Posted on 12/29/2001 12:17:30 AM PST by MoJoWork_n
Keith Stanley gulped some fresh coffee and leaned forward at the table, his bloodshot eyes narrowing. "Sweatshop is a good description," the longtime trucker and father of five said as he tried to pump some life into his weary body at a truck stop in Fort Stockton, Texas.
"But I've got to do it. I'll probably kill myself putting my kids through college. But there's no way I'm ever going to let them drive a truck."
In the last two decades, trucking has become the lifeblood of the American economy, transporting 8 billion tons of freight annually - almost two-thirds of the total tonnage shipped. Yet as trucking moves the economy, truckers aren't reaping what they've helped sow. They drive hard, putting in long hours day and night, often for not much more than minimum wage. And they have to drive tired, pushing mile after mile on a few hours of sleep, sometimes just to break even. That makes the nation's highways treacherous for both cars and trucks - more truckers die in accidents each year than workers in any other profession. Congress, the trucking industry and safety advocates have debated for years how to get tired truckers off the road.
But the bedrock problem isn't the law that tells truckers how long they can drive. It's an economic system that pushes them to drive past exhaustion, no matter what the law says. Although some companies strictly enforce federal regulations and pay their drivers well, many don't, and independent drivers confront the hard truths of deregulation. "Until you change the economics of trucking, nothing will happen," said Bob McEvoy, former director of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Maine office.
"The Kansas City Star" spent nine months examining the trucking industry. As part of the project, a reporter drove an 18-wheeler for 6,000 miles to witness the pressures faced by truckers as they try to make a living. All along the way, "The Star" found zombie-like drivers putting in long hours for low pay. They were spending weeks away from home and family, living out of duffel bags at crowded truck stops, showering in seedy stalls the size of broom closets and waking in the middle of the night with prostitutes banging on their truck's door. Some drivers said they were running so hard that they hadn't been home in two months. Some were on their third and fourth marriages - a driver drinking coffee at a Texas truck stop had just been divorced for the fifth time.
At the Dixie Truckers Home in McLean, Ill., one Missouri driver said his wife had just told him that if he didn't get home that weekend, she was leaving. "There's no way I'm going to get there," he said. "They've got me headed in the opposite direction." A trucker sitting next to him said he could relate: "The only thing I've got left is four cats and a truck."
Scott Voyles was bleary as he finally finished dinner about 9 p.m. Driving 130,000 miles a year has let him take home about $36,000, he said, but then he has had to pay for his own repairs.
It all goes back to deregulation. In 1980, Congress loosened restrictions on the trucking industry, making it easier for companies to start up and haul freight from coast to coast. Deregulation, which many believed would create equal opportunities, became unbridled competition as the number of trucking companies grew from 30,000 to more than half a million. Freight rates fell, bankruptcies skyrocketed and wages stagnated. "If a guy can get a bank loan and a truck, he can go out and start a company," said Dave Brinkman, an owner-operator from Indiana. "And to get a load, he's got to cut the rate. And the cheap truck always runs." The average trucker works more than 3,000 hours a year - roughly 60 hours a week - and makes between $30,000 and $45,000, said Julie Anna Cirillo, the government's head truck-safety officer.
"Most blue-collar Americans work about 2,000 hours a year," she said. "So they're working 50 percent more for not much more pay, if any more pay." Jerry Stricker, a trucker from Illinois who has driven for 44 years, said he had never seen things so bad. "I made more in the '60s than I do now," said Stricker, who had stopped for lunch at a truck stop in Denton, Texas. "I'd take home more and be home more. Now, it's all cutthroat."
Stricker drives 3,000 miles a week, working an average of 60 hours. His take-home pay is about $500 a week - or less than $8.50 an hour. Gary Rosenberger of Kirkwood, N.Y., who has been driving a truck since he was 16, also logs about 3,000 miles a week and makes $500. He tries to stay on the road a month at a time to make more money. When you add in time spent waiting to load or unload, he said, "there's days out there a trucker don't even make minimum wage." Last year, Brinkman drove 130,000 miles and grossed $149,000 with his truck. His taxable income: $18,000. This year, helped by lower fuel costs, he's clearing about $3,000 a month before taxes. Brinkman said he was paid about the same money per mile in 1972 but fuel then cost only 27 cents a gallon.
Still, Brinkman figures he's in better shape than most truckers because he has a shop and can do his own repairs. But he worries about some of his friends. "I've got guys I run with, they have to cut costs because they're broke," he said. "And a man out here going broke, he's going to run as hard as he can."
Most truckers must drive long and hard to make money because they're paid by the mile - not by the hour. And unlike almost all other industries, trucking is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the law that established a 40-hour workweek. That means truckers don't have to be paid minimum wage - $5.15 an hour - or overtime unless they're in a union. Union drivers often are paid by the hour, but fewer than one-fourth of truckers belong. As a result, truckers routinely work more than the 60 hours a week and 10 hours at a stretch that federal law allows.
In a 1997 survey conducted by the University of Michigan Trucking Industry Program, 10% of the drivers reported working more than 95 hours in the past week, with the average non-union driver working 66 hours. To drive that hard, truckers sometimes take extreme measures - even answering the call of nature without stopping. In fact, Oregon passed a law in 1999 making it a crime to toss containers of urine onto roadsides. A state transportation official blamed the growing problem on harried truckers. North Dakota transportation officials want a similar law. They've put shields on maintenance tractors because mowing crews have been getting splattered up to 40 times a year when they run over urine-filled containers.
At 1 a.m. in Waco, Texas, a truck crept into the Flying J Travel Plaza. The driver backed his rig into one of the few open parking spots, then crawled directly into his sleeper berth in the back of the cab, so exhausted that he forgot to shut off his left-turn signal. Inside the truck stop, several haggard drivers stood in line at the fuel desk, duffels in tow, waiting to get a coupon for a shower. In the trucker's lounge nearby, one driver stared blankly at the TV screen while another was sprawled across two seats, out like a light.
Over in the restaurant, two truckers filled their plates with pancakes and home-fried potatoes at the breakfast buffet, then shuffled back to their tables to eat in silence, their circadian rhythms in chaos. Two hours later, the red turn signal was still blinking on the truck out in the parking lot.
Robert Flint can see truckers' exhaustion at weigh stations, too. Trucks sometimes get backed up at the scales, said Flint, a state trooper in Maine. As inspectors walk down the line, they find drivers asleep at the wheel after waiting only 15 or 20 minutes. "That's pretty scary," Flint said. Flint said the truckers were not solely to blame for driving too hard. "They're just trying to make a living." The bigger problem, Flint said, is the companies. "They push these people," he said. "When these trucks park and are not moving, they're not making any money." Sometimes, Flint said, the truckers point out faulty brakes or bad tires to the troopers. "I've stopped truckers before and had them say: 'You didn't hear this from me, trooper. But I want you to issue a summons to the company. I've been telling them to fix this problem for three months, and they keep blowing me off,' " he said.
"Have I heard that? You bet," said Dave Osiecki, the American Trucking Association's vice president of safety and operations. "It's probably the exception rather than the rule, but I'm certain that's occurring out there, because there are some companies that don't take maintenance as seriously as they should."
In May 1999, the owners of C&J Trucking Co. in Londonderry, N.H., were sentenced to four months in federal prison and the company was fined $25,000 after the owners admitted they permitted truckers to violate hours-of-service rules. The company paid drivers "off the books" for illegal driving time. An investigation was triggered after a company driver rear-ended a car on I-93 in August 1995. The crash killed four people.
Shippers, too, have created a system that pushes truckers to drive farther and faster. In recent years, manufacturers and retailers began stocking smaller inventories to decrease warehouse costs, so when they need an item, they need it fast. It's called "just-in-time" delivery. Shippers now demand precise delivery times, sometimes penalizing drivers for being late - which can happen if truckers run into delays from road construction, heavy traffic or bad weather. And once they get to the dock to load or unload, truckers often must wait. While they do, they don't make any money, and the hours count against their allowable driving time. "We show up on time, and we sit and sit and sit," said Dave Morgan, a driver for Werner Enterprises. Recent studies have found that truckers spend 30 to 40 hours a week waiting at the mercy of the shippers and receivers. Many truckers don't log those hours because they would cut into the driving time they're allowed.
James Thurman, sitting at the breakfast counter at a Virginia truck stop, said that the week before, he had gotten to the dock of a home improvement store at 4 a.m. after driving all night. He got out of there at nearly 3 the next afternoon. "It was a whole day wasted," he said. "With any other job, the law says you're to be paid for the work you do. But we don't get paid for that."
For many truckers, the job isn't worth it. Industry experts say annual driver turnover at many companies runs from 60% to 120%. That has created a shortage of 80,000 to 100,000 drivers, according to the American Trucking Association. To find more drivers, the Truckload Carriers Association is asking the Motor Carrier Safety Administration to authorize a test project putting 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds in big rigs. Current law requires interstate truckers to be at least 21. Although critics say the move would be deadly, the trucking association says the young drivers would be required to undergo lengthy training and close supervision until they turn 21.
Want ads for drivers fill the numerous trucking publications. Companies also are searching for drivers in non-traditional places. In California, prison outreach programs are placing parolees in trucking jobs. Some seasoned drivers don't like the newcomers. "It's like they scraped the bottom of the barrel and put 'em all in trucks," Bill Rushing said as he sat at the horseshoe-shaped counter in a truck stop in Toms Brook, Va., eating fried potatoes and a sausage omelet. "You can't trust them," said the trucker from Baton Rouge, La., who has been driving off and on for 25 years. "Now you see guys running across the country, falling asleep, crashing and killing somebody." Maine trucker Guy Bourrie said he, too, had seen a change in the new drivers. They travel at speeds well over the posted limit," Bourrie said. "They weave in and out of traffic and follow less than a car length behind autos, using intimidation in hopes that the small vehicle will move. They cheat on their logbooks, drive when overtired and fill the CB airwaves with language that would cause a barroom dog to drop its bone."
Almost everyone agrees that highway safety won't improve until the trying conditions of the trucking industry are addressed. The first thing that needs to be done, safety advocates say, is to start paying truckers by the hour and not by the mile. "The pay-by-the-mile system is the root cause of driver fatigue," said Daphne Izer, a founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers. "Until truck drivers are paid for all time worked - including loading, unloading, waiting and driving - the highway truck crash rates have little chance of decreasing." Izer, of Lisbon Falls, Maine, formed her group after her 17-year-old son and three friends, ages 14, 15 and 16, were killed by a tired trucker in October 1993 while on their way to a hayride.
They're putting in so many illegal hours, one study said, that carriers would have to hire 130,000 more drivers at a cost of between $2 billion and $7 billion to get legal. But studies also indicate the public is willing to pay for safer trucks. A 1998 Lou Harris poll conducted for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety found that 71% said they would pay more for goods to get tougher truck safety standards.
Interested to know what opinions other people have, in or out of the business. Under NAFTA rules, the cream of the Mexican trucking industry is going to be free to migrate North, to compete under the same conditions, pretty darned soon. Are there going to be cross-border (and/or state-to-state) overlapping regulations/safety codes?
Don't get me wrong, I think enforcement of current rest regulations should be stepped up, along with a few more regs, but tied to research on circadian rhythms, not union opportunists.
Where is Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?
I was never a Teamster, you can have it!!
To stay within current regulations they would log a weeks worth of travel while doing it in 4 days to take 3 days off. While I cannot say this is true, this is what the story conveyed to me, and that was what one truck driver in the story said in a round about way (you have to read the entire expose).
As far as the pay is concerned, the article is also accurate. I am out about 150 hours a week. That is six days on the road a week. That includes the driving, unloading, loading and sleeping times. On a good week I make $1000. On a bad week, I make $300 to $500. So you might say that is a lot of money. Well, lets put it into perspective. An average person making $12 an hour working 40 hours a week will make about $480 a week. Now have that same person work the same hours as a truck driver. I can drive a maximum of 70 hours a week. Plus the loading and unloading time that I log as sleeping time. Together, I am actually working about 110 hours a week. That is the number of hours I am awake and doing something that makes my company money. So If the average person out there making $12 an hour were to work the same number of hours that I do, they would make about $1320 a week. Now you see that we don’t really make that much money. As I was saying before, the driver is responsible for the equipment and freight the whole time he is out. So If you figure that is worth something, then you see that over the 150 hours a driver is away from home, he is only making $6 an hour. Pretty sad paycheck for what we are doing.
Now consider the fact that we have road expenses. We buy two to three meals a day if we are lucky. We have to keep a home away from home in the truck. The company does not cover the cost of the our living expenses. Sometimes we have to pay up to $10 for a simple shower. The food in truckstops is way overpriced and god forbid we have to buy anything from the store at the truckstop. Most things are marked up 3 to 5 hundred percent. I can usually get by on one meal a day and try to shower only when I can get a free coupon. Most things I bring from home and if I need something else, I try to do without. Even doing this, I still end up spending about $100 a week on the road just to get by. That is lost money. It would be like anyone else having to give up a portion of their paycheck just for the privilege of working.
Just remember, the next time you four-wheelers are tempted to cut us off, speed up when we try to pass, or are just being a total pain in the butt, we are tired and just want to be left alone to do our job. Please read the article. It is very true. Those of you that have smart remarks to make, all I can say is your ignorance is showing.
I took a drive out of town a few weeks ago and when I pitted at a truck stop passed time with a couple of truckers, for a minute. Both of them seemed wiped-out and kind of groggy. When I read the article this morning, it rang a bell.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone here's replied without reading the article. I don't think you're breaking any rules.
I don't mean to get all excited, but this really hits me in a sore spot. If it were not for us, this country would come to a stand still. But we are treated like second hand garabage. Figure that one out.
Am I the only person who thinks that the 10/8 rule is absurd [for every 10 hours driven, you need to log eight consecutive hours of rest; any r&r during the day which is not part of continuous eight-hour stretch counts for naught]? The way the rule is set up, the only way to drive more than 10 hours every 24 is to have a 'rotating' schedule where you drive different hours every day. It would seem much more reasonable to work a daily routine with two 6-hour shifts with one or two hours in-between and 8 or more hours of rest after two such shifts. This would allow 12 hours per 24 without having to live 20-hour "days".
And yes, he'd love to get out of driving. We're working on that now.
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