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The Federal Department of Transportation, (DOT) enforces a variety of safety regulations on anyone who operates trucks in interstate commerce. These regulations are numerous, and complex. They are confusing, aggravating, and overwhelming. But fear not! I will attempt to simplify one of the most important categories of regulations: hours of service and logbooks.

What are hours of service?

The DOT believes it must limit the amount of time truck drivers spend behind the wheel. Without these regulations, they think drivers will drive until they collapse from sleepiness and exhaustion, causing mayhem and death.

Read More »Who Must Comply with Hours of Service? – HOS Overview Part 1

This is part II of our series on how to be rock and roll coach driver. You might want to start this read with Rick’s five (not so easy) steps to breaking into the coach business. 

Congrats! You made it through the first installment of my story on becoming a coach driver and you’re back. I suppose you want to know what two questions I ask any wannabe entertainment coach driver. Your answers will tell me everything I need to know about your ability to handle the life once you’re in.

1. How often does your company get you home?
2. How often do you need to get home?

Read More »Real Life Perks and Pitfalls of a Rock Star Coach Driver

“Money, get away. Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.” ((c) Roger Waters/Pink Floyd)

So, what is the best part about driving in the music industry?

WINTERS OFF!!!

The majority of tours either come off the road by Mid December in preparation for the holidays, or head for warmer climes (South of the Equator) over the winter. This leaves the transportation side of the North American business and it’s associated drivers with down time.

Read More »What Happens When the Touring Ends

Japanese commercial transportation firms are turning to women to help overcome the nation’s growing shortage of truck drivers. It’s a trend many US-based transportation companies would like to kick-start in 2015.

As is the case in the United States, Japan’s commercial transportation industry has long been dominated by men. However, with the Asian nation’s population rapidly aging, Japan faces crippling worker shortages across a variety of critical industries. The shift is forcing everyone to re-think acceptable gender roles in the workplace.

Read More »Japanese Trucking Companies Turn to Women to Fill Driver Shortage

Last week I told you about my 5-year plan and this week I’m going to tell you more about how I’m following through with it.

I was able to find a property with an older 2-bedroom mobile home on it along with a shop that had originally been a small convenience store and bait shop. The other beautiful thing about this property is, 1800 feet from the driveway the road dead ends at a boat launch into the Tennessee River. I paid only $12,000 in cash for all of it with the intention of removing both the mobile home and the bait shop and building a three-car carriage house with an apartment above.

Read More »Executing the Five-year Plan and Pitfalls to Avoid

Before looking at the rules, first we’ll look at how to account for a driver’s hours. In order for a DOT inspector to determine if a driver is complying with the hours of service rules, they must know how many hours a driver has driven. Traditionally a driver would record their hours of service on sheets of paper called log sheets, or logs. With the proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices it is becoming increasingly more common for the driver to use an app to create Electronic Logs. Below is an example of a electronic log.

Read More »How are Hours of Service Recorded? – HOS Overview Part 2

The ATA (American Trucking Associations) believes it’s time the government adopt a more flexible approach to federal hours-of-service rules. In a recent petition presented to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the ATA says the government needs to recognize that every commercial driver’s situation is unique.

Read More »ATA Pressing FMCSA for More Flexible HOS Rules

The people of Buffalo, New York, continue to deal with the effects of a record snowfall that ceased most activity in the city for days. Among those facing the crisis were truck drivers from across the country who found themselves stuck on area highways for more than a day.

Read More »Truck Drivers Stranded by Buffalo Blizzard

It seems to make a certain amount of sense that companies could just pay truck drivers better wages and forget about this driver shortage altogether. But is that all there is to it? Where would the extra money come from? How much more would drivers need to be paid for the career to attract enough new workers?

Read More »Driver Shortage Caused by Low Wages?