SLEEP… is good ;-)
We were the masters of the quick turnaround.
6 buses had converged on the Skelly truckstop in Colorado Springs… having traveled there virtually non-stop from points on the East Coast. Loaded with high schoolers headed for camps just west, in the mountains… they disgorged the kids at a number of nearby restaurants and headed to a corner of the parking lot.
Waiting there was a pickup truck full of tools, bussy body fluids and 2 manic mechanics. In a matter of a few hours, every coach had it's oil changed, chassis lubed and any mechanical defects addressed. (on occasion it was the driver that was addressed… “what do you need a RIGHT wiper for, you hardly use that side of the windshield?”).
While all this was going on the drivers, who had alternated driving non-stop in tag teams, needed to catch up on sleep. Why rent a motel room when a movie theater was nearby? Inside it was dark, air-conditioned… and (if we picked a chick flick)… quiet.
We bought matinee tickets, grabbed seats and slept soundly until the buses were serviced and our new, East-bound, passengers were shuttled in to begin the cycle again.
My chief contribution to our industry is to serve as a bad example… and this fits. Don't try it at home. As a non-profit, we then had an “exemption” from regulation that no longer exists…. and tons of chutzpah.
One thing our gang did right, consistently, was to grab sleep EVERY time we had the chance. If we weren't driving, we were sleeping. You can sleep in package racks, on bus floors and (on at least one occasion) standing up at an airline ticket counter.
You jump through all sorts of hoops to keep regulators happy with regard to hours of service. You design schedules to be sure drivers aren't forced to drive too long, spend a ton training them to record hours correctly, and you have to administer their logs. You make sure they have adequate time off, but what if they don't use that time wisely?
Not too many years ago there was a fatal accident that sent a driver to jail. His company had bought him a room, and allowed plenty of down time. Rather than sleep, he spent the night gambling at an adjacent casino. We know this because investigators got to watch him in action on security camera recordings.
People died, he went to jail, and his company paid a ton of money.
The current environment forces management to intrude in the personal lives of commercial drivers in many ways that seem kinda pushy. Even when there's no evidence of a problem, for example, they're drug tested, and physically examined. Sleep apnea evaluation is on the horizon and recent events have airlines considering regular psychological evaluations for pilots.
At the risk becoming an even larger pain... may I suggest that, as part of driver training we chunk in a few words on the need to use “down time” responsibly? While it's certainly not an area that can be policed, a discussion is in order. Most drivers are adults, but it can't hurt to remind the marginal ones that it's childish to “stay up late” just because they can.
The bureaucratic fog (and often nonsensical enforcement) that surrounds “hours of service” frequently obscures the real issue. If you're gonna drive a bus, you oughta be rested. It's possible to fully comply with regulation, and be exhausted.
“Off Duty” time is useless, if not used correctly. You gotta sleep.
And that may not be enough. Just before dawn in 2007 a coach mistook a ramp for a through lane and went airborne. 7 died and a number of college athletes were injured.
The irony here is that, other than mistaking the ramp for a lane, no rules were broken. The bus wasn't speeding, the driver's log was in compliance, and he had just awakened from a full nights sleep in a hotel room. Just before dawn (and mid-afternoon) our minds do a partial shutdown. We need to understand, and account for that in our driving and planning.
“Back in the day” (code for the “statute of limitations” has run) my boss maneuvered me into driving an insane number of miles with the promise of serious time off at the end of the trip. I rolled into Pittsburgh around 4 PM, staggered off the bus and waddled into the “guest bedroom” that had been provided.
I awoke refreshed late in the afternoon and was puzzled. GEE, had I only been sleeping a few minutes?
NAH… the bedroom was a converted Cold War bomb shelter, dark and quiet. I'd slept for 25 hours.
For those of you who've concluded I have no talents… I CAN do the sleep thing… even with my eyes closed.
