An open letter to US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

Dear Secretary LaHood,

As driver of a commercial vehicle as specified by the regulations set forth by your Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, it is estimated by various experts in the field I hold anywhere from a half dozen to three dozen lives in my hand when I drive down the road.

An air traffic controller holds somewhere between a hundred and a thousand times that number in his hands depending on the time and place of his or her duty.

I carry my bed in the truck with me or stop at hotels. When I am done with my shift I can be in bed and asleep in fifteen minutes. When I get back on the road, the truck is right there waiting for me. After 15 minutes worth of paper work, I'm on the road.

An air traffic controller has to go home, get in bed, get up and go back to work. Some how it strikes me that in most cases that before and after sleep process is going to take longer then 15 minutes on each end.

So why is it the agencies under your command think I need to spend ten consecutive hours off duty before I can drive again, but an air traffic controller only needs nine hours off duty between shifts?

Anyone want to bet on whether or not I get an answer on this one?

-30-

Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.
- Dale Dauten