“You Know You’re Having a Bad Day in North Dakota When……”

November 9, 2011 | Filed under: Trucking/Transport | Posted by: JJ

About JJ

JJ Arnett has written 12 post in this blog.

JJ has been around the trucking industry all of her life. Her Father, a driver for more than 50 years. She is a truck driver, over the road, traveling in and out of 44 states. A prior owner of two businesses, she also taught English in Ecuador, as well as spending time teaching in China. For several years she instructed at a Nationally known trucking school, while also working in the litigation department for an accident re-constructionist involving Big Trucks, and giving DOT seminars on safety auditing of new carriers. She now works at a local specialized trucking company and loves her job as well as the people she works with. A Montanan, with an attitude and a Stetson grabbed her heart, and now she enjoys the Big Skies of Montana. She has two wonderful sons and two grand children and a mother-in-law that keeps her on her toes!

Let’s talk about big trucks, the oil field, and safety…A friend of mine drives his rig throughout the Bakken oil fields everyday; so I asked him about the overall driving conditions. He comments, that almost on a daily basis he comes very close to having an accident. He states that the drivers in the big trucks are taking crazy chances by pulling out in front of other big trucks with insufficient clearance. They routinely pass on two lane roads where it isn’t safe to pass. Drivers, tired of being trapped in what seems like endless convoys of semi trucks are taking far too many risks as well.

With significant truck traffic on the roads, delays are the norm. While downtime is money in the oil industry; so also is the down time one can expected to experience when transport vehicles are wrecked or even totalled. Generally speaking, routine truck repairs are taking 3 to 6 months in the Williston Basin and let’s face it – a collison is not a routine repair. And, think of something worse and much more costly – a fatality !

Let’s think about why…

Is it because there are in inordinate amount of drivers there that haven’t had sufficient training?
Is it because as we all have heard, people are swarming there to get a job, and may have never driven in the extreme conditions that North Dakota lends?
Are drivers driving while fatigued and not thinking right, meaning violations of hours of service?
Are carriers pushing drivers to take loads when they know that it not safe? Are the roads not up to par due to the huge influx of people?

I would say that it is probably all of the above….What’s the answer? What can be done to make it safer to drive in an area that is growing by leaps and bounds? What do you think? The answers start with you.