r/Infuriating • u/MdTooDevilish Valued Contributor • 4d ago

Trucker crashes after falling asleep driving 40ton deathmachine

This piece of shit driving all over the road putting other peoples lives at risk

210 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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38

u/nBenit 4d ago

I don't get it. Why do truck drivers drive like this? Is there a quota they have to hit or something? Like a time limit on delivery or whatever?

7

u/PantySausage 4d ago

If the delivery is late, they do not get paid. This is what truck drivers have told me over the years.

3

u/nBenit 4d ago

Oof rough

2

u/PantySausage 4d ago

It’s more than that, though. The self-employed drivers make a lot of money. In 2006, one of them told me that he made $3k each way going from NY to CA. He would sometimes skip sleep for three days at a time to make more trips to feed his gambling addiction.

1

u/unknownSubscriber 4d ago

Is that even possible now with electronic logging?

1

u/PantySausage 4d ago

This was a long time ago. If electronic logging isn’t the law, then I suspect that whatever you write in a book is still your proof.

0

u/unknownSubscriber 4d ago edited 4d ago

ELDs are connected directly into the truck's engine and track drive time. You can't really fake it.

Edit: AI says these work to enforce drive time restrictions, but as a result drivers are more reckless to fit more miles in the hours that they have, so accidents have no decreased.

Makes me think they should incorporate more data into these ELDs than just drive time.

1

u/Sandalwood-Lakers 4d ago

They have large overhead but it's common for owner operators to net 100k-200k depending on what they haul and how far they're willing to go.

0

u/JackofAllVehicles 3d ago

Company drivers often make $100k. If thats all an owner op is netting then they arent taking home hardly anything

1

u/Sandalwood-Lakers 3d ago

Read my comment again.

-1

u/JackofAllVehicles 3d ago

No

2

u/Sandalwood-Lakers 3d ago

Bro has no idea what the term net means lmao

1

u/HalvdanTheHero 4d ago

There's also the pay structure itself: they are not generally paid per hour, they are paid per delivery. Taking more hours/days to deliver the goods means they earn less per hour overall, on top of getting hit with penalties or non-payment for late delivery. 

Its basically all contract based. If the trucker is with a company they'll take a big cut but line up the contracts to keep them moving. Independent truckers earn more but have more risk.