If you don't think that the trucking industry has anything to do with your life, think again.  The Number #1 killer of Americans is the traffic crash.  While truck drivers have shown an exemplary record in regards to crashes, the statistics say that if you are involved with a truck in a crash, 98% of the time, the automobile driver is the one who is killed. 

Conditions in the trucking industry have been on a downhill slide for some time.  Many believe that we have finally hit rock bottom.  Others believe the worst is yet to come.  Nearly everyone agrees that things are bad and continuing to deteriorate.

This has an effect on every American, in one way or another.  You are sharing the road with many professional and safety conscious truck drivers.  Unfortunately, you must share this same road with drivers who are exhausted, overworked and/or poorly trained.  The incredibly high rate of turnover in the industry virtually ensures that at the very least, the roads have a great many inexperienced truck drivers.  As these same drivers obtain the experience and knowledge that makes them better and safer, they grow bitter and leave.

Turnover is often blamed on the fickleness of the stereotypical truck driver.  The industry simply does not want to deal with the underlying issues and problems because they have a possibly devastating financial risk.  Carriers truly are in a Catch 22 situation, however.  They fear losing customers if they become too "demanding" by insisting on better conditions for drivers from shippers and receivers.  This is a valid fear.  Shippers will take their business elsewhere.  Shippers have been in the driver's seat (though unfortunately, never literally) for a long time.  They have enjoyed low freight rates for many years.  They have benefited tremendously from carriers who have cut each other's rates to practically nothing. 

On this "practically nothing" profit margin, carriers try to operate their businesses and pay their drivers.  Many have failed and many more will.  Some say that "only the strong survive".  Closer to truth would be "only the cutthroats survive".

The driver cannot depend upon the carrier, his employer, to do what is in his best interest. 

Not all drivers are professionals.  Every industry has a certain number of "bad apples" and trucking is no exception.  Tightening of CDL testing and requirements is desperately needed.

Obtaining a CDL is not a difficult process.  It does require some study and training, but too little.  It is not even required that a driver prove he or she can speak English.  (The rules state that the driver must be able to communicate in English, but there is no enforcement.  In fact, not too long ago a driver sued when he was cited in Florida for not being able to communicate in English.  He won.)  CDL written tests are available in most states in other languages.  There is no testing on Hours of Service rules (known far and wide as the "logbook.")  A driver must learn these skills from the company he/she goes to work for or from the school he/she attended.  There is no testing on one of the most basic of a truck driver's duties:  coupling the tractor and trailer.  When done improperly, this can result in catastrophe, yet a driver is not physically tested on their knowledge and ability to complete this task.  These are just a couple of the weaknesses in the testing system.  There are many more.

While we definitely need to pay attention to the "bad apples" among us, it is far more crucial that we pay even more attention to the seeds from which they've sprouted.

Truck driver training is BIG business -- almost an industry of it's own.  Courses vary in length from only days to weeks or months.  Costs vary just as greatly.  The most reasonably priced programs tend to be found through community colleges, while some private schools charge as much as $8500.00.  This is exploitation and it is perfectly legal.  There are no requirements, laws or rules.  A driving school can teach, or not teach, anything they want to, in any method they choose.  In some states, the same school can even administer the CDL testing.  These third party testers have received a lot of attention as of late due to widespread corruption.  Even the DOT itself has shown a propensity towards corruption in several well publicized "CDL for sale" scams in Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania.  Just type "CDL Scandal" into your favorite search engine - the results should shock you.

Because there are no required standards on which a school must base their training programs, many have set them up to cover only what they absolutely must in order for the student to obtain a CDL.  As mentioned previously, the CDL standards are low, so these training programs are inexcusably weak.  Unfortunately, there are carriers who will accept these students and this type of training program flourishes. 

Drivers are putting in an incredible number of hours, though not necessarily behind the wheel.  It is not uncommon that entire days are wasted by the time taken to load and unload.  OTR drivers are not paid for this time.  At 5:00 PM, when the workday is done for many workers, the driver, quite often, has not made any income yet.  Some anti-trucker groups merrily point out that greedy drivers lie in their logbooks about all of this dock time so they can make that extra buck by squeezing in another mile.  All of the pressure to "do the right thing" is placed squarely on the driver's back and the finger of blame pointed directly in his face.

In their pure ignorance they fail to understand and acknowledge that the pressure to cheat comes from the very top.

Interested in learning more? 

"Sweatshops On Wheels," Winners & Losers in Trucking Deregulation by Michael H. Belzer

Click here for book description (.pdf format)

"And Lord Let It Be Palletized"  (.pdf format)

CDL Mills  Where the corruption starts...

Back in 1995 a driver named Peter Kennedy agreed to participate in what he must have believed would be an eye opening expose into the real life of a trucker.  It did open eyes and some of it was indeed about the trucker's life.  Unfortunately the message Mr. Kennedy had been trying to get across was sensationalized and exploited by the Dateline NBC program producers and served only to infuriate many in the trucking industry.

The television program that Dateline churned out after following Peter Kennedy around the country was one sided, to be sure.  The driver was portrayed as a greed driven maniac willing to risk the safety of every American motorist for his own gain.  After the program aired, Mr. Kennedy received not only criticism, but death threats.  If the truth is to be told, however, Peter Kennedy was guilty only of allowing himself to be used.  He was actually ahead of his time but most of us were too blind to see it.

He must have known that trucking was on a course towards destruction and he wanted the rest of the world to know it, too.  He knew that the only way to provoke change was to light a fire under the public's collective backside.  The complaints from drivers were not enough.  Good drivers leaving the profession in droves was not enough.  Public outcry and political pressure were the only possible roads to change.  And, in order to create the outcry, Mr. Kennedy must have known exposure was essential.  What better opportunity than prime time television?

I have no way to know just how much footage NBC cut when they released their big expose, but I'm willing to bet that there must have been a lot.  I'd also guess that much of it was the information that Peter Kennedy wanted so badly to be conveyed to the public.  For all of his well intentioned efforts, Mr. Kennedy received nothing but negativity.  The public's misconception of trucking and truckdrivers was already bad enough but now it had been catapulted to an all time high.

Years later some of us can look back on that incident with more clarity.  In the years since, we've seen the trucking industry react to the slightest poke in it's direction with a defensiveness far out of proportion to the prod.  Trucking groups such as the ATA put on a pretty smile and talk a great deal about safe, professional drivers but if you look closely, it isn't hard to see that their agenda does not parallel a driver's best interests in many areas.

Some trucker's advocacy groups have come and gone over the years, but have not been able to stay afloat for long.  The OOIDA is the strongest driver's group, and while they do work for all drivers, their allegiance is to the Owner Operator and related issues.  The Over the Road, company driver, such as Peter Kennedy, simply does not have a voice that can be heard over the constant drone of the large trucking interests.  No one seeks this driver out for input.  No one pays much attention to his complaints.  No one cares if he leaves the industry when he becomes burnt out and disenchanted.  This driver does not present any concern to big industry....until he is able to get the attention of the nation in one television show and give people a glimpse into this dirty little world.

We should not curse Peter Kennedy for what he did back in 1995.  If we truly want significant positive change, we are going to need more Peter Kennedys.

The trucking industry does not care that drivers whittle away their lives and incomes on loading docks.  If the load has to go, they don't truly care if drivers run when exhausted -- as long as they're not caught and the load is on time.  Shippers don't have interest in streamlining their loading practices because there is no benefit in it for them to do so.  Receivers don't care if a truck is unloaded in an hour or a day. 

Even the motoring public doesn't care until a tired trucker runs someone over.  In their distress, the public lashes out at those Monster Trucks and demands yet one more law be enacted to protect them and their families from this scourge of the highway.

The media, of course, joins the circus by learning only enough about the problem to misrepresent it or only half report it.  "Truckers Lie In Their Logbooks!!!" they merrily declare.  They have their villain, after all, and the trucker is nothing if not the perfect scapegoat.

In December 2001, Judy L. Thomas, a reporter from the Kansas City Star and former driver, released a series on the trucking industry entitled, "Dead Tired."  She spent something like 9 months on the road as she gathered interviews and information.  Of course the trucking groups severely criticized her.  They gave a variety of reasons why her reporting was flawed and said she over glorified the problems.  Drivers, on the other hand, applauded her for going further and deeper than any media type had ever bothered to go before.  Ms. Thomas wasn't satisfied to simply point a finger in the driver's direction... she was also interested in the four fingers pointing somewhere else. 

Some trucking industry groups really showed their true colors when they responded to this series of articles.  They would not acknowledge that grains of truth, while perhaps surrounded by some hype, wove a course through her writings.  They simply dismissed the whole thing.  This should send up large red flags to the rest of us as to just how far removed, out of touch and in denial those in power are as to the plight of the American Over the Road Truck Driver.

Just how long can truck drivers live in this state of decline as others firmly maintain their stubborn denial?