Concrete haulers seek waiver from 30-minute break requirement

[kscarbel2]

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  October 25, 2016

A group representing concrete haulers and their drivers has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for an exemption from the required 30-minute break stipulated by hours of service regulations.

The American Concrete Pumping Association’s exemption request would apply across the concrete pumping industry to all concrete pump operators, concrete pumping companies and drivers who deliver, set up and operate concrete pumps across the U.S.

ACPA says many of the trucks operate intrastate and wouldn’t be covered under the exemption, but “an unknown number of the pumping trucks are operated in metropolitan areas and do routinely cross state lines.”

The association says it has several reasons behind the exemption request. First, ACPA says the mandatory 30-minute break increases the risk of dangerous conditions on job sites because it would require the concrete pump on a job site to the shut down. The association says stopping the flow of concrete can allow air to enter the pipes, which could cause hoses to whip around and hit a pump operator.

Additionally, the association says the pump operators already take breaks throughout the day, so an additional 30-minute break doesn’t enhance safety.

Another factor, ACPA says, is that the operators only drive approximately between 25 and 32 percent of their shift and average daily driving distances of just 20-25 miles.

Finally, ACPA says that because ready-mixed concrete truck drivers were granted a permanent exemption from keeping logs if operating within a 100-mile radius, its concrete pump operators don’t have time to take a break because of the perishable nature of concrete. The concrete hardens within 90 minutes of the ingredients being mixed, ACPA says.

FMCSA is seeking public comment on the request, which can be made here on or before Nov. 25, or by searching Docket No. FMCSA-2016-0342 at www.regulations.gov.

[BillyT]

Wonder how much this silly bullshit will cost the taxpayers? Is anyone old enough to remember how the CDL was gonna get all of those "unsafe,unqualified" drivers off the road! Lol lol lol ! It sure did help the truck dealers sell all those under 26000 gvw trucks so the employers could avoid hiring anyone with the remotest knowledge of truck mechanics and safe operation(thus demanding a living wage!)Ill bet you could buy a good used straight truck for a song ( if it was over 26000 gvw!) Where I'm going with this is that any time a gov't agency gets involved with anything it becomes overly complicated. A laughable example is when this lady whose name I forget was at the helm of the ntsb in the late 70s she thought that the convex spot mirrors on commercial trucks should have a fluorescent orange ring on them,so drivers would know they weren't flat  mirrors! Like the lettering on car mirrors saying objects in mirror are closer than they appear! This lady grew up on a farm in the Dakotas and supposedly drove trucks! A drooling cretin would know a flat,from a convex mirror😁

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Had a mayor in Minneapolis who thought it was just awful that CDL drivers in Public Works got paid a bit more than drivers without a CDL, and he thought getting a CDL was "too tough". So for years he had Public Works buy below CDL trucks with crew cabs so they could pack the maximum number of low skill workers in them and publicly display how many young men he'd taken off the street and put on the city payroll. By the time he was in his 3rd 4 year term the real Public Works workhorses, the tandem dumps, were rusting away. And thanks to retirements, they was hardly anybody left with a CDL to drive them. He then ran for governor and I'm proud to have helped defeat him before he ever got on the ballot.

Fortunately the current mayor knows better, and they've instituted a CDL training program so they'll have drivers for the real tandem dump workhorses of the fleet.

[BillyT]

What a concept teamster Grrrl,! Get ALL the low skill drug besotted workers off the streets,give them all shovels! (Low maintenance aggregate removal devices) Build a shovel factory and train the more motivated among them to create this complicated tool American jobs!! Using American wood and steel! Ship those complicated noisy polluting tandem dumps to China where they are building new factories and could utilize them! Give our unemployed veterans  jobs guarding the aforementioned shovelers issue them 12Gauge.tactical shotguns for this task(American made if possible) pay them union scale with benefits! I really should have been a politician!😁