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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_driver
A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a lorry driver, or driver in Ireland, the United Kingdom, India and Pakistan) is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck (usually a semi truck, box truck or dump truck).
Truck drivers provide an essential service to industrialized societies by transporting finished goods and raw materials over land, typically to and from manufacturing plants, retail and distribution centers. Truck drivers are also responsible for inspecting their vehicles for mechanical items or issues relating to safe operation. Others, such as driver/sales workers, are also responsible for sales and customer service.
There are three major types of truck driver employment:
Owner-operators (also known as O/Os, or "doublestuffs") are individuals who 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 own trucks, or they haul loads for a number of companies and are self-employed independent contractors. There are also ones that lease a truck from a company and make payments on it to buy it in two to five years. Company drivers are employees of a particular trucking company and drive trucks provided by their employer. Independent Owner-Operators are those who own their own authority to haul goods and often drive their own truck, possibly owning a small fleet anywhere from 1-10 trucks, maybe as few as only 2 or 3 trucks.
Both owner operators/owner driver 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. Boat haulers work moving boats ranging in size from 10-foot-long (3.0 m) bass boats to full-size yachts up to 60 ft long (18 m) using a specialized low boy trailer that can be set up for each size of boat. Boats wider than 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m) wide or 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m) high have to have a permit to move and are an oversize load. Dry Van drivers haul the majority of goods over highways in large trailers. Contents are generally non perishable goods. Dry Bulk Pneumatic drivers haul bulk sand, salt, and cement, among other things. They have specialized trailers that allow them use pressurized air to unload their product. - Commonly known as Flow Boys among truckers. 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, usually involving the pulling of double or triple trailer combinations. 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 (otherwise known as "over the road" or "long-haul" 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 are two drivers who take turns driving the same truck in shifts (sometimes husband and wife), or several people in different states that split up the haul to keep from being away from home for such long periods. Tanker drivers (in truck driver slang tanker yankers) haul liquids, such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, milk, & crude oil, and dry bulk materials, such as plastics, sugar, flour, & cement in tanks. Liquid tanker drivers need special driving skills due to the load balance changing from the liquid movement. This is especially true for food grade tankers, which do not contain any baffles and are a single compartment (due to sanitation requirements). Also fuel oil/petroleum drivers require special certifications. Vocational drivers drive a vocational truck such as a dump truck, garbage truck, or cement mixer. Drayage drivers move cargo containers which are lifted on or off the chassis, at special intermodal stations. Bullrack haul livestock locally around their hometowns, or haul regionally all over the USA. The term bullrack comes from a double deck trailer used strictly to haul cattle.
Hours regulations
Australia
A trucker and his vehicle. In Australia, drivers of trucks and truck and trailer combinations with gross vehicle mass greater than 12 tonnes must rest for 30 minutes every 5 hours and stop for 10 hours of sleep for every 14 hours of work (includes driving and non-driving duties). After 72 working 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.
Canada
In Canada, driver hours of service regulations are enforced for any driver who operates a "truck, tractor, trailer or any combination of them that has a gross vehicle weight in excess of 4,500 kg or a bus that is designed and constructed to have a designated seating capacity of more than 24 persons, including the driver." However, there are two sets of hours of service rules, one for above 60th parallel north, and one for below. Below latitude 60 degrees drivers are limited to 14 hours on duty in any 24-hour period. This 14 hours includes a maximum of 13 hours driving time. Rest periods are 8 consecutive hours in a 24-hour period, as well as an additional 2-hour period of rest that must be taken in blocks of no less than 30 minutes.
Additionally, there is the concept of "Cycles." Cycles in effect put a limit on the total amount of time a driver can be on duty in a given period before he must take time off. Cycle 1 is 70 hours in a 7-day period, and cycle 2 is 120 hours in a 14-day period. A driver who uses cycle 1 must take off 36 hours at the end of the cycle before being allowed to restart the cycle again. Cycle 2 is 72 hours off duty before being allowed to start again.
Receipts for fuel, tolls, etc., must be retained as a MTO officer can ask to see them in order to further verify the veracity of information contained in a driver's logbook during an inspection.
European Union
Main article: Drivers' working hours In the European Union, drivers' working hours are regulated by EU regulation (EC) No 561/2006 which entered into force on April 11, 2007. The non-stop driving time may not exceed 4.5 hours. After 4.5 hours of driving the driver must take a break period of at least 45 minutes. However, this can be split into 2 breaks, the first being at least 15 minutes, and the second being at least 30 minutes in length.
The daily driving time shall not exceed 9 hours. The daily driving time may be extended to at most 10 hours not more than twice during the week. The weekly driving time may not exceed 56 hours. In addition to this, a driver cannot exceed 90 hours driving in a fortnight. Within each period of 24 hours after the end of the previous daily rest period or weekly rest period a driver must take a new daily rest period. An 11-hour (or more) daily rest is called a regular daily rest period. Alternatively, a driver can split a regular daily rest period into two periods. The first period must be at least 3 hours of uninterrupted rest and can be taken at any time during the day. The second must be at least 9 hours of uninterrupted rest, giving a total minimum rest of 12 hours. A driver may reduce his daily rest period to no less than 9 continuous hours, but this can be done no more than three times between any two weekly rest periods; no compensation for the reduction is required. A daily rest that is less than 11 hours but at least 9 hours long is called a reduced daily rest period. When a daily rest is taken, this may be taken in a vehicle, as long as it has suitable sleeping facilities and is stationary.
‘Multi-manning’ The situation where, during each period of driving between any two consecutive daily rest periods, or between a daily rest period and a weekly rest period, there are at least two drivers in the vehicle to do the driving. For the first hour of multi-manning the presence of another driver or drivers is optional, but for the remainder of the period it is compulsory. This allows for a vehicle to depart from its operating centre and collect a second driver along the way, providing that this is done within 1 hour of the first driver starting work. Vehicles manned by two or more drivers are governed by the same rules that apply to single-manned vehicles, apart from the daily rest requirements. Where a vehicle is manned by two or more drivers, each driver must have a daily rest period of at least 9 consecutive hours within the 30-hour period that starts at the end of the last daily or weekly rest period. Organising drivers’ duties in such a fashion enables a crew’s duties to be spread over 21 hours. The maximum driving time for a two-man crew taking advantage of this concession is 20 hours before a daily rest is required (although only if both drivers are entitled to drive 10 hours). Under multi-manning, the ‘second’ driver in a crew may not necessarily be the same driver from the duration of the first driver’s shift but could in principle be any number of drivers as long as the conditions are met. Whether these second drivers could claim the multi-manning concession in these circumstances would depend on their other duties. On a multi-manning operation the first 45 minutes of a period of availability will be considered to be a break, so long as the co-driver does no work.
Journeys involving ferry or train transport Where a driver accompanies a vehicle that is being transported by ferry or train, the daily rest requirements are more flexible. A regular daily rest period may be interrupted no more than twice, but the total interruption must not exceed 1 hour in total. This allows for a vehicle to be driven on to a ferry and off again at the end of the crossing. Where the rest period is interrupted in this way, the total accumulated rest period must still be 11 hours. A bunk or couchette must be available during the rest period.
Weekly rest A regular weekly rest period is a period of at least 45 consecutive hours. An actual working week starts at the end of a weekly rest period, and finishes when another weekly rest period is commenced, which may mean that weekly rest is taken in the middle of a fixed (Monday–Sunday) week. This is perfectly acceptable – the working week is not required to be aligned with the ‘fixed’ week defined in the rules, provided all the relevant limits are complied with. Alternatively, a driver can take a reduced weekly rest period of a minimum of 24 consecutive hours. If a reduction is taken, it must be compensated for by an equivalent period of rest taken in one block before the end of the third week following the week in question. The compensating rest must be attached to a period of rest of at least 9 hours – in effect either a weekly or a daily rest period. For example, where a driver reduces a weekly rest period to 33 hours in week 1, he must compensate for this by attaching a 12-hour period of rest to another rest period of at least 9 hours before the end of week 4. This compensation cannot be taken in several smaller periods. A weekly rest period that falls in two weeks may be counted in either week but not in both. However, a rest period of at least 69 hours in total may be counted as two back-to-back weekly rests (e.g. a 45-hour weekly rest followed by 24 hours), provided that the driver does not exceed 144 hours’ work either before or after the rest period in question. Where reduced weekly rest periods are taken away from base, these may be taken in a vehicle, provided that it has suitable sleeping facilities and is stationary.
Unforeseen events Provided that road safety is not jeopardised, and to enable a driver to reach a suitable stopping place, a departure from the EU rules may be permitted to the extent necessary to ensure the safety of persons, the vehicle or its load. Drivers must note all the reasons for doing so on the back of their tachograph record sheets (if using an analogue tachograph) or on a printout or temporary sheet (if using a digital tachograph) at the latest on reaching the suitable stopping place (see relevant sections covering manual entries). Repeated and regular occurrences, however, might indicate to enforcement officers that employers were not in fact scheduling work to enable compliance with the applicable rules.
New Zealand
Heavy vehicle work time requirements in New Zealand are:
A break of at least 30 minutes every 5.5 hours of work time Maximum cumulative work time of 13 hours (plus 2x 30-minute breaks) in one cumulative work day before a 10-hour break is required, giving a total of 24 hours. After 70 hours of accumulated work a driver must have a break of at least 24 hours Emergency services drivers can exceed work hours when attending priority calls.
United States
Main articles: Hours of service and Trucking industry in the United States In the United States, the Hours of service (HOS) of commercial drivers are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers are limited to 11 cumulative hours driving in a 14-hour period, following a rest period of no less than 10 consecutive hours. Drivers employed by carriers in "daily operation" may not work more than 70 hours within any period of 8 consecutive days.[9]
Drivers must maintain a daily 24-hour logbook Record of Duty Status documenting all work and rest periods. The record of duty status must be kept current to the last change of duty status and records of the previous 7 days retained by the driver in the truck and presented to law enforcement officials on demand.
Electronic on-board recorders (EOBR) can automatically record, among other things, the time the vehicle is in motion or stopped. The FMCSA is considering making EOBRs mandatory for all motor carriers.
New HOS (Hours of service) regulations came into effect on 1 July 2013. These require a break of 30 minutes to be taken before 8 hours of duty is reached. There are additional HOS regulations for California.