Opinion: To Keep Drivers, Stop the Abuse

By Gary Scott, Former Driver

While the question of monetary compensation is a major factor in the shortage of qualified drivers, it is not the only one.

The demands on an over-the-road truckload driver are unbelievable. The driver is coerced from the onset of his or her career on how to “run according to the carrier’s interpretation” of the federal hours of service. There is little doubt as to how the driver is expected to perform. He is promised large salaries that do not take into account the 100-plus-hour work weeks or the time spent away from one’s home and loved ones.

He will be forced to run all night, sit on a receiving dock all day and be required to handle upwards of 45,000 pounds of product or a piece count of upwards to 5,000 cases. Most likely he will not be properly compensated for this work — maybe compensated by a “piece rate” that does not take into consideration the time actually spent in the trailer.

Even if the carrier has provided a lumper service to load or offload the product, most likely the driver will be required to “participate” by monitoring the shipment integrity for no compensation. In most instances, shortages or damaged product will be charged directly to the driver either by direct deduction of pay or reduction of the driver’s “safety bonus” — another carrot dangled in front of new hires but infrequently paid out.

If the trucker is a leased driver, he is considered to be a full participant in that carrier’s corporate profit and loss structure — he has relinquished what few labor, wage and compensation laws a company driver may enjoy — and will be held responsible for that loss.

At the end of this extended workday, the driver will most likely be loaded again to repeat the process, speeding through the night to make an unrealistic delivery appointment time the next day.

To add further insult to this lack of basic labor law is the ever-growing popularity of the lease-purchase scam. A motor carrier will advertise to potential drivers the “desirability” of owning and operating their own equipment, promising huge returns on their investment and commitment.

What is really happening here is an indentured servitude, whereby the leasing motor carrier will have complete control over that “employee,” as the driver will be totally dependent on that carrier’s operation to be loaded with freight. If he balks at an unreasonable dispatch, abuse of his free time or being coerced into running contrary to law, the work will be withheld until that driver is “starved out” and the tractor taken back and issued to another starry-eyed novice.

It is the best of two worlds for that carrier: monetary return on used equipment that is due to be traded, huge monetary gains off the lease of the equipment to the driver, and a compulsory employee who has little other choice than to comply with the leasing carrier’s mode of operation.

Electronic monitoring and logging devices may help carriers circumvent the regulations. When the truck stops, the driver is placed in off-duty status, regardless of what he is actually doing. If the truck stands idle more than two hours, the driver is shown as being in the sleeper berth, “to be allowed to benefit” from the split sleeper berth provision. “Slow driving periods” can be altered to show a reduced driving time. All of this is merely another way to abuse a driver’s free time, to hide “work time” and to have that driver be available regardless of how much duty time that he has actually been engaged in.

Today’s driver must be brought into the 21st century with regard to labor law. The addition of a few cents per mile is not going to change the character of this industry.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services did hit on a successful plan when it decided to rid itself of a cost-prohibitive training program and hire drivers with a proven track record of one year’s previous safe driving. The company raised the rate of pay to something that one would expect to receive in this type of profession. Just the savings in incident claims more than compensated the carrier for increased cost of operation.

Drivers should be like all other American citizens and enjoy the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. They should be paid for all work performed, period! The premise that a driver must make false entries on the required daily log and run contrary to basic traffic laws and public safety to make a minimum standard of living for him and his family must be halted immediately. The driver must be compensated for all work performed and the employing carrier must be held accountable for compliance with the hours-of-service provisions.

There was an interesting article in Feb. 20 issue of Parade Magazine concerning the abuse of forced immigrant labor. There was a telephone number to report these abuses when found to the Justice Department. From what I have seen and experienced in my 20-plus years as a driver in this industry, I believe it should be some of these motor carriers that should be investigated by the Justice Department.