Driving from Wichita to St.Louis last night into early morning today, rest areas, weigh stations, anywhere vehicles could pull off the road, they were packed with parked semis. Shoulder to shoulder, maxed out to the start and end of access lanes, lit like Christmas trees. Pushing three hundred miles, it had to add up to several hundred semis. There were trucks on the road too, but not that many by a long shot. That I-70 corridor is usually loaded with semis.

Good weather so that's no factor, any ideas what's going on?

quote:

last night into early morning today,

Um, sleeping?

I'm pretty sure the DOT requires rest periods after a certain number of hours behind the wheel.

Yeah, that's pretty normal along major interstates.

I believe its 11 hours driving and still 15 on duty total then its rest time. And there sure are a lotta trucks.

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:

quote:

last night into early morning today,

Um, sleeping?

I'm pretty sure the DOT requires rest periods after a certain number of hours behind the wheel.

Yeah, I'm never on the road over night these days so maybe, I have no idea. I'll just say from my experience and the number of trucks I'd normally see, I'd estimate the number of trucks parked vs. those on the road was at least ten to one, maybe higher.

They were planning / hoping to cross over into Canada?

Truck parking on the side of the road or off/on ramps is risky, not a good thing to do.

So many regular rest areas have been closed, and thus the number of available parking spots for big rigs has been a really big problem for them.

Truck stops seem to fill up starting around 4PM and thus parking is more of an iffy situation, of course this depends on what area they are in, but there's really not enough parking.

The other issue is the logs. Old fashioned paper logs are pretty much extinct, now pretty much every big rig has an electronic log on the dash. It's linked to the home office. When it's time to take the required mandatory break, you better be parked. When your driving time is up for the day, you better be parked. State and Federal DOT officials will get the driver in a whole lot of trouble if the driver is driving out of hours.

It's pretty much FUBAR nowadays.
.

I used to do a lot of driving at night That has been the normal around here out west on the bigger interstates for many years on I-5, I-90, I-84. I assumed it was everywhere in the US. Truckers deliver many consumer goods in the US.

Truck parking is huge problem,and the states refuse to do anything about it. Instead of making
new rest areas,they close them. I guess to save money. Every on and off ramp is packed with trucks.

Here they are backed up all over. Major mess.

Usually what you’re describing is because the highway is closed ahead, like because of a winter storm. Happens here all the time in the winter. If the weather is good—not even high winds, then perhaps something else caused the highway to close.

Here in Missouri when they have closed a rest area, it is the rest area building closed and removed but they seem to keep the parking areas and replace the rest stop buildings with an outhouse and call it simply "Truck Parking".

Very normal activity, we’re regularly on I-20 from near the Louisiana border to DFW, early morning to late at night. There’s very heavy truck traffic, so any available rest spot is utilized, public rest areas, off ramps, and truck stops.

Truck driving used to be a nice job.
The computers they put in moniter every function.
Very hot or cold day,I go into a truck stop and there are
150 trucks idling their engines for 8-10 hours. If I let my truck
idle for 30 minutes for lunch, can get reprimanded. I'm not worth
a half a gallon of fuel. Now they are putting cameras in pointed
at your face. Not allowed to eat or drink while driving. Was talking
to a state Trooper, He said the new cameras have motion sensors that
can detect if are continually putting your hand to your mouth, sends a video
to corporate office. Piss on em. I'm glad I'm done.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Usually what you’re describing is because the highway is closed ahead, like because of a winter storm. Happens here all the time in the winter. If the weather is good—not even high winds, then perhaps something else caused the highway to close.

Back when I started trucking, Wyoming seemed to never close. If you were brave enough, then have at it. Now it seems a single flurry causes I80 to close over Elk Mt. To be fair, I suppose Wyoming got tired of picking up twenty big rigs and fifty cars after every big storm.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Truck driving used to be a nice job.
The computers they put in moniter every function.
Very hot or cold day,I go into a truck stop and there are
150 trucks idling their engines for 8-10 hours. If I let my truck
idle for 30 minutes for lunch, can get reprimanded. I'm not worth
a half a gallon of fuel. Now they are putting cameras in pointed
at your face. Not allowed to eat or drink while driving. Was talking
to a state Trooper, He said the new cameras have motion sensors that
can detect if are continually putting your hand to your mouth, sends a video
to corporate office. Piss on em. I'm glad I'm done.

Sure makes bong and crack pipe hits a little tougher… lol.

Freedom Convoy, like the Canadians have, but to DC?