Driver Completes Full 34-Hour Reset While Waiting for Truck Stop to Call Shower Number 47

A long-haul driver has completed an entire 34-hour restart in the waiting area of a truck stop shower desk, becoming the first person on record to legally reset his hours of service while holding a laminated number.

The driver took ticket 47 at 6:12 p.m. on a Tuesday. At the time, the screen above the desk read "NOW SERVING: 12" and "ESTIMATED WAIT: 20 MIN." Thirty-four hours later, it read exactly the same thing.

"I came in to rinse off," the driver said, from a plastic chair he now describes as his home terminal. "I'm leaving with a fresh 70 hours, a working knowledge of every vending machine in here and a first name basis with the floor buffer."

A rare compliance success

Safety consultants have hailed the case as a breakthrough. The driver's electronic log shows two full overnight periods off duty, no driving and no on duty time apart from 15 minutes spent arguing that his number had been skipped.

"This is the cleanest reset I've ever seen," said a consultant who reviewed the log. "No sleeper berth splits, no gaps, no questions. He just sat there with a towel over his shoulder like a boxer who never got called into the ring."

The shower desk responds

Staff at the desk said the system is working as intended. Numbers 13 through 46 were called during the period but nobody answered, because those drivers had been dispatched to deliveries in three provinces before their turn came up.

"We call the numbers," an attendant said. "We can't make people be here when we call them. Number 31 is in Moncton now. We still have his soap."

The truck stop said it is studying ways to shorten waits, including a premium lane that guarantees a shower within 20 minutes, where 20 minutes is measured using the same clock as the screen.

What's next

The driver left Thursday morning with a full clock and no shower. He said he will try again at his next stop, where he has heard the wait is "right around 20 minutes."