The federal government is proposing a rule that would ensure drivers of large trucks and buses the opportunity to get adequate rest. It sounds great in theory, but let s look at the big picture and leave politics out of it for the moment. We all know that the current rule is more than 60 years old. But today the roads are 100 times better and the trucks are 1,000 times safer than they were in 1937. Believe me, driving 10 to 12 hours today is much less tiring and stressful than 10 to 12 hours of driving back then.
All trucks have air conditioning and a good heater.
They have diesel engines, which mean they run cooler and more efficiently. We need to look deeper into the causes of crashes. There are many, many more vehicles on the roads today. Most of today s automobile drivers are uneducated about semis. People do not understand how much room it takes to turn or how long it takes to stop a tractor-trailer, or how difficult it is to see a car from inside the cab.