When I arrived in Ft. Wayne, Indiana on a cold winter day in May of 1976, I had little idea what I was getting myself into. I was there to attend a truck-driving school. But more than that, I was there to buy a tractor and learn a completely new occupation.

Upon graduation, my new career began. I was very new to the game. I was trying to learn the ropes. A few months passed and I soon learned that many drivers were good at breaking the laws. They were good at cheating the game. 

I didn’t think much of it at the time but it didn’t exactly sit well with me. Not that I wasn’t among them to some degree. I wasn’t exactly an angel. I was a procrastinator.

At first, I used the logbook the way that it’s intended. But soon it became a chore. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to fill out a logbook it was more that I didn’t want to record the actual times I stopped.

I took a lot of breaks to stop for coffee or to take a short nap and I needed to make up the distance somehow.

I recorded the date, odometer readings, and the location of every place I stopped in a steno notebook. It was easier to jot down the location and the odometer reading than to have to pull out my logbook and draw lines. 

I also kept the odometer readings of the state lines I crossed. If I bought fuel, I would record the number of gallons and the date to match what I was going to log.

I didn’t need to be tidy in the notebook. It was a tool I developed so I could be neat later. Then, when I had time to draw some lines, I would fill out my logbook. I had been a draftsman in my previous life and neatness counted.

 The times I stopped might not be accurate. I would calculate how long it took from point A to point B at a reasonable speed using the readings I recorded. Some of the time I would skip recording a stop if it served my purpose.

Some drivers found other ways around the hours of service law. They reportedly used more logbooks than the law allowed. It was not uncommon for them to be doctoring two or three logbooks. They were trying to drive for longer than the law allowed. I was too. I took a lot of breaks.

Most trucking company’s logbooks are now electronic logs. GPS coordinates and time verify the logs are accurate.

Troopers today aren’t too interested in checking logbooks unless an accident occurs. They are aware of how electronic logs operate. Drivers stopped for speeding by a trooper, aren’t even checked for their logs most of the time.

Police have handed logbook verifications to the companies themselves. Companies face high penalties when an audit uncovers a violation. Drivers are out-of-service when they commit violations. They are only allowed back in-service when they become compliant again. Some face termination if they don’t change their ways.

In the 1980s the public cried for guaranteed delivery times. This meant that you could not fool around. There would be no excuse. Unless a breakdown or family problem arose that prevented on-time delivery. Drivers paid the price for failure. But that did not stop some drivers.

Drugs and alcohol use was not uncommon in the years preceding the 1980s. I was in Alabama one time when a driver used some drug and was so out of it he couldn’t even stand up. His friend tried to sober him up; walking him around until he finally collapsed. A few hours later that driver had managed to take more of the drug and it was useless to try to straighten him out. They were already two days late with their loads.

I heard stories of drivers having a bottle of liquor within reach while driving.

Truckers tried to make more money by pulling overweight loads. They would bypass state scales by using alternate highways. The risk was great but they tried it anyway. Some got away with it. Some didn’t.

Companies today don’t tolerate these kinds of behavior. The risk of a large lawsuit demands that they hire responsible drivers.

Companies of the future will avoid that kind of risk and will ensure faster delivery times to boot. The driver-less vehicle is here now and is the future of many companies.

Trial runs, with a driver attending the vehicle at all times, have been going on for some time now.

In an article I read, a truck left California and drove to Pennsylvania in three days. It was a driver-less test with a driver present. It only stopped for fuel. That’s 2800 miles without a glitch. The trip included some inclement weather as well. It delivered a 40,000 lb load of butter to the receiver in Pennsylvania.

I’m sure there will be more tests of this sort soon. 

The authorities will not allow an actual driver-less rig on the nation’s highways yet. But that time is coming. The expectation is that it will take 15 to 20 years. The nation is already in dire need of drivers.

Qualified drivers are in high demand. Many of the older experienced drivers have been retiring. I am among them. Companies have been trying to hire more drivers to take their place for a few years. It is very difficult to find qualified drivers. 

With the prospects of a job that will only last a few more years, I don’t blame the holdouts.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment in the comments section.

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash