Trucking Industry Safety Issues: Drivers working long hours for little pay

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.

I stopped reading about here:

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.

What a pantload.. I have a buddy who drove a concrete truck.. Locally.. about 7 months a year and he made like 40 grand.

OTR drivers make (or can make) considerably more. So stop whining already.

..more truckers die in accidents each year than workers in any other profession.

Sure they do..

Many of them are paid by the mile, so they: Take stimulants to stay awake, falsify their log books, drive heavy (especially construction trucks) and drive entirely too fast.

Alot of these guy's are nothing but a menace (and I know a bunch of them) fortunately the CDL weeded a bunch of them out.

Well, he can say that, but it just ain't so. If the industry is short of drivers, then there is more competition for drivers. More competition means that employers must offer incentives to hire drivers. Unless they are offering some incentive I am not aware of, that would be money.

If they aren't offering more money, then poorman might like you to believe there is a shortage of drivers, but there isn't, really, if the real wages are stagnant or going down.

The laws of economics and supply and demand are not suspended because of what people "think" to be the case.

Let's see. You say "we do have to drive over the speed limit and over our log books through no fault of our own. We put up with four wheelers cutting us off, slowing us down and deliberately harrassing us." Well as a federally lisc. Boat captain who obeys the law to keep my lisc. I say your attitude is sh*t. You get four of five of your 18 wheelers lined up nose to tail doing 70 or 80 in the far left lane and than have the nerve to tailgate so close to my bumper that all I see in my rearview mirror is a great big grill. My kids are scared because they know that if I have to hit the brakes you are going to ass end us and kill them in the back seat. All because I drive the speed limit and obey the law. You see traffic laws are to keep people safe from people who dirve over the speed limit, lie in their log books, drive without enough sleep. In a collision with a 4 wheeler and an 18 wheeler the 4 wheeler will always lose. Sheer mass over metal. I pray you find another line of work. 4 wheelers are not your enemy. We buy the goods that you haul so that you can have that job you seem to hate.

I believe every word of your post. I know two people that tried trucking - both intelligent, achieving people. One guy bought his own rig and lasted a year. He went out of business because he couldn't make enough money to pay his expenses while waiting for warehouses, etc. to load goods on "their schedule" while he sat for up to five hours not getting paid. When a major storm hit up north, for example, he had to pay his own per diem and face penalties waiting out the storm. He said that is one on the major reasons you see truckers driving in unsafe winter storms with the related multi - vehicle truck - car - accidents. The trucker may be delivering a load of Chinese crap, toys, etc to a Kmart in Laramie Wyoming.

The driver MUST deliver the goods or face an economic penalty.

It is not a good situation. I (and probably you) do not want the govt to step in and dictate salaries. Having said that, the govt will NOT allow airline pilots to fly more than about 80 hours/month. They know the pilots have to prepare, plan, etc, more than that.

There needs to be a similar oversight that works for you guys - a mandated 200 hour/month driving/loading limit or some such.

When the industry is wanting to hire ex-cons and eighteen year olds to truck an eighty-thousand pound rig at 70mph on a crowded interstate with only three hours sleep in the last 36 hours it may impact on MY life.

Best wishes and I appreciate what you do.

I don't believe the word "union" appeared once in the article. According to Cartouche, there are some trade-offs in benefits/costs to being union/non-union, but that's not the main issue. It sounds to me like an absolutely essential job is being relegated to less and less qualifed drivers.

The trucking industry is reaching into the pre-adult ranks and parolee work force, to help keep the trucks rolling and the price paid per-mile low, and they're still short of drivers. It's not inconceivable to think that someday soon, it might be all Central and South Americans driving those trucks, and the per-mile rate might be lower than it was in the 70's.

This article is a propaganda piece which tries to convince the reader that government regulation is the answer to all of the "problems" that are occurring in the trucking industry.

The only real problem is that the industry has been regulated so heavily that the independent operator is about to go the way of the DoDo bird.

>..."I drive the speed limit and obey the law."

Speaking solely for myself, I say your attitude sounds kind of selfish. If I find a convoy of trucks all going 70 to 80 MPH on the interstate I'm over-joyed. That's the speed range that the overwhelming majority of drivers in this country find most comfortable, for safe weather conditions. All those tight-sphinctered types ("can't get the pin out with a D-9 Cat") who insist on slowing everyone else down are just as dangerous, in their own way, as the speeders who impede other drivers by going too fast. When it comes to traffic, I say, "go with the flow". Wide variations in speeds driven are dangerous, not a few extra mph. (Within reason, I mean, the up-to-10-miles an hour over that most jurisdictions allow.)

That is not entirely correct, the eight hour break doesn't have to be continuous. The break can be broken into two separate periods with each period being no less than 2 hrs in length. So if you get 2 hrs of r&r you can combine it with another period to equal the 8 hrs. required to be legal. If you are a driver, you know that anything goes in that eight hour break and much of it may not be related to actual sleep: shower, slop, shop work on truck, drug trafficking, soliciting "commercial company" or coin-ioperated buffalo (just kidding about drug trafficking).

P.S. Did you read this article? The word Union appears several times.

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.

I find it absurd to think that the Federal government believes it has the ability to tell me how many hours I can work.

You are correct. In many places in the US licences are being granted to those who have to take the Commercial Driver's License exam with an interpreter inspite of the Federal Regs that say a driver must be able to communicate in English. But until there is wholesale carnage caused by tired truckers of whatever native tongue there will be little change because everyone wants their consummables at the lowest possible price in the fastest posssible way. Right now our society will tolerate the occasional horrific accident if it means getting their stuff. I introduced the union aspect into the conversation because it has frequently been suggested by many of my fellow truckers as the solution to all our problems. Stiffling competition and innovation through unionism is hardly the corrrect solution regardless of what Ford and the UAW claim to the contrary.

As for the KC Star article and the reporter. She could have saved the Star a bundle of expense money by writing the article from memory. She had already been a driver at one time. Visiting any truckstop in the Kansas City area would have given her ample quotes from drivers on their perception of the problem of fatigued driving practices.

Absolutely, 10-4, When all of the vehicles are driving with the flow, (whatever the speed) than its smooth sailing and driving. I'm talking about the truckers that scream up behind you as you drive with the flow in the second lane and tailgate you. scare the hell out of you. You move over to the first lane of three and than these truckers speed up and tailgate the guy who was in front of you. have you ever tried to merge onto the interstate with four or five of these guys in the first lane in a convoy? Good luck. I feel like painting a big target on the rear of my truck just to give them a spot to aim for.

I find it absurd to think that the Federal government believes it has the ability to tell me how many hours I can work.

My husband is a (local) driver. I don't think it is absurd to limit the hours someone can drive. As mentioned above, it is done with pilots, so why not drivers? Fatigue does have an effect on your work. I am not thrilled when my husband drives if he is sick or has worked long hours. It makes it more likely he could cause an accident. My dad was a military pilot and was grounded if in less than excellent physical condition for any reason (even mild illness.) When it's a safety issue that can impact me- heck yeah I want some govt. regulation. I don't think surgeons should work extremely long hours (under normal circumstances,) either.

It's not for your well-being. (Like make sure you eat three square meals a day and take your vitamins.) It's for the life of the others on the road. I don't think they should limit someone to 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, but come on. And even if you know your limit, does everyone who drives? And what about those who know they're fatigued and meth themselves up to keep them awake? I would also be willing to bet that your perception of not showing the signs of fatigue are different than the reality.

That's the excuse given yes.

So, if that is the excuse given, then what is the REAL agenda?

But it doesn't make anyone any safer and a man has the right to decide for himself when he is or isn't fatigued. The government is not your mommy.

By this argument, then the government would never pass any laws for public safety.

I could give a rip what someone does when they are tired as long as it doesn't endanger me.

The problem with fatigue is that it's a pretty subjective thing and you may not notice it creeping up on you. One reason I am against gun-cotrol is because I trust most humans to not shoot me. Shooting a gun is a conscious choice. Most people aren't going to pull that trigger unless they have a good reason to do so. However, despite best intentions, we are all prone to fatigue. Can we control it (without drugs masking it)? No. Are we always aware of it? No. Are we more dangerous on the road because of it? Yes.

As much as I dislike this argument, driving really is a priviledge, not a right. That's why there are laws regarding turn signals, brake lights, headlights, speed limits, etc. I have seen more than a few fatal accidents caused by semi-trucks in my commuting time. Only one of those actually killed the driver at fault. All the others were in other vehicles.

I drove for over 15 years before seeing the light and changing carreers.What used to piss me off was the gubmint told me how many hours I could or couldn't drive but drivers weren't paid time and a half over 40.One more thing,driver pay is an industry standard,unless you are lucky enough to work for some local construction company that getting paid T&M and the driver isn't bound by the time restraint over the road drivers are,the pay is almost identicle nation wide. yeah, Tankers get paid the best probably, but dry frieght and flat beds realy suffer.Glad I got out of the bussiness,I now get paid 1 1/2 times my base after 40 and if I put in 60 I take home a grand.If I was still trucking I would still be broke.There is alot to say about this subject,can't cover it all in a couple paragraphs,but my heart goes out to all knights of the road puting up with all the chicken coops,swindle sheets,lot lizards,log books,high dollar fuel,lying dispatchers,and above all when something goes wrong, it's always the drivers fault.Been there done that,no more.

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