Truck driver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A truck driver (Commonly called a trucker or driver in the US and UK or a truckie in Australia and New Zealand) is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck, usually a semi truck or dump truck. Truckers provide an essential service to industrialized societies by transporting goods and materials over land, typically from manufacturing plants to retail or distribution centers. Truck drivers represent one of the most important labor forces in the transportation industry within the United States. There are over 300,000 truck drivers in the United States today.
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[edit] Types of truck drivers
There are two major types of truck drivers:
- Owner operators are individuals that own the trucks they drive and can either lease their trucks by contract with a trucking company to haul freight for that company using their trucks or haul loads for a number of companies and is self employed commonly referred to as independent contractors.
- Company drivers are employees of a particular trucking company and drive trucks that are provided by their employer.
[edit] Job categories
Both owner operators and company drivers can be in these categories.
- Auto haulers work hauling cars on specially built trailers and require specific skills loading and operating this type of specialized trailer.
- Dry Van drivers haul the majority of goods over highways in large trailers. Contents are generally non perishable goods.
- Flat Bed drivers haul an assortment of large bulky items. A few examples are tanks, steel pipes and lumber. Drivers require the ability to balance the load correctly.
- LTL drivers or "Less than truck load" are usually local delivery jobs where goods are delivered and unloaded by the driver at multiple locations.
- Reefer drivers haul refrigerated or frozen goods.
- Local drivers work only within the limits of their hometowns or only to nearby towns. They return home nightly.
- Household Goods drivers, or Bedbuggers haul personal effects for families who are moving from one home to another.
- Regional drivers may work over several states near their homes. They are usually away from home for short periods.
- Interstate drivers often cover distances of thousands of miles and are away from home for a week or more. To help keep drivers, companies can employ team drivers. Team drivers can be a husband and wife that travel together, or several people in different states that split up the haul to keep from being away from home for such long periods.
- Tanker drivers haul liquids in tanks and need special driving skills due to the load balance changing from the liquid movement.
[edit] Hours of service
All drivers are bound by laws limiting the amount of time they can work to prevent driver fatigue. These laws are commonly known as "hours of service".
In the United States, a driver may drive up to 11 hours over a 14 hour period, followed by 10 hours off duty. This off duty time can be spent in the sleeper, or split by spending 8 hours in the sleep and 2 hours off duty. A driver may not work more than 70 hours in 8 days or 60 hours in 7 days. The 70 hour clock may be reset if the driver takes a 34 hour break from duty. These are a general overview of the rules, and there are other rules and exceptions.[1] Truck drivers must complete a logbook documenting all work and non-work activities. The logbook must be current as of the last change of duty status, and must be presented to law enforcement officials upon demand.
In Australia, drivers of trucks and truck and trailer combinations with gross vehicle mass greater then 12 tonnes[2] must rest for 30 minutes every 5 hours and stop for sleep for 10 hours every 14 hours. After 72 driving hours (not including time spent resting or sleeping) a driver must spend 24 hours away from his/her vehicle. Truck drivers must complete a logbook documenting hours and kilometres spent driving.[3]
[edit] Special licences
In Australia heavy vehicle licences are issued by the states but are a national standard, there are 5 classes of licence required by drivers of heavy vehicles:
- A Light Rigid (LR class) licence covers a rigid vehicle with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) not more than 8 tonnes, with a towed trailer not weighing more than 9 tonnes GVM. Also buses with a GVM up to 8 tonnes which carry more than 12 adults including the driver.
- A Medium Rigid (MR class) licence covers a rigid vehicle with 2 axles and a GVM of more than 8 tonnes, with a towed trailer not weighing more than 9 tonnes GVM.
- A Heavy Rigid (HR class) licence covers a rigid vehicle with 3 or more axles and a GVM of more than 8 tonnes, with a towed trailer not weighing more than 9 tonnes GVM. Also articulated buses.
- A Heavy Combination (HR class) licence covers semi-trailers, or rigid vehicles towing a trailer with a GVM of more than 9 tonnes.
- A Multi-Combination (MC class) licence covers multi-combination vehicles like Road Trains and B-Double Vehicles.
A person must have a C class (car) licence for 1 year before they can apply for a LR or MR class licence and 2 years before they can apply for a HR, to upgrade to a HC class licence a person must have a MR or HR class licence for 1 year and to upgrade to a MC class licence a person must have a HR or HC class licence for 1 year.[4]
In the United States of America, truck drivers are required to have a Commercial Driver's License (CDL). Although state motor vehicle departments administer the CDL program, Federal law spells out the various classes of CDLs and the requirements to obtain one. A CDL can also contain separate endorsements such as hazardous materials, double and triple trailers, passenger (for bus drivers), and tankers. Specifically, the five-axle tractor-semitrailer combination that is most commonly associated with the word "truck" requires a Class A CDL to drive. Beyond that, the driver's employer (or shipping customers, in the case of an independent owner-operator) generally specifies what endorsements their operations require a driver to possess. Truck drivers are considered technical professionals because they are required to obtain specialized education and professional licensure.
In the UK, one or more of the categories of Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) licenses is required. This is still widely known as an HGV or Heavy Goods Vehicle license after its former name.
[edit] In popular culture
Truck drivers have been the subject of many earlier films such as They Drive By Night (1940) but became an especially popular topic in popular culture in the mid 1970s following the release of White Line Fever, and hit song "Convoy" by C.W. McCall, both in 1975. The main character of "Convoy" was a truck driver known only by his CB handle, "Rubber Duck." Three years later in 1978, a film was released with the same name. In 1977, another film Smokey and the Bandit was released which revolves around the escapades of a truck driver and his friend as they transport a load of beer across state lines. Smokey and the Bandit spawned two sequels. B.J. and the Bear was a television series depicting the exploits of a truck driver and his chimpanzee companion.
The 1978 film F.I.S.T. was a fictionalized account of the unionization of the trucking industry in the earlier 20th century, while the future of truck driving was speculated on in the 1996 film Space Truckers in which trucking has gone beyond planetary loads to interplanetary ones.
Truck drivers also have been villainously portrayed in such films as Duel and Joy Ride.
[edit] Implementation of drug detection
Beginning in 1980, the administration of president Ronald Reagan proposed to put an end to drug abuse in the trucking industry with the then-recently developed technique of urinalysis, in a move to require regular random drug testing of all truck drivers nationwide.
However, it was decided that implementing the measure at too great a speed could result in a shortage of truck drivers, which could in turn plunge the nation's economy into a recession, or worse, a depression. In the early 1980s, random drug testing was begun, and in the following years and decades was increased more and more at a gradual rate. Since that time, a large number of tractor-trailer operators has left the industry and a new generation of drivers has come in. It has now become extremely difficult for truck drivers to engage in drug abuse and remain undetected.
[edit] Trucker slang
Truck drivers once had a highly elaborate vocabulary of slang for use over their CB radios, but with the high turnover in the industry in recent decades, this has all but vanished. Most of the newer generation of drivers in the U.S. today speak to one another over their CB radios in more or less standard English (as understood in the various regions of the country), although a few of the slang words and phrases have remained, and many of these have passed into use in the colloquial language of the general public. “Smokey” and “bear” are still used to refer to policemen, especially state patrolmen (and sometimes “diesel bear” for a DOT officer). “Hammer” still refers to the accelerator pedal, and “hammer lane” the left lane or passing lane on a freeway, in which traffic generally travels faster. “Handle,” meaning a nickname, was once exclusively truck-driver slang, but has now passed into common use by the public, especially for pseudonyms used on the Internet. Most of the ten codes have been discontinued, except “10/4,” meaning “message received,” “affirmative,” “okay,” “understood,” which is still commonly used. The nighttime signal of one truck driver to another, when a truck in front is attempting a lane change, of briefly turning the headlights off and then on, or of briefly flashing the high beams to indicate that the rear of the trailer has cleared the vehicle being passed, after which the truck passing flashes the tail lights one or more times in any of various rhythms to signify “thank you,” remains in common use, and is usually also understood by the public; drivers of smaller vehicles often use it to signal truck drivers in this way as well.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Truck Driver Facts. Retrieved on 2006-09-11.
- ^ http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/heavyvehicles/regulations/hv_drivinghours.html
- ^ http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/heavyvehicles/regulations/hv_standardhours.html
- ^ http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/downloads/national_driver_licence_classes_06.pdf
