The Biz

Anyone who has taken training to be a professional driver is assumed to be at fault, regardless on what happens.

When a load is delivered, it is supposed be on time and exactly when the recipient wants it, without regard to weather, truck problems etc. At the same time, the recipient may take all the time it wants to unload, so the driver may wait for hours while to be unloaded, many times making them late for any additional appointment.

For example: Dave was supposed to be at a pickup point at 9 am to load fish for the return trip. They called at 6am asking if he were ready to load. "I thought it was scheduled for 9 am." "Well, we're ready now, come on over." So we washed our faces, shook the sleepy's from our eyes and drove over to the pick up point where we waited for three hours to get loaded and leave the dock. The professional truck driver often feels he is the invisible worker. Everyone expects him to do his job on time, at someone else's convenience, without accident and without appreciation. The truck driver has not had a cost of living wage increase for15 to 20 years, yet the majority of our food and supplies come by truck.

Then there are the laws meant to protect drivers, that change from place to place. For example: In Washington drivers can drive for 11 hours, but must be out of the truck for10. When he drives in to British Columbia it changes to 13 hours driving and 8 hrs out of the truck. When he drives into Yukon the law changes again and he can drive for 15 and sleep for 8.5 hours. Back in Alaska it is drive for 15 hours and sleep for 10. What happens when you drive from Washington, through British Columbia, Yukon, to Alaska in 3-4 days.

Drivers are required by law to keep log books. They have to stop at weigh stations, and if their weights are in error, or if the weigh station operator has had a bad day, they are required to bring in "all their papers". Fines can range from a few hundred dollars to a thousands. And the driver is required to pay them.

Another problem drivers have is their weight load. Acceptable weights change from place to place like the driving, out of the truck times do. For example: In Washington each axel is within regulations at 20,000 pounds. Moving into Canada it is 13,000 for the drivers or front axel and37,500 for the tandem or rear axels. Washington and Alaska allow splitting the two axels in the back in order to balance the weight and be in compliance, Canada does not. In Alaska it is 12,000 pounds on the driver axel and 38,000 on the tandem. In winter time Alaska has weight restrictions for their roads, requiring the trucking industry to carry less weight. There are also bridge laws, and truckers must not exceed the weights or they will be fined. One driver was finded $8,000 for driving on a road he was not supposed to.

Trucks, trailers and wheels weigh about 40,000. Fully loaded it is not uncommon for a truck to weight approximately 85,000 pounds. It is extremely hard to stop anything weighing that much. Four-wheelers or passenger cars often put themselves in danger by squeezing in between trucks or not allowing enough room.

The driver must stop at open weigh stations. As he drives across the scale, he stops on each axel. If his weight is in compliance he is waved through, if it is not, his books, and often his truck are examined for any infraction - sleeping, out of the truck, if he has dirt on the landing gear, etc.
These operators can actually measure the width of the tires and determine how much weight they should carry per tire. Logs are legal documents since a driver has to sign them. In order to make sure that everything is what it needs to be legally, the driver often has to "Cook the books." Which means in order to be in compliance for each different area, where he spends three hours unloading, he may need to only record 15 minutes.