dysfunction causes type 2 diabetes. The worst may occur first. Your body having such a high deficit will simply shut down to sleep no matter what you are doing. G-D forbid driving, eating, talking, walking, or sitting in a movie theater.
Truckers and others have a hard life. Not much one can do when they have bills to pay. Just be careful.
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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on
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My hubby drives a truck delivering equpment and machinery for power plants. He goes from coast to coast and everything in between, including a stint in Panama. It is not unusual for him to put in a 90 hour week (I can hear the naysayers now and I can say we have check stubs to proof his hours). Hubby is 55 years old and the years are taking a toll on his health now. I talked to him last night (on the telephone as he left for Texas on Saturday after a one night stay at home) and told him he has a week's vacation he needs to use it.
Even though there are laws about the number of hours they can drive, when he shuts down for the evening he has paperwork that needs done, contacts made for delivery / pick-up, etc.
I have tried talking to him about getting a sleep test done as he snores like a freight train, but he refuses and simply shuts me down when I bring the subject up. I am sure there are thousands like him on the road. Please no lectures to me about the ramifications/health issues/etc. I HAVE tried explaining all those to him.
Remember without truckers the economy would come to a halt.
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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Those hours are insane. Its Russian Roulette - not just w/your lives but w/the lives of everyone on the road w/you.
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I agree with you Judy -- it is insane and multiply it by how many truckers there are and it is indeed scary.
I am sure there are some that drive the legal limit and when they are done for their "day" that is it, but for many it is not that simple. Hubby not only drives the truck, but many times ends up working on the job once there. There isn't anything he can't drive, he does hazmat, over sized loads, etc. He has always been in the heavy construction busy, so there are things he hasn't hauled -- but cranes, loaders, speciality equipment, hazardous material, other big loads, he has done it.
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Yeah, it is scary, but you know what scares truck drivers? 4 wheelers! Truckers may be overworked/ underpaid and lving the sleep deprived/ apnea deal- hey at least we have a plan. Work hard, try not to lose the home and family, try not to die or kill anyone. Not allways doable, but we try. Now 4 wheelers... some have no plan, no idea, no clue! We have all had run ins w/ folks who are clearly suicdal/homacidal. Not that we would get killed; in car truck dances the car allways gets the worst of it. But who wants someones demise on your head, even if you aren't to blame? I wish folks could ride w/ a trucker, just for a while, see it from the cab. Well g'nite all, gotta get some CPAP ZZZZZS . My new plan.
sleepycarol said:I agree with you Judy -- it is insane and multiply it by how many truckers there are and it is indeed scary.
I am sure there are some that drive the legal limit and when they are done for their "day" that is it, but for many it is not that simple. Hubby not only drives the truck, but many times ends up working on the job once there. There isn't anything he can't drive, he does hazmat, over sized loads, etc. He has always been in the heavy construction busy, so there are things he hasn't hauled -- but cranes, loaders, speciality equipment, hazardous material, other big loads, he has done it.
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Yup, yup. And our gov'ment wants us to switch to smaller cars, upholstered roller skates, out on the highways w/all you big rigs. Europe doesn't have the number of big rigs on their roads, nor are their rigs as big as ours. They do more of their freighting by train I think. But we're supposed to crawl into those upholstered roller skates and hit the highways w/the big rigs.
Ah well, screw up our health care, make more and more of us homeless, send more of us out on the highways in those "toys" w/the big rigs and maybe they can wipe out enough of us that they'll get even more money to find a way to waste.
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