Truck Drivers – Long Duty Hours
A truck driver is a person who is a professional at driving trucks. In United Kingdom, he is called a lorry driver. There are two categories of truck drivers:-first one being truck operators who own the trucks and they generally lease out the trucks to different companies and the second category being those who are employees of the trucking companies.These truck drivers operate under strict rules of service to limit their working hours and to help from avoiding any sort of fatigue which can be dangerous while driving. These rules are called “hours of service” and are to be abided by strictly. In United States of America, a driver can drive upto 11 hours in a 14 hour period, followed by a 10 hour rest which can be used or spent by sleeping for 10 hours or sleeping for 8 hours and spending 2 hours off duty. He should not work for 70 hours in 8 days or 60 hours in 7 days. If he does not report to duty for 34 days, this 70 hour regulation has to be rescheduled. They must also maintain a log book in which they should maintain complete particulars of their weekly activities.
In Australia, truck drivers and those who drive trailers with ah overall weight of more than 12 tones must rest for 30 minutes every 5 hours and they must also go to sleep for 10 hours every 14 hours. And he has spent 72 hours driving his vehicle (truck or trailer); he must spend 24 hours away from his vehicle. These 72 hours does not include time spent on resting or sleeping. Truck drivers must maintain a logbook in which they should give complete details of the kilometers traveled and the amount spent on driving and the amount of time spent on resting.